NHS privatisation is behind clinical support staff being more likely to move into roles such as nursing in wealthier areas, campaigners said today.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) found that trusts in higher-wage areas have more competition for staff and may be more willing to “bear the costs of supporting and funding these opportunities.”

Workers in south-east England were almost twice as likely to move into a registered role compared to those in the north-east, according to the think tank’s analysis.

It also found that the number of clinical support workers moving into registered roles has doubled since 2010, with particularly sharp rises in nursing.

Keep Our NHS Public co-chairman Dr Tony O’Sullivan told the Morning Star: “It is positive that there is a route to a professional registered clinical career for NHS staff working in support roles. 

“But as the NHS faces fragmentation, privatisation and growing regional inequality, this should not be preferentially for trusts in better-off areas. 

“Agenda for Change, fair pay and equal opportunities must be preserved in the face of potential attempts to install locally negotiated pay and outsourcing through both trust-owned subsidiary companies and corporates. 

“Retention of staff through fair pay, safe staffing levels and better work conditions are all vitally important. The workforce plans of government must have regional and staff inequality front and centre or failed staff retention will make it worse.”

Clinical support staff, such as healthcare assistants, work alongside nurses, doctors and other health professionals to deliver patient care.

The health service describes these roles as a “good entry point to the NHS” and can offer the experience required to apply to train as a registered professional, such as a nurse, midwife, physiotherapist or radiographer.

This route to training has been expanded by the NHS over the past decade, according to the IFS, but warned plans to expand it further under the government’s 10-year health plan may face “trade-offs” between targeting trusts with workforce gaps and tackling regional inequalities.

Some 16 per cent of the new nursing cohort in 2024 were recruited from a clinical support role in the NHS, up from 4 per cent in 2014, the IFS said.