CAMHS Workforce NHSScotland

This release by NHS Education for Scotland (NES) provides a quarterly update, as at 31 December 2021, on the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) workforce staff in post and vacancies.

Figures are presented as headcount (actual numbers of staff) and whole time equivalent (WTE), which adjusts the figures to take account of part time working.

At 31 December 2021:

• There were 1,099.5 WTE staff in post within NHSScotland CAMHS, an increase of 68.2% since 2006, 10.7% since 31 March 2016, 2.8% since December 2020 and an increase of 2.4% since last quarterly census. This is an increase of 3.1% within the Psychology professional group, 1.1% within the Nursing professional group and decrease of 3.4% within the Medical professional group since December 2020 census. Of the total staff in post, 5.7% (62.3 WTE) of staff were on maternity/paternity leave and 1.7% (18.4 WTE) were on long term sick leave.
• There were 766.2 WTE (69.7%) CAMHS staff working in whole-time posts and 333.3 WTE (30.3%) working in part-time posts, an increase of 5.8% in whole-time posts and decrease of 3.4% in part-time posts since December 2020 census. Within the Medical professional group, 58.7% of staff worked part-time, compared to 44.4% in the Psychology professional group and 15.7% in the Nursing professional group.
• Of the total NHSScotland CAMHS workforce, 939.1 WTE (85.4%) were female staff and 156.7 WTE (14.3%) were male staff. This is an increase of 1.9% of male staff and an increase of 3.6% of female staff since December 2020 census.
• There were 190 WTE vacancies advertised of which 44.3% of vacancies were in the Psychology professional group and 32.1% of vacancies were in the Nursing professional group. The WTE of vacancies increased by 1.9% since last quarterly census. Of the total vacancies advertised, 67.4% were advertised for less than 3 months, 18.1% were advertised for 3- 6 months and 14.6% were advertised for more than 6 months.
• Of the total 190 WTE vacancies advertised,65.6% were advertised as new posts,31.8% were advertised as replacement posts,1.1% were for maternity/paternity cover and 1.5% were for other/secondment posts. The total vacancy rate was 14.7% compared to 14.8% for the last quarterly census.