Workforce statistics - health visiting

[Guest guest]

The DH have just released workforce figures for September 2008,

showing another large fall in the number of health visitors, although

the rate of fall has slowed slightly.

There were 8,764 (whole time equivalent) health visitors, compared to

9,056 in Sept 2007. Headcount figures are 11,190 (2008) cf. with

11,569 in 2007. That is a loss of a further 292 whole time posts,

or 379 health visitors to the workforce (in Sept 2007, there were 320

WTE fewer than the year before).

The greying of the workforce continues: one in five health visitors

(2300, 20.55%) are over 55 years, so could retire today; of those 715

(7.25%) are over 60 years old. A further one in five are between 50

and 54 years old (2192, 19.58%), so there is quite a short window of

opportunity to educate a new cohort before the occupational knowledge

base is lost.

Worrying, both the number and the percentage of health visitors under

the age of 40 is also falling relentlessly; only 1930 (17.3%) are

under 40.

Full details on http://www.ic.nhs.uk/statistics-and-data-collections/

workforce/nhs-staff-numbers/nhs-staff-1998--2008-non-medical

best wishes

sarahcowley183@...

http://myprofile.cos.com/S124021COn