Midwives: Recruitment

Question

NHS England publishes quarterly data on the numbers of staff joining and leaving active service in hospital and community health services.

The data shows that in the year leading to September 2023, there were 3,152 full-time equivalent (FTE) midwives who joined active service. Joiners are not the same as those recruited to the National Health Service, as it will include staff returning after breaks in service. There is no data held on the number of newly recruited staff. In the same period, there were 2,255 FTE midwives who left active service in hospital and community health services. Leavers may be moving to other parts of the health and social care system such as private care providers, voluntary sector provision, or moving to devolved nations.

The Department’s ambition is for a net increase in the FTE number of staff working in the NHS, which will be impacted by changes in rates of retention of staff, changes in rates of part-time working patterns, and rates of breaks from active service.

The NHS Long Term Workforce Plan has set out the expectation that we will increase midwifery training places by 13% a year, to 4,269 places, for students starting this academic year. We expect that 5% of midwifery placements will be delivered through apprenticeships by 2028. Recent investment in training places means we expect to see a growth in midwives of 1.8 to 1.9% per year, over the course of the plan. In addition, NHS England’s national retention programme for midwifery and nursing has prioritised five high impact actions to support improved staff retention, including a self-assessment tool and menopause guidance. Finally, valuing and retaining staff is also a key objective of NHS England’s three-year delivery plan for maternity and neonatal services. Examples of how this will be achieved include funding a retention midwife in every maternity unit this year and offering a preceptorship programme to every newly registered midwife.