The health sector is made up of hospitals, hospices, nursing and care homes, medical and dental practices, ambulance transportation, complementary medicine and other human health activities, such as medical laboratories and scientific services, across a range of organisations within the public, private and voluntary sectors.
Opportunities within the sector are heavily influenced by national governmental policies. The current financial climate, combined with recent changes within The National Health Service (NHS), has had a major influence on the health sector labour market. The coalition government's White Paper ‘Equity and Excellence: Liberating the NHS’ (July 2010) sets out the most significant reorganisation of the NHS in its history.
Other long-term trends shaping the sector include an ageing population, innovations in healthcare provision, the rising incidence and prevalence of people with long-term conditions and the growing expectations of patients themselves (Sector Skills Assessment, Skills for Health , 2009/10).
A number of occupations are on the Home Office Shortage Occupation List (HOSOL), whereby employers unable to recruit successfully from the UK/European Economic Area are permitted to recruit from overseas. See the UK Border Agency (UKBA) for a list of current shortage occupations.
Agenda for Change pay scales, which cover the majority of jobs within the NHS, are published on the NHS Careers website. Salaries range from £13,641 (Band 1, Point 1) to £97,478 (Band 9, Point 54). High area cost supplements are also listed.
Pay rates for NHS doctors are also available on the website, and range from a starting salary of £22,412 for a trainee doctor to a maximum salary of £176,242 for a senior, experienced consultant.
Private healthcare employers have their own salary systems, and rates of pay vary depending on employer, job role, level of experience and location. Overall, salaries tend to be slightly higher than in the public sector.
Just over 75% of staff in the sector are women. However, women are not well represented in the medical profession, particularly at consultant level, or among qualified ambulance staff and hospital porters. Approximately 19% of all occupational roles in the sector are occupied solely by women, and 24% solely by men.
There is a greater diversity of ethnicity in the sector’s workforce than in the UK economy as a whole, with around 14% being made up of non-white employees.
Around 45% of staff are aged 45 or over (LMI National Reports, Skills for Health , 2010).
Disability and work in health care is a complex matter. There are some jobs where certain disabilities are a barrier to employment, so it is essential to check with individual employers, professional bodies and course providers for specific guidance.
The UK health sector employs just over 2.1 million people, which represents around 8% of the total workforce. It is estimated that 73% of these work in the public sector (the NHS), with the remaining 27% working in the independent sector, including 2% in the voluntary sector. Workforce costs account for over 70% of spending in the sector (Skills for Health, 2009/10).
The two biggest occupational groups are nurses (just over 458,000) and medical practitioners (just over 203,000) (Skills for Health, 2009).
The sector is forecast to grow by 1% per year to 2014, which is slightly lower than in the 1990s. However, this growth rate is one of the highest per sector and is above the rate of growth expected for the overall economy (LMI, National Guidance Research Forum , 2009).
The independent sector has also grown as a result of more investment from private medical insurance and consumers willing to spend a greater proportion of their income on healthcare and personal services (Skills for Health, 2009).
Jobs within the health sector are located throughout the UK and worldwide. Within the UK, the growth rate of employment is projected to be slightly higher in the Midlands and southern regions. The high cost of living and a buoyant labour market in the South East and London have created recruitment and retention problems (NHS Information Centre , 2009).