NHS workforce appointments from shortlisting

Published

Last updated 8 August 2023 - see all updates

1. Main facts and figures

New data for 2021/22 is available if you download the data. The charts, tables and commentary on this page cover the period 2018/19 and do not include the new data.

In 2018/19:

  • overall, White applicants who were shortlisted for an NHS job in England in 2018/19 were 1.46 times as likely to be appointed compared with applicants from the Other ethnic group (all other ethnic groups combined)
  • the same pattern was found in all 7 regions, although the difference in the likelihood of White shortlisted applicants being appointed to that of those from the Other ethnic group was largest in London and smallest in the South West of England region
  • White shortlisted applicants were more likely to be appointed than those from the Other ethnic group in all 4 types of NHS trust, with the relative difference largest in community provider trusts
  • shortlisted applicants from the Other ethnic group were least likely to be appointed in London (compared with the other 6 regions), and in community provider trusts, (compared with the other 3 types of trust)

2. Things you need to know

What the data measures

This data measures the percentage of shortlisted applicants for NHS jobs who were subsequently appointed for the job during the 2018/19 financial year (1 April 2018 to 31 March 2019). The data includes both internal and external applicants

Not included in the data

The data does not include job applicants for:

  • public bodies like Public Health England and the Care Quality Commission

  • independent (non-NHS) healthcare providers

  • social enterprises

  • clinical commissioning groups

This data does not include

  • the numbers of applicants for posts

  • shortlisted applicants who were offered a job but turned it down

  • those who did not report their ethnicity

The ethnic groups used in the data

For this data, ethnicity was categorised into 2 broad ethnic groups:

  • White – including white British and white ethnic minorities

  • Other – all other ethnic groups

Methodology

Data was collated by each trust from the appropriate sources including; NHS Jobs record information, the Electronic Staff Record (ESR) and in some trusts it was recorded manually.

224 out of 227 NHS trusts (98.7%) provided data for this indicator. The remaining three (1.3%) of trusts either did not submit data or the data was not of sufficient quality (for example, data contained errors or anomalies). You can read the quality and methodology information

In the data file

You can get the 2021/22 data for each trust if you download the data. To show how much more or less likely a white applicant was to be appointed following shortlisting than an applicant from the 'other' ethnic group, the ‘relative likelihood’ is also given in the download file.

3. By ethnicity and area

Percentage of shortlisted NHS job applicants who were appointed, by ethnicity and area
Geography White Other than White
% %
All 18.6 12.7
East of England 16.1 11.6
London 21.0 13.1
Midlands 15.0 10.7
North East and Yorkshire 19.6 14.0
North West 19.2 12.3
South East of England 20.3 14.7
South West of England 20.4 15.2

Download table data for ‘By ethnicity and area’ (CSV) Source data for ‘By ethnicity and area’ (CSV)

4. Data sources

Source

Type of data

Administrative and survey data

Type of statistic

Official statistics

Publisher

NHS England

Publication frequency

Yearly

Purpose of data source

The NHS collects ethnicity data to improve workforce race equality.

5. Download the data

NHS Workforce Appointments from shortlisting 2022 - Spreadsheet (csv) 230 KB

This file contains the following: Measure, Time, NHS trust type, NHS trust code, Ethnicity, Ethnicity_type, Geography, Geography type, NHS trust, Value, Value type, Relative likelihood