1. Help with the table to explore the NHS workforce
(Because it is complex!)
Call us on , or contact

2. The NHS workforce can be looked at in many different ways
This makes it very complex and people quote statistics that may be just from one way of looking at the workforce. For example the figures in the Master Table are from trusts and CCGs in England. They do not include NHS central and support organisations or NHS staff in Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland.

3. If you have any queries on this table or anything to do with the NHS workforce in England just ask us.
Explore the table, but it is a pivot table and many people are not familiar with these tables. (There is a separate set of help for pivot tables.)
So a complex set of figures are in a complex (but useful) table.
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or contact

4. We provide help for a living
We are here purely to help people understand NHS workforce statistics – please ask ANYTHING you want help with. Call us on or contact (Really – anything at all)

5. All advice is free of charge
Anyone at all can ask us for help or information. Anyone.

6. An example of how to explore a question about part of the NHS workforce: How many people work in mental health roles?
Exploring the workforce is all about defining and classifying people.
So does the question mean professionally qualified care staff?
Or those plus the support care staff?
Or all these and the people who also work in a mental health environment like cleaners, porters and admin staff?

7. One way of doing this is to look at just mental health trusts
One way of doing this is to look at just mental health trusts. The picture shows two ways of grouping to trusts classed as Mental Health trusts by picking them from the drop down in the table.

8. Click the drop down arrow and filter to the trust types you want
Click the drop down arrow and filter to the trust types you want. The grouping chosen will create – and limit – the workforce you see. Note the Mental Health Cluster Group contains two types of Benchmark Group.

9. Defining the mental health workforce to just staff who work in the Mental Health trusts excludes all the staff providing mental health services in other types of trust. For example 1,057 doctors with a Specialty or care setting that appears to be mental health related would be excluded if non Mental Health trusts were excluded in September 2017.

11. However there are dozens of Specialties and care settings
However there are dozens of Specialties and care settings. Knowing which ones are relevant to what you are interested in is not easy and something you may want to discuss with us. Call us on or contact

12. Also focussing on Specialties and care settings can miss whole groups of staff who enable care providers to do their jobs. Filtering to a Primary Area of Work of Psychiatry shows a range of Doctors, Nurses and other staff that may not automatically be associated with Mental Health care.

14. So what is the right answer?
This table provides answers. But, more usefully, it allows an understanding of what questions make sense. NHS Digital has experts in this data who can help you ask the questions, as well as provide the answers. There is much more information available than can fit in this table.