Would they come back? The returner opportunity in NHS exit data.

Former staff already know the systems, the teams and the patients, and they are quicker to get up to speed than a stranger. Our exit questionnaires ask every NHS leaver whether they would consider returning, and the answers are more encouraging than the reasons for leaving might suggest. In our experience, few trusts follow them up in any structured way.

What the 2024–25 data says

Of the leavers in our December 2024 – December 2025 dataset, 56% left on their own terms – relocation, study, retirement, promotion elsewhere – and are highly likely to say they would recommend the organisation or return. Report 1 describes them as a pool of potential returners and ambassadors. The other 44% left dissatisfied, and even among them half would consider coming back.

The figure is not the same everywhere. Across the participating organisations the share of leavers who would consider returning ran from 57% to 83%, and the share who would recommend their organisation from 52% to 80%. Broken down further, a majority in most staff groups would consider returning – most strikingly among nurses – and a majority across most demographic groups would consider working for their organisation again.

Most of them have not left the NHS

Our earlier NHS benchmark, built from 5,993 leaver questionnaires and compiled in June 2020 for the participating trusts, asked where people were going. Of the 4,421 leavers moving to a new job:

• 72% were joining another NHS organisation
• 49% were going to a similar role in the NHS
• 47% described the move as a step up in their career
• 40% were moving to a higher salary

In that dataset, 71% of leavers said they would work for the organisation again. It is an older dataset, collected with an earlier version of the questionnaire, so we show it separately rather than combining it with the 2024–25 figures.

Returners and progression go together

The point the 2020 data makes is a durable one: for many leavers, the competition is the trust down the road, and the reason is often a promotion they could not see a route to locally. Report 1 of the current series describes career progression as the primary work-related reason for leaving across almost all staff groups and trust types. A returner strategy and a progression strategy are closely linked.

Three different returners

We find it useful to think about three groups, because each needs a different approach.

What the data points to

Report 1 sets out the elements of a returner-friendly alumni strategy: bank and temporary roles for retirees, return-to-practice support, alumni networks and targeted re-recruitment campaigns. To that we would add three things that make the rest work:

• Ask at exit. Ask the would-return question and record consent to stay in touch, or you will not know who to call.
• Track the answer. Break it down by staff group and by happy and unhappy leaver, so you can see where the door is open widest.
• Say what has changed. Tell former staff what is different since they left, in terms of the reasons they gave – for the reluctant half, that is the condition for coming back.

The practical steps are in Building a returner programme in an NHS trust, with a checklist to download. To see how your trust’s recommend and would-work-again rates compare, use the NHS unhappy-leaver benchmark; it uses each trust’s latest twelve months, so its ranges differ slightly from those above.