Health Education England continues to support the healthcare workforce

Health Education England has published its Annual Report and Accounts 2021-22 highlighting the organisation’s achievements over the past year.

As part of the NHS’ recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, Health Education England has spent £30 million on supporting individual trainee recovery to help support training progression and trainee wellbeing.

We are also delivering more flexibility for trainees, including the Less Than Full Time Training programme, that has nearly 800 doctors taking up this option so far.

Despite COVID-19, we ensured trainees progressed and were recruited to 11,500 training posts.

Over 24,500 people, more than ever, started NHS apprenticeships in 178 areas, an increase of 20% on last year.

Other key highlights in the report include:

• Over 31,000 more nurses and health visitors in the NHS compared to 2019
• Increase in the cancer workforce of 4,352
• Recruiting the largest number of trainee GPs ever
• 99.3% of trainee roles targeted at some of our most deprived areas were filled
• The mental health workforce grew with an additional 1,578 peer support workers and 827 children’s wellbeing practitioners

Dr Navina Evans, Chief Executive of Health Education England, said: “This year’s annual report is testament to the hard work and dedication of staff at Health Education England as well as the trainees fulfilling vital roles across the NHS.

“We are committed to ensuring that the current NHS workforce and the workforce of the future have access to the best possible training and expertise to allow them to perform the essential work to care for patients every day.”

Full report https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/health-education-england-annual-report-and-accounts-2021-to-2022