Eighty-six per cent of the drug and alcohol treatment provider workforce last year were working in the voluntary sector, according to the latest workforce census, compared to 80 per cent in 2023 and 78 per cent in 2022. The proportion of unpaid or volunteer members of staff, meanwhile, was 11 per cent – 4 per cent up on 2023 but in line with 2022.
The figures are from the latest National drug and alcohol treatment and recovery services workforce census published by NHS England in partnership with the NHS Benchmarking Network and the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID). The report is the third in an ongoing series, with the first published in 2023.
There were 14,121 whole time equivalent staff, 96 per cent of whom were in delivery services – treatment providers or LEROs. Half of treatment provider staff were drug and alcohol workers, while the turnover rate in the delivery workforce stood at 19 per cent – down from 2023’s figure of 25 per cent but in line with 2022. Almost 40 per cent of staff had been in post for less than a year. The vacancy rate remained largely unchanged, at 8 per cent, while the vacancy rate for the commissioning workforce stood at 9 per cent – down from 12 per cent in 2023 and 14 per cent in 2022.
More than 70 per cent of treatment provider staff were aged between 30 and 59, while Asian and Asian British people continue to be underrepresented compared to the working age population as a whole, the report says – at 5 per cent compared to 10 per cent.
The census is ‘designed to provide insights into the workforce size, skill mix and diversity in terms of age, gender, and ethnicity’, says NHS England, covering local authority-commissioned adult and young people’s services in the voluntary, NHS, local authority and private sectors, along with the commissioning workforce and LEROs. The findings will help providers and local areas compare their services with national figures and trends, and help to identify development priorities, it says. The participation rate for the census was more than 70 per cent, providing a ‘comprehensive summary’ of the service delivery and commissioning workforce, the document states.
The profile of the treatment provider workforce remained ‘largely consistent’ with previous reports, it concludes, with the three largest role groups – drug and alcohol workers, nurses and service management and administrative staff – maintaining similar proportions. However, there had been ‘a notable increase in volunteering or people in an unpaid role, particularly within the voluntary sector for treatment providers – this was broadly returning to the levels reported in 2022,’ it says. ‘Furthermore, increasing workforce diversity continues to be challenging with Asian or Asian British people underrepresented in the workforce, compared to the English working age population.’
National drug and alcohol treatment and recovery services workforce census report 2024 available here