Community sector

Demand and activity

Over the last few years, following pressure from the sector and stakeholders, NHS England started collecting and publishing more and more data on the community sector. This data now provides us with a national picture.

As shown in figure 4, demand for community services shows no sign of slowing down. In April 2024, the highest number of referrals on record was reported for community services: 1.68 million. In the year prior to the Covid-19 pandemic (February 2019-February 2020), there were on average 1.1 million referrals a month. Referrals dropped back during the early months of the pandemic but have been rising consistently since the autumn of 2020. In April 2024, referrals were 24% higher than a year ago.