‘Mental health is health’. Period.
"We’re not seeing enough candidates."
"It’s taking too long to find and recruit the people we need."
"Candidate quality is increasingly a concern."
"Staff turnover and ‘flight-risk’ is a leadership challenge."
"We seem to be spending more on recruitment – and getting less in return."
Mental Health
14.4% vacancy rate for Consultant Psychiatrists – this jump to 27.3% when locum Drs are factored into the numbers.
Major differences in vacancy rates by region. Northeast and Yorkshire 20% compared to as low as 8% for the wider East of England regions
Patient referrals have reached 5.2 million – up 37.9% since 2019 – with a waiting list of approx 1.7 million people.
Children's Services
14% (6000 FTE posts) children’s social work vacancy rate.
19% of Residential Children’s Homes have no registered manager in post.
A third of homes reported that they ‘often or always’ turn away children with complex needs due to staffing shortages.
Staff to child ratios of 6:1 or higher – have risen to 37%.
Staff turnover/attrition at around 29%.
Clinical and Care Roles
Domiciliary care management vacancies – tracking around 9.1%.
Positive three-year improving trend in turnover of staff in these roles from 25.8% down to 23.6% (although still a substantial share of the workforce leaving each year).
The wider independent healthcare sector — private hospitals, clinics and diagnostic providers — employs more than 150,000 people - delivering around 1 in 5 NHS elective operations and 1 in 4 NHS diagnostic scans under contract, alongside roughly 1 million private hospital admissions a year.
Staffing is consistently reported as the sector's top operational challenge.
Home and Registered Managers
Registered managers in adult social care carry one of the highest vacancy rates in the sector: 11.4% in 2024/25 (around 3,400 vacant of roughly 29,900 posts)
Turnover for the role has fallen to 17.0%, its lowest recorded level, but that's still a meaningful proportion of a role that carries direct CQC accountability and day-to-day continuity of care.
Aging workforce - retirees: 32% of people currently in registered manager roles are 55 or older, meaning a substantial share of the existing pool will reach retirement within the next 15 years. This is a potential blind spot – as data not yet visible in the vacancy figures.
Private hospitals and GP’s
Private, fee-paying primary care has accounts for approx. 13% of GP consultations in England. There are now 358 private GP practices in England (against 5,976 NHS practices) and more than 550 CQC-registered private GP services in total.
The wider private acute hospital market reached a record £12.4bn in 2023, driven substantially by NHS waiting lists — though the top five operators hold roughly 75% of that revenue between them.
'Sharpening the Saw'
The perennial conundrum – often people/orgs are busy, caught up in the demands of the day to day. The idea of stepping back – carrying out a critical review of the recruitment strategy – what’s working, what’s not – and why not – is a luxury they don’t have.
That’s where we can make the biggest and best contribution for most of our partner clients.
Indigo gives you access to...
- Over 560-hour capacity per week – every week of experience, skills, expertise, headspace and energy.
- In excess of 30 years of hands-on experience – delivering results for clients – all shapes and sizes – helping to solve almost every conceivable challenge.
- 23 years – direct NHS experience in strategic workforce planning/management.
- 10’s of 1000’s of candidates curated over 21 years – in our talent bank.
- Access to 100’s of exclusive candidates via our personal/professional networks.
- Dedicated research, marketing and communications teams – UK/international.
- NHS Partnership status