NHSScotland CAMHS Workforce

This release by NHS Education for Scotland (NES) provides a quarterly update, as at 30 June 2022, on the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) workforce staff in post, vacancies and staff in training.

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 30 June 2022:

• There were 1,231 WTE (1412 Headcount) staff in post within NHSScotland CAMHS, an increase of 88.3% since 2006, 23.9% since 31 March 2016, 13.4% since June 2021 and 5% since last quarterly census. This is an increase of 17% within the Psychology professional group, 4.3% within the Nursing professional group and decrease of 0.4% within the Medical professional group since last year census. Of the total staff in post, 4.4% (54.1 WTE) of staff were on maternity/paternity leave and 1.3% (15.8 WTE) were on long-term sick leave.
• There were 876.7 WTE (71.2%) CAMHS staff working in whole-time posts and 354.3 WTE (28.8%) working in part-time posts, an increase of 16% in whole-time posts and 7.7% in part-time posts since last year census. Within the Medical professional group, 58.8% of staff worked part-time, compared to 39.3% in the Psychology professional group and 14.8% in the Nursing professional group.
• Of the total NHSScotland CAMHS workforce, 91% (1120.4 WTE) were working in permanent posts and 9% (110.6 WTE ) were working in fixed- term posts. This is an increase of 14.5% in permanent posts and 3.5% in fixed- term posts since June 2021 census.
• There were 147.4 WTE vacancies advertised of which 59.2% of vacancies were in the Psychology professional group, 27.5% of vacancies were in the Nursing professional group and 4.7% were in Medical professional group. The WTE of vacancies decreased by 31.7% since last quarterly census. Of the total vacancies advertised, 52.2% were advertised for less than 3 months, 26.1% were advertised for 3- 6 months and 21.7% were advertised for more than 6 months. A further 88.3 WTE were approved for recruitment but not yet advertised.
• Of the total 147.4 WTE vacancies advertised, 42.6% (62.8 WTE) were advertised as new posts,56.9% (83.9 WTE)were advertised as replacement posts and 0.5% (0.7 WTE) were advertised as new and partly funded as replacement post. The total vacancy rate of 10.7 % has decreased compared to 15.5% for the last quarterly census and increased compared to 10.4% for June 2021 census.