Save NHS Careers: Don't Train Us to Lose Us
The Issue
Save NHS Careers: Don't Train Us to Lose Us
Every year politicians promise to fix the NHS.
Waiting lists remain too long. Services remain under pressure. Too many patients are unable to access the timely, high-quality care they deserve.
More people need NHS care than ever before, yet there are not enough staff to meet that growing demand.
At the same time, the NHS spends billions of pounds every year filling workforce gaps with agency and temporary staff while newly qualified healthcare professionals discover that, after years of NHS-funded training, there are too few funded NHS posts for them to begin their careers.
This petition begins with an urgent crisis facing Clinical Psychologists in the North West, but it exposes a wider failure in how we plan, fund and protect NHS careers. It is about whether we invest in permanent NHS careers, plan our workforce around patient need and give the next generation of healthcare professionals a future in the NHS.
If you work in the NHS, rely on NHS care, believe in evidence-based workforce planning, want public money spent wisely or want the next generation to have a future in our health service, this petition is for you.
This September, in the North West of England alone, 77 newly qualified Clinical Psychologists face the prospect of unemployment or leaving the NHS for private practice.
These are the next generation of NHS Clinical Psychologists. Many have already spent years working in NHS services before beginning their doctoral training, dedicating their careers to caring for others. They have now spent three years training alongside delivering care on the NHS front line. They are ready to begin their NHS careers, but too few funded NHS posts exist for them to do so.
The NHS has invested £19.25 million of public money in training this year's soon-to-be unemployed cohort of future NHS Clinical Psychologists.
Without immediate action, much of that investment risks being lost to the NHS.
In just four weeks' time, these highly skilled Clinical Psychologists should be starting their NHS careers. Instead, they will be worrying about how to pay their bills and support themselves and their families.
Many will have little choice but to take their skills into private practice because there are too few funded NHS posts.
That is £19.25 million of public investment at risk in the North West alone this year. Without action, there is every reason to believe the same will happen next year and for the foreseeable future. It is a waste of talent, a waste of public money and a missed opportunity for patients.
This is not a one-year problem. There continues to be too little coordination between universities, NHS Trusts, commissioners and local and national leaders to ensure that the number of people we train in different professions is matched with funded NHS posts. Clinical Psychology training places are set to increase further over the next three years, yet there is still no clear workforce plan for the jobs these trainees will enter. Understandably, trainees currently in their first and second years are already worried about whether there will be NHS jobs for them when they qualify.
There is also a shortage of more senior NHS opportunities for experienced Clinical Psychologists to progress into. Without investment across the career pathway, this risks creating a bottleneck, with newly qualified psychologists unable to enter the NHS and experienced clinicians unable to progress. We risk losing experienced psychologists to private healthcare at the same time as the next generation struggles to find a way in. This is a similar problem colleagues within other professions face also.
Finding funded posts for the 77 Clinical Psychologists qualifying in the North West this September is the immediate crisis. Without coordinated workforce planning, we risk facing the same crisis next year, the year after and for years to come.
What message does this send to capable and compassionate people considering a career in the NHS?
We encourage the next generation to study hard, dedicate themselves to caring for others and choose careers in public service. We invest hundreds of thousands of pounds training them. Then, when they qualify, we tell many of them there is no funded NHS post for them.
We should be investing in careers, not unemployment.
This is not just happening to Clinical Psychologists.
Across the NHS, newly qualified psychologists, nurses, doctors, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, radiographers, paramedics, social workers and many other healthcare professionals are struggling to secure permanent NHS jobs.
At the same time, many existing NHS staff have too few opportunities to progress through apprenticeships, training and properly funded career pathways. Without investment across the workforce, we risk creating a race to the bottom where cheaper, temporary and transient staffing becomes the norm, contributing to high turnover, persistent vacancies, the loss of experienced staff and greater expense.
Every profession within the multidisciplinary team has an important role to play. Yet across the NHS there are simply too few funded posts, despite growing demand and services under unprecedented pressure. In Manchester, there is just one Psychologist for every 518 patients receiving secondary mental health care, illustrating the wider workforce challenges facing already overstretched services.
Meanwhile, patients continue to wait because many NHS services still do not have enough permanent staff.
This is not workforce planning. It is workforce waste.
It wastes public money. It wastes talent. It lets patients down. It undermines the future of the NHS and sends the wrong message to the next generation considering a career in healthcare.
We cannot continue training highly skilled professionals only to leave them unemployed whilst patients wait for care.
We therefore call on the Government, NHS England and Integrated Care Boards to:
• Provide immediate emergency funding to create NHS posts for the 77 newly qualified Clinical Psychologists qualifying in the North West this September.
• Ensure that future cohorts of newly qualified Clinical Psychologists in the North West and across England have funded NHS career opportunities on qualification, so that publicly funded training is matched by planned NHS employment.
• Publish transparent, evidence-based workforce plans that match NHS training places with funded NHS careers across all healthcare professions.
• Ensure that no NHS-funded healthcare professional completes their training without a realistic pathway into NHS employment.
• Invest in long-term NHS careers for the next generation, recognising that investing in a stable, skilled workforce improves patient care and delivers better value for taxpayers over the long term.
• Develop evidence-based safe staffing standards, including minimum staff-to-patient ratios within each NHS service, and commit to achieving these ratios so every patient has timely access to safe, effective care.
The NHS cannot continue spending billions on temporary staffing while turning away the very professionals it has just trained.
We should be investing in careers, not unemployment.
Don't train us to lose us.
If you believe patients deserve better, the next generation deserves NHS careers and taxpayers deserve better value for money, please sign and share this petition.
152
The Issue
Save NHS Careers: Don't Train Us to Lose Us
Every year politicians promise to fix the NHS.
Waiting lists remain too long. Services remain under pressure. Too many patients are unable to access the timely, high-quality care they deserve.
More people need NHS care than ever before, yet there are not enough staff to meet that growing demand.
At the same time, the NHS spends billions of pounds every year filling workforce gaps with agency and temporary staff while newly qualified healthcare professionals discover that, after years of NHS-funded training, there are too few funded NHS posts for them to begin their careers.
This petition begins with an urgent crisis facing Clinical Psychologists in the North West, but it exposes a wider failure in how we plan, fund and protect NHS careers. It is about whether we invest in permanent NHS careers, plan our workforce around patient need and give the next generation of healthcare professionals a future in the NHS.
If you work in the NHS, rely on NHS care, believe in evidence-based workforce planning, want public money spent wisely or want the next generation to have a future in our health service, this petition is for you.
This September, in the North West of England alone, 77 newly qualified Clinical Psychologists face the prospect of unemployment or leaving the NHS for private practice.
These are the next generation of NHS Clinical Psychologists. Many have already spent years working in NHS services before beginning their doctoral training, dedicating their careers to caring for others. They have now spent three years training alongside delivering care on the NHS front line. They are ready to begin their NHS careers, but too few funded NHS posts exist for them to do so.
The NHS has invested £19.25 million of public money in training this year's soon-to-be unemployed cohort of future NHS Clinical Psychologists.
Without immediate action, much of that investment risks being lost to the NHS.
In just four weeks' time, these highly skilled Clinical Psychologists should be starting their NHS careers. Instead, they will be worrying about how to pay their bills and support themselves and their families.
Many will have little choice but to take their skills into private practice because there are too few funded NHS posts.
That is £19.25 million of public investment at risk in the North West alone this year. Without action, there is every reason to believe the same will happen next year and for the foreseeable future. It is a waste of talent, a waste of public money and a missed opportunity for patients.
This is not a one-year problem. There continues to be too little coordination between universities, NHS Trusts, commissioners and local and national leaders to ensure that the number of people we train in different professions is matched with funded NHS posts. Clinical Psychology training places are set to increase further over the next three years, yet there is still no clear workforce plan for the jobs these trainees will enter. Understandably, trainees currently in their first and second years are already worried about whether there will be NHS jobs for them when they qualify.
There is also a shortage of more senior NHS opportunities for experienced Clinical Psychologists to progress into. Without investment across the career pathway, this risks creating a bottleneck, with newly qualified psychologists unable to enter the NHS and experienced clinicians unable to progress. We risk losing experienced psychologists to private healthcare at the same time as the next generation struggles to find a way in. This is a similar problem colleagues within other professions face also.
Finding funded posts for the 77 Clinical Psychologists qualifying in the North West this September is the immediate crisis. Without coordinated workforce planning, we risk facing the same crisis next year, the year after and for years to come.
What message does this send to capable and compassionate people considering a career in the NHS?
We encourage the next generation to study hard, dedicate themselves to caring for others and choose careers in public service. We invest hundreds of thousands of pounds training them. Then, when they qualify, we tell many of them there is no funded NHS post for them.
We should be investing in careers, not unemployment.
This is not just happening to Clinical Psychologists.
Across the NHS, newly qualified psychologists, nurses, doctors, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, radiographers, paramedics, social workers and many other healthcare professionals are struggling to secure permanent NHS jobs.
At the same time, many existing NHS staff have too few opportunities to progress through apprenticeships, training and properly funded career pathways. Without investment across the workforce, we risk creating a race to the bottom where cheaper, temporary and transient staffing becomes the norm, contributing to high turnover, persistent vacancies, the loss of experienced staff and greater expense.
Every profession within the multidisciplinary team has an important role to play. Yet across the NHS there are simply too few funded posts, despite growing demand and services under unprecedented pressure. In Manchester, there is just one Psychologist for every 518 patients receiving secondary mental health care, illustrating the wider workforce challenges facing already overstretched services.
Meanwhile, patients continue to wait because many NHS services still do not have enough permanent staff.
This is not workforce planning. It is workforce waste.
It wastes public money. It wastes talent. It lets patients down. It undermines the future of the NHS and sends the wrong message to the next generation considering a career in healthcare.
We cannot continue training highly skilled professionals only to leave them unemployed whilst patients wait for care.
We therefore call on the Government, NHS England and Integrated Care Boards to:
• Provide immediate emergency funding to create NHS posts for the 77 newly qualified Clinical Psychologists qualifying in the North West this September.
• Ensure that future cohorts of newly qualified Clinical Psychologists in the North West and across England have funded NHS career opportunities on qualification, so that publicly funded training is matched by planned NHS employment.
• Publish transparent, evidence-based workforce plans that match NHS training places with funded NHS careers across all healthcare professions.
• Ensure that no NHS-funded healthcare professional completes their training without a realistic pathway into NHS employment.
• Invest in long-term NHS careers for the next generation, recognising that investing in a stable, skilled workforce improves patient care and delivers better value for taxpayers over the long term.
• Develop evidence-based safe staffing standards, including minimum staff-to-patient ratios within each NHS service, and commit to achieving these ratios so every patient has timely access to safe, effective care.
The NHS cannot continue spending billions on temporary staffing while turning away the very professionals it has just trained.
We should be investing in careers, not unemployment.
Don't train us to lose us.
If you believe patients deserve better, the next generation deserves NHS careers and taxpayers deserve better value for money, please sign and share this petition.
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Petition created on 6 August 2026