Committee publication · Correspondence · 7 January 2026
Correspondence from the Association on UK Dietitians - Delivering the Neighbourhood Health Service Workforce
From: Health and Social Care Committee
Inquiry: Delivering the Neighbourhood Health Service: Workforce
Summary
The British Dietetic Association writes to the Health and Social Care Committee following November oral evidence on neighbourhood health services workforce. It highlights that Allied Health Professionals (AHPs), including dietitians, remain underrepresented in NHS senior leadership and strategic roles despite being the third-largest workforce. The letter calls for policy changes to increase AHP visibility, remove professional ringfencing in recruitment, improve public awareness, address vacancy rates exceeding 8%, and provide funded apprenticeships and protected CPD time to make community roles more sustainable and attractive.
Key findings
- AHPs are the third-largest NHS workforce but are underrepresented in senior leadership and strategic decision-making, limiting system capacity to utilise their expertise in prevention and early intervention pathways (obesity, diabetes, malnutrition, gastroenterology).
- Many AHP teams experience vacancy rates exceeding the 8% estimate in the 2023 Long Term Workforce Plan, with no national safe staffing level recommendations despite evidence-based guidance from professional bodies.
- AHPs lack the 20–30% headroom built into nursing establishments for supervision and training; when absent, no alternative professional can safely cover their caseload.
- CPD access is severely constrained: staff cannot be released due to safety concerns and backfill funding is unavailable or diverted to cover vacancies, creating a cycle preventing workforce expansion.
- Current apprenticeship models force teams to reduce clinical hours and productivity; fully funded apprenticeships with guaranteed backfill are needed to avoid choosing between meeting current demand and investing in future supply.
Tone
FactualTopics
Key actors
British Dietetic Association, Health and Social Care Committee, NHS England, Tanya Rumney, Lindsey Marston
Notable line
“When this is combined with vacancy rates of 10% or higher, the result is a workforce operating with minimal slack and limited capacity for professional development.”
Key Quotes
“AHPs remain underrepresented in senior leadership and strategic decision-making- roles 1 . This underrepresentation limits the system's ability to fully utilise their expertise, particularly in pathways where earlier intervention could reduce demand, improve outcomes, and deliver better value for public expenditure.”
“Unlike nursing, they do not benefit from the 20 – 30% headroom routinely built into establishments to support supervision, training, and service resilience.”
“This creates a cycle in which the workforce most needed to expand community capacity is least able to access the training required to do so.”
“… providers are forced to choose between meeting current demand and investing in future supply — an unsustainable position for a system seeking to shift activity into community settings.”
Source · parliament.uk record ↗