Received from: CSP
The recruitment and retention crisis in the NHS is deepening, with serious consequences for patient care.
Low pay remains a leading factor driving physiotherapists and other health professionals out of the service.
Recruitment freezes are worsening the situation.
Nearly half of CSP workforce reps are reporting recruitment freezes or delays in filling vacancies. One in ten members are saying their organisation has frozen all clinical recruitment.
This impacts the quality, safety, and the sustainability of care. Two-thirds of NHS physiotherapists report unsafe staffing levels – at a time when demand for physiotherapy has never been greater.
We urgently need workforce investment. The decision-making that sits upstream from this crisis needs a reset.
Congress calls on the TUC to press government for a new approach to public sector pay, with the government committing to:
i. pay restoration across the public sector over the lifetime of the current parliament, with annual pay rounds settled by the start of each financial year from 2026
ii. that future pay rises are funded with additional public expenditure, so that public services and the UK’s devolved nations are not forced to freeze recruitment or cut access to services
iii. a funding plan for the workforce and service-transformation commitments in the NHS 10-Year Plan.
Chartered Society of Physiotherapy