Pledge
“We will recruit an additional 8,500 new staff to treat children and adults through our first term”
Our verdict
It’s too early to say what progress has been made. We’ve not found recent data on how mental health staffing has changed since July.
Labour has said that by the next general election, there will be an additional 8,500 staff working to support the delivery of the NHS’s mental health care for children and adults.
There are a number of different roles counted under the NHS definition of the “mental health workforce”, covering areas of work from substance misuse to child and adolescent care and learning disability support, with staff deployed across the NHS in different settings and services.
We have no way of knowing if some roles will be prioritised for recruitment over others, or if recruitment will be conducted across a wide range of areas.
We have assumed that the pledge applies only to England and not the devolved nations, as each of these are responsible for their own healthcare systems.
We’ve not been able to confirm details of exactly how progress on this pledge will be measured, though NHS workforce data is published regularly.
When we asked the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) in October 2024 a number of questions about this pledge, it did not provide any further detail on how it would be measured or implemented. The DHSC is understood to be working with NHS England on how best to deliver the commitment.
We asked the DHSC again in March 2025 how progress on this pledge will be measured and will update this page if we hear back.
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We’ve not been able to find recent data on how mental health staffing has changed since the election, so it’s too early for us to give a verdict on progress.
The most recent complete workforce data available for the NHS only goes up to November 2024, only a few months into Labour’s period in government. We’ve not been able to see a reliable way of tracking the size of the mental health workforce from this or other data.
It’s also not entirely certain whether the government will use the NHS definition of mental health workforce roles in tracking progress on this target, and if it will look at headcount or full-time equivalent (FTE) roles. We’ll update this page when we know more.
Analysis by the King’s Fund health think tank published in February 2024 indicated that the number of staff involved in NHS mental health services had grown by 23% between 2010 and 2023, from 118,465 FTE staff to 146,023. We’ve asked the King’s Fund if it’s aware of any more recent relevant data and will update this tracker if we hear back.
As we develop this Government Tracker we’re keen to hear your feedback. We’ll be keeping the Tracker up to date and adding more pledges in the coming months.
Progress displayed publicly—so every single person in this country can judge our performance on actions, not words.
Sir Keir Starmer, Prime Minister – 24 September 2024