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Calling for action now to deliver a clinical neuroscience workforce fit for the future in England

October 2025

Together with over 40 leading organisations, we’re calling for urgent action to fix the neuro workforce crisis and make it fit for the future.

Ahead of the 10-Year Workforce Plan, our consensus statement and recommendations, “A united call to action: Delivering a clinical neuroscience workforce fit for the future in England”, bring together professional bodies and national health charities with a united call to strengthen the clinical neuroscience workforce. It sets out solutions to today’s challenges and actions needed to secure a workforce fit for the future. Crucially, expanding the workforce is essential to improve services, care and outcomes for people with neurological conditions.

Using the workforce consensus statement to respond to the 10-Year Workforce Plan call for evidence

The Government has launched a call for evidence to support the development of a 10-Year Workforce Plan for the NHS. Informed by the consensus document, we have developed some suggested key messages and a short repository of relevant workforce data and evidence. Please use them to support your organisational response.

Get the messaging and evidence

Our recommendations

Together, we recommend action is taken to:

  1. Reform the way the clinical neuroscience workforce trains and works to support the delivery of the three shifts set out in the 10-Year Health Plan. This includes developing a Modern Service Framework (MSF) for neurosciences and improving epidemiological, service and workforce data to optimise workforce planning.
  2. Train the future workforce with modernised curricula including skills in interdisciplinary working, digital literacy, and co-creation of services with people affected by neurological conditions and Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE) organisations.
  3. Retain skilled staff by developing structured career pathways across professions, addressing burnout, and providing better support systems.
  4. Support delivery of the 10 Year Plan by ensuring safe workforce-backed moves from hospital to community, embed interoperable digital systems to improve coordination, and prioritise both prevention and proactive management of neurological conditions through multidisciplinary and VCSE-supported care.

Delivering these recommendations will require leadership and resources from the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC). The 10-Year Workforce Plan is a key opportunity to involve the neuro sector in national and local workforce policy. Meaningful engagement with people affected by neurological conditions and VCSE organisations, backed by multi-year commissioning and appropriate resources is vital to ease workforce pressures and meet rising demand. We are ready to work with DHSC to ensure everyone affected by neurological conditions can access high-quality care, wherever they live.

Read the full statement.

Supporting organisations

The Neurological Alliance, Association of British Neurologists (ABN), Association of Chartered Physiotherapists in Neurology (ACPIN), British and Irish Association of Stroke Physicians (BIASP), British Geriatrics Society (BGS), British Paediatric Neurology Association (BPNA), British Psychological Society, Division of Neuropsychology, Chartered Society of Physiotherapists (CSP), Cure Parkinson’s, CSF Leak, Different Strokes, Dystonia UK, Epilepsy Action, Fahr Beyond, Headway, Hereditary Brain Aneurysm Support (HBA Support), Huntington’s Disease Association, Independent Neurorehabilitation Providers Alliance (INPA), Inflammatory Neuropathies UK, Motor Neurone Disease Association (MNDA), MS Society, MS Trust, MSA Trust, Muscular Dystrophy UK, National Tremor Foundation, Nerve Tumours UK, Overcoming MS, Parkinson’s Disease Nurse Specialist Association (PDSNA), Parkinson’s UK, Pernicious Anaemia Society, Royal College of Occupational Therapists (RCOT), Royal College of Psychiatrists (RCPsych), Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists (RCSLT), The British Polio Fellowship, The Migraine Trust, Progressive Supranuclear Palsy Association (PSPA), Royal College of Nursing (RCB) Neurosciences Forum, Neurology Academy, Spotlight Young Onset Parkinsons Disease, Neuro Therapy Network, UK Acquired Brain Injury Forum, Hereditary Spastic Paraplegia Support Group, Tourettes Action and Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders Awareness.