Dear Tom Reighard, 

NHS England has assessed your communication as a request under the Freedom
of Information (FOI) Act 2000. Your request is being dealt with under the
terms of the FOI Act and will be answered within twenty working days. Your
reference number is FOI-2502-2191929.

For further information regarding the FOI Act, please refer to the website
of the [1]Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). For further information
regarding NHS England, and the information we publish, please visit [2]our
website.

If you have any queries about this request or wish to contact us again,
please email [3][NHS England request email] and the message will be
forwarded appropriately. Please remember to quote the above reference
number in any future communications.

Yours sincerely,

Freedom of Information

NHS England
PO Box 16738
REDDITCH
B97 9PT

Tel: 0300 311 22 33
Email: [4][NHS England request email] 

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Dear Tom Reighard,

Thank you for your Freedom of Information (FOI) request, received on
 03/02/2025.

Your request was:

“1) What is the current number of Physician Associates employed across NHS
England

1.5) Is this number expected to rise in the coming years? If so how much

2) What is the pay scale per band for a physician associate

3) For a full-time Physician Associate working 37.5 hours a week, how much
would they be paid annually based on the different hourly wages across the
NHS pay bands for a PA. (Not taking into account NI, Bills, Tax Etc

4) How many student physician associates are there currently on placement
in the NHS.

5) Are there any planned initiatives or strategies by NHS England to
increase the number of Physician Associates employed in the coming years?

6) Considering the current demand for Physician Associates within the NHS
and the reported challenges in securing employment in some regions, does
NHS England anticipate an increase in available job positions for
Physician Associates in the near future and Would it be advisable for
prospective students to pursue a Physician Associate course given the
potential uncertainty around job availability

7) Are there specific regions or specialties within the NHS where there is
a greater demand for Physician Associates?

8) How does NHS England assess the impact of Physician Associates on
patient care compared to GP’s and the overall healthcare system?

9) Does NHS England foresee any changes to the role or scope of practice
for Physician Associates in the coming years

10) In the next 10 Years, how many more physician associates are the NHS
planning to hire across the whole of the UK”

 
NHS England is unable to begin processing your request without
clarification from you, as per [1]Section 1(3) of the FOI Act.

In order to proceed, please clarify:

• In question 1, do you mean the number employed across the NHS in
England as whole or NHS England the organisation?
• For question 6, please be advised that a Freedom of Information
Request can only be answered with recorded information and we cannot
provide opinions or advice. Therefore, can you please specify what
data you require? ​​​​ 

Please be assured we are keen to assist with your enquiry. However, we
cannot guarantee that Section 12 or any other exemptions under the FOI act
will not apply to any further information requested.

Please send your clarified request to [2][NHS England request email]
quoting your reference number as it appears in the subject bar.

Yours sincerely,

Freedom of Information

NHS England
PO Box 16738
REDDITCH
B97 9PT

Tel: 0300 311 22 33
Email: [3][NHS England request email]

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Dear Tom Reighard, 

NHS England has assessed your communication as a request under the Freedom
of Information (FOI) Act 2000. Your request is being dealt with under the
terms of the FOI Act and will be answered within twenty working days. Your
reference number is FOI-2502-2196740.

For further information regarding the FOI Act, please refer to the website
of the [1]Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). For further information
regarding NHS England, and the information we publish, please visit [2]our
website.

If you have any queries about this request or wish to contact us again,
please email [3][NHS England request email] and the message will be
forwarded appropriately. Please remember to quote the above reference
number in any future communications.

Yours sincerely,

Freedom of Information

NHS England
PO Box 16738
REDDITCH
B97 9PT

Tel: 0300 311 22 33
Email: [4][NHS England request email] 

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Dear Tom Reighard,

 

Thank you for your Freedom of Information (FOI) request, received on 12
February 2025.

 

Your request

You made the following request:

 

Question one is employed across the whole of NHS England

 

Question 6 as it cannot be specifically answered, instead, can you please
answer this question?

 

Does NHS England have plans to increase the number of physician associates
across the UK?

 

ORIGINAL REQUEST:

 

1) What is the current number of Physician Associates employed across NHS
England

 

1.5) Is this number expected to rise in the coming years? If so how much

 

2) What is the pay scale per band for a physician associate

 

3) For a full-time Physician Associate working 37.5 hours a week, how much
would they be paid annually based on the different hourly wages across the
NHS pay bands for a PA. (Not taking into account NI, Bills, Tax Etc

 

4) How many student physician associates are there currently on placement
in the NHS.

 

5) Are there any planned initiatives or strategies by NHS England to
increase the number of Physician Associates employed in the coming years?

 

6) Considering the current demand for Physician Associates within the NHS
and the reported challenges in securing employment in some regions, does
NHS England anticipate an increase in available job positions for
Physician Associates in the near future and Would it be advisable for
prospective students to pursue a Physician Associate course given the
potential uncertainty around job availability

 

7)   Are there specific regions or specialties within the NHS where there
is a greater demand for Physician Associates?

 

8) How does NHS England assess the impact of Physician Associates on
patient care compared to GP’s and the overall healthcare system?

 

9) Does NHS England foresee any changes to the role or scope of practice
for Physician Associates in the coming years

 

10) In the next 10 Years, how many more physician associates are the NHS
planning to hire across the whole of the UK

 

Decision

NHS England holds some of the information requested. We are releasing the
information we do hold in full. The remainder of the information is not
held by NHS England.

 

 1. There are 0 (zero) physician associates (PAs) currently employed in
NHS England.

 

NHS England is a single national body responsible for overseeing the
funding, planning, delivery, transformation, and performance of NHS
healthcare in England. It does not directly deliver clinical services. Any
recorded information NHS England may be able to provide in response to an
FOI request will generally relate to the functions we perform.

 

It may help if we explain that the NHS in England is not one single
organisation. It is made up of multiple different organisations of
differing sizes, at central, national, regional, and local levels each
with its own roles and responsibilities.

 

NHS England is a single regulatory body responsible for overseeing the
funding, planning, delivery, transformation, and performance of NHS
healthcare in England. It is also responsible for providing unified,
national leadership for the NHS. NHS England does not directly deliver
clinical services. Any recorded information NHS England may be able to
provide in response to an FOI request will generally relate to the
functions we perform.

 

For more information on the functions carried out by NHS England and the
types of information we hold you can visit our [1]website. For further
information on the NHS, its structure and other NHS organisations please
refer either to our [2]website or the NHS [3]website.

 

 

1.5 As per above, NHS England does not employ any PAs. If you are
enquiring about numbers within the wider NHS in England (e.g. hospital
trusts, ICB’s etc) this will be covered below in the answers to questions
5, 6 and 10).

 

 

         2. Employers are responsible for setting pay for PAs they
employ. 

 

The NHS terms and conditions of service (Agenda for Change) apply to PAs
employed in NHS trusts, with PAs typically employed across bands 6 - 8a.
Further details can be found on the [4]Health Careers website. Primary
care employers are not part of Agenda for Change.

 

3. Pay for a PA is determined by individual employers based on Agenda for
Change. The pay scales for 2024/25 are published online on [5]NHS
Employers website. Primary care employers are not part of Agenda for
Change.

 

4. NHS England does not hold this information.

 

5. The NHS Long Term Workforce Plan (2023) outlined ambitions to expand
the number of PAs over the following 15 years. NHS England’s [6]existing
guidance states that our recruitment trajectory would be set based on
confidence that the local education capacity and support is in place to
train all professionals to the highest standards.

 

On 20 November 2024, the Secretary of State for Health and Social care
announced the launch of an independent review of the PA and anaesthesia
associate (AA) professions, led by Professor Gillian Leng CBE. The
conclusions of the Leng Review will inform the revised NHS workforce plan,
due to be published in summer 2025, to deliver the government’s upcoming
10 Year Health Plan. Further information can about the review can be
found [7]here.

 

6. Please see above answer for question 5

 

7. The NHS was commissioned by the government to produce an NHS Long Term
Workforce Plan setting out future demand and supply requirements, and the
actions and reforms needed to support the overall strategy for the NHS.
The Plan sets out modelling of NHS workforce demand and supply over a
15-year period and the resulting shortfall. With regards to PAs
specifically, the Plan emphasised the need to target more PA roles towards
primary care and mental health services. 

 

More information about the Plan can be found [8]here.

 

The Leng Review is considering the contribution of the PA profession to
multidisciplinary healthcare teams and its delivery of good quality and
efficient patient care across a range of settings.

 

8. In 2022, the former Health Education England (now NHS England’s
Workforce, Training & Education Directorate) undertook a research project
which qualitatively evaluated the impact of the PA role in primary care.
The findings were presented in an impact case study and published
online [9]here.

 

9. The Leng Review is considering the safety of the PA role and its
contribution to multidisciplinary healthcare teams, to agree
recommendations for the future. Scope of practice is included within the
review’s Terms of Reference. The conclusions of the review will inform the
workforce plan to deliver the government’s 10 Year Health Plan. Further
information can about the review can be found [10]here.

 

NHS England does not set scope of practice for PAs. In accordance with NHS
England’s [11]existing guidance, PAs have a duty to work within the
qualified competence and scope of clinical practice that is agreed with
their supervising senior doctor. Currently, some medical Royal Colleges
are developing the scope of practice for PAs beyond the point of
qualification in their respective specialty areas. 

 

10. Please see answer for question 5 above. 

 

Copyright

NHS England operates under the terms of the Open Government Licence
(OGL). [12]Terms and conditions can be found on our website. 

Review rights

If you are unhappy with this response, or how we have handled your
request, you can ask us to carry out an Internal Review by
emailing [13][NHS England request email]. Internal Review requests must be
submitted within 40 working days of this response; we will not accept
Internal Review requests submitted after 40 working days. 

Yours sincerely,

 

Freedom of Information

 

NHS England

 

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