Workforce will face shortages without action, report warns
Author: RSPH 06 October 2025 1 min read
We're calling for greater recognition of the 1.5 million people that make up the wider public health workforce.
The Royal Society for Public Health has today published new research showing that up to 20% of the wider public health workforce could leave their jobs in the next five years if action isn't taken.
The report, Untapped Potential, warns that professions like pest control, food safety, and environmental health are facing a range of recruitment and retention challenges. It argues that these could pose significant threats to the health of the public if left addressed.
Who are the wider public health workforce?
The wider public health workforce are all staff engaged in or who want to engage in public health activities, who identify public health as being an important part of their role but are not employed within the core public health workforce.
The actively engaged wider workforce includes up to 1.5 million people; they work in sectors like environmental health, food safety, pest control, health trainers, education staff and emergency services.
The findings of the report
In the report, RSPH calls for greater recognition of the impact that the 1.5 million people in the ‘wider public health workforce’ make to the nation’s health, arguing that these staff are critical but often overlooked and could play a part in solving the UK’s many health challenges.
The report also makes the case that the Government’s ambition to shift from ‘hospital to community’, outlined in the recently published 10 Year Health Plan for England, won’t be possible without a wealth of people outside of the NHS working to keep people healthy and well.
The report argues that the NHS Workforce Strategy should be widened to include everyone who has an impact on health outcomes with a particular focus on the wider public health workforce.
Public Health Workforce Week
The publication of the report comes during Public Health Workforce Week (6th-10th October), an annual celebration of the contributions that various professions make to keeping the public healthy and preventing illness.
Public health happens everywhere. It happens in sports clubs, village halls, gyms, schools, workplaces, transport and many more everyday settings. Public Health Workforce Week is a celebration of the vital unsung work that happens all around us, day in day out, to keep us well, safe, and healthy.
William Roberts, Chief Executive, Royal Society for Public Health
We are facing a multitude of long-term health challenges that won’t be addressed if policymakers continue to focus solely on hospitals and other treatment settings. The wider public health workforce has a critical role to play in making the shift from hospital to community and we need to see this reflected in the Government's plans for improving our nation’s health.
At a time when our national health is facing greater challenges than ever, we need to harness the power of these motivated workers in the wider public health workforce to improve people’s lives.
Nick Harding, Chair, Royal Society for Public Health
What we need now is for the Government to pick up where we and others across the sector reach our limits. Proper workforce planning, meaningful monitoring of the state of the workforce, and investment in vital training are the minimum that should be on offer.
If we want to make the shift to a preventative healthcare system, we need a commitment to implement these changes immediately.