workforce

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As usual, the DH have put out a welter of documents before closing for Christmas - we all do this 'clear my desk' thing don't we! Anyway, the unconfirmed monthly workforce figures for September 2011 have just been released, which shows some improvement in health visiting numbers since the summer, albeit still a drop from September 2010. September is the 'census point' in the year, and the time that is carried forward for annual figures for the whole NHS workforce, although the aim to achieve the extra 4200 health visitors takes May 2010 as a starting when there were 8092 health visitors in post. In Sept 2010 there were 8017 WTE health visitors in post; Sept 2011, 7941 WTE health visitors in post. It does now feel as if the precipitous fall in numbers has finally been halted, and although we would expect the numbers to gradually rise over the next two or three recorded months as new staff come on stream, then gradually fall back in the new year, there is every reason to expect this to be be a 'turning point' figure and date. Last September saw a slight fall in school nursing numbers, which caused concerns that school nurses were being 'poached' to fill health visitor posts, but this has been reversed, with another increase in their numbers, overtaking the 2009 figures - in Sept 2010 there were 1096 WTE. school nurses in post and in Sept 2011, 1165 WTE school nurses in post. Despite their high profile in the press, midwifery numbers have also increased: in Sept 2010 there were 20,126 WTE. midwives in post and in Sept 2011, there were 20,519 midwives in post.data available form http://www.ic.nhs.uk/statistics-and-data-collections/workforce/nhs-staff-numbers/monthly-nhs-hospital-and-community-health-service-hchs-workforce-statistics-in-england--september-2011-provisional-experimental-statisticsbest wishes Cowleysarahcowley183@...http://myprofile.cos.com/S124021COn