NHS Activity Tracker: June 2025

Our view

This month’s data release highlights sustained high demand across the NHS, with record activity levels and mixed progress toward performance targets.

Signs of improvement

Despite ongoing pressures, trusts have made progress in key areas. In mental health, access for adults with serious illness improved, with fewer people left waiting for treatment. In urgent and emergency care, A&E performance was the strongest May in four years. While this still falls short of the 78% target set out in the urgent and emergency care (UEC) delivery plan, it marks a positive step toward winter preparedness. Ambulance services met the 30-minute category 2 response time target for the third month running, and handover delays continued to fall. The urgent and emergency care delivery plan published this month sets out the key priorities for winter preparedness – you can read our summary in our on the day briefing.

In planned care, trusts continue to drive increases in activity, with record diagnostic testing this month and increases in cancer activity across all pathways. Performance dipped compared to last month across cancer care and diagnostics but remains above last year.

Sustained demand and rising activity

Demand remains exceptionally high. In urgent and emergency care, A&E attendances were the second highest on record and the ambulance service experienced its busiest May since 2021. There were record levels of open referrals and people in contact with mental health services, underscoring ongoing pressures across the system – particularly for children and young people (CYP). Community services referral requests are 5% higher than last year and 60% higher than before the pandemic.

Persistent challenges

Despite efforts to boost performance across the system, capacity remains stretched with ongoing challenges in delivering sufficient and timely support for those in need. In secondary care, discharge delays remain higher than last year, and 12-hour A&E waits remain elevated. The elective waiting list, while slightly reduced, is still 68% larger than pre-pandemic levels. Diagnostic waits continue to exceed targets, and community services waiting lists hit a new high, with long waits for CYP more than doubling since last year. Mental health services face growing pressure, with rising demand and out-of-area placements at their highest in over a year.

Looking ahead

This government’s UEC delivery plan, published in June 2025, emphasised a whole-system approach to tackling UEC pressures and prompted trusts and systems to kick start their winter planning early. The Government’s 10-year health plan, expected imminently, needs to provide further clarity on the overall strategic direction of the health and care system, especially on ‘what gives’ when operational targets cannot be reconciled with financial imperatives. 

Case study

Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust covers one of the largest geographical patches in the NHS, and with eight inpatient sites across Northumberland and North Tyneside, monitoring staff moves is a challenging task.

Staff moves are often necessary to support services and ensure safe staffing levels across our wards and departments. Staffing shortfalls can often be last minute due to short term unplanned sickness or to staff escalation areas to manage patient flow. Previously there were some inaccuracies in recording this data which led to an incorrect perception of how many staff moves were occurring across the trust. This also led to a concern for staff safety and wellbeing, with no hard data showing how often and how far staff were being expected to move.

The need for a solution was raised at the monthly verification meetings for the Hard Truth data, which feeds into the Nursing and Midwifery Assurance Reports. Gaps in data collection raised concerns and highlighted the need for more transparency.

A real-time dashboard has addressed these challenges and has supported nursing and AHP staffing levels across the trust.

The nursing team partnered with the workforce and information service teams to develop the dashboard using SafeCare staffing data. This data collection system provides detailed information about staff moves, including staff member, grade, hours, and location moved to and from. Operating 24/7, it ensures that staff movements are accurately tracked, including those who work out-of-hours, which is key from a governance perspective.

Implementing the dashboard has enabled the nursing team to make data-driven decisions about when staff redeployments and staffing escalation areas are necessary.

Through a consistent and accurate stream of data, trends have emerged across wards that have been addressed by re-evaluating staffing levels. By presenting this data to the board, the nursing team were challenged to reduce the number of staff moves and the real-time, visible data made this a possibility.

Where moves have been necessary, the data collected from the dashboard has provided a clear justification for each redeployment to ensure safe staffing levels are maintained.

The dashboard has also contributed to improving patient safety by ensuring that wards have the appropriate number of staff with the right skill mix to meet their needs. This ensures that patient care is not compromised during times of high demand or staff shortages. By maintaining the right staffing levels, the trust can better address patient needs and enhance the quality of care provided across its sites.

From a staff wellbeing perspective, the increased visibility of staff movements has provided clarity on the reason behind moves. Staff now have a clearer understanding of why moves occur, helping to manage perceptions around the frequency and necessity of redeployments.

Due to the project’s success, it has now been rolled out across other departments and business units within the trust. This model can be replicated in other organisations to manage staff redeployments more effectively. The data system can be applied across various staff groups and departments, enabling organisations to better plan their workforce and ensure appropriate staffing levels in all areas. By utilising this approach, other organisations can achieve the same level of transparency and consistency in staffing, ultimately ensuring that staff moves are correctly monitored for safety, fairness, and efficiency.