Vacancy surveys for CAMHS and Psychology Workforce

Data source

NES collects vacancies by survey for CAMHS and Psychology workforce from NHS Health Boards and data are provided quarterly on the number of vacant posts at a census (31 March, 30 June, 30 September, 31 December). The surveys are sent a week after the staff in post data collection are completed and includes information on vacant posts advertised, approved but not yet advertised and posts sent for approval but not yet advertised as at census date. 

Data are collected by whole time equivalent. 

CAMHS

The data are reported from June 2011 and reports on Nursing, Psychology, Medical, Occupational Therapy, Social Work, Child & Adolescent Psychotherapy, Family Therapy, Counselling, Speech & Language Therapy, Teaching, Art Therapy, Dietetics, Physiotherapy, Music Therapy, Educational Psychology, Other Therapy, Clinical Support Workers and Other professional groups. 

Psychology

The data are reported from December 2011 and reports on  Clinical Psychologist, Counselling Psychologist, Health Psychologist, Forensic Psychologist, Neuropsychologist, Graduate of the MSc Psychological Therapy in Primary Care, Graduate of the MSc Applied Psychology for Children & Young People, Clinical Associate in Applied Psychology, Cognitive Behavioural Therapist, Other Therapist, Counsellor, Psychology Assistant and Other professional groups.

Methods

Vacancy surveys are sent as data validated excel files to reduce errors during data entry with a deadline for submission for a week after the surveys are sent. The surveys are completed and returned by NHS Boards or CAMH service areas. These data are quality assured with any anomalies checked with the boards. Final data files are analysed and reported in the Official Statistics publications. 

Vacancy is defined in NHS Scotland CAMHS and Psychology workforce statistics as a post which was vacant and being advertised for recruitment at the census date. 

This is similar to the definitions in NHS Scotland Workforce Statistics and ONS Vacancy survey

The Establishment is: the WTE of staff employed plus the WTE of vacant posts.

The Vacancy rate is: The WTE of vacancies divided by the establishment and then multiplied by 100.

Limitations in the data are similar to NHS Scotland Workforce definitions.

What data are published?

The vacancy data are reported quarterly in the NHS Scotland CAMHS and Psychology workforce Official Statistics publications.

The key information released in each publication is:

• WTE of posts advertised as vacant, posts approved but not yet advertised as vacant and posts sent for approval but not yet approved at the census by NHS Board and professional group.
• Vacancy rate at the census date by NHS Board.
• Annual Vacancy rate 
• Vacancy length (0-3 months, 3-6 months and more than 6 months)
• Vacancy type (New, Replacement, Secondment, Maternity/Paternity leave and Other)

Further breakdowns are available depending on the data collected, for example vacancies by funding provided, grade and contract term which are published as management information for national workforce planning.

Data quality

The data provided from data suppliers are closely monitored and checked for any anomalies or discrepancies. Any queries or errors are checked with our data suppliers. 

Data are collected and verified by lead clinicians and we work closely with NHS Boards to ensure a high level of accuracy.

Occasionally due to staff workload or changes in internal processes within the health board, there might be delays or incomplete data returns which are noted in the final publication report. 

Quality assurance

Data quality is closely monitored and quality assured through several steps:

1. Excel survey templates are sent to NHS Health Boards or CAMHS service areas a week after the staff in post data collection has been completed. This allows data suppliers time to collect information on vacancies from different teams within the health board. The template includes guidance on completion of the required information in the introduction tab and data validation with drop down lists to choose from, information alert and autofill codes to reduce errors as much as possible. The template includes three tabs for advertised posts, approved but not yet advertised and sent for approval posts as at census date.
   
   
2. Emails are sent to health boards or CAMHS service areas with information including guidance on completing the template and the deadline for final submissions. A reminder email is sent again a day before the deadline to data suppliers if they haven't provided information till then and another email is sent after the deadline to data suppliers if they still haven't returned the completed data file. 
   
   
3. Each data file returned are checked manually first for missing information or any large variations from the usual quarterly vacancy trend and verified with the data provider. Further checks are carried out to ensure all CAMHS psychology vacancies are included in the Psychology returns and all Psychology child and adolescent target age vacancies are included in the CAMHS returns.
   
   
4. The final data are then analysed and published in the Official statistics Summaries, Excel Data tables and PowerBI report and granular data are published as Management Information for national workforce planning. Any changes or additional points of clarity are noted in the Notes section.
   
   The above quality assurance processes result in trustworthy information being released as part of the NHS Scotland CAMHS and Psychology Workforce publication and reduce the likelihood of any issues arising after publication. In the event that we are made of any major data inaccuracies we will update any outputs in line with our revision protocol. 

Limitations

Even though NES CAMHS and Psychology workforce team work closely with the data suppliers to obtain accurate information as much as possible, there are limitations to the data reported.

Not all health boards and CAMH services always provide vacancy information for each quarter. Therefore, there may be additional vacancies that were being advertised at the census date not included in the data shown. In these instances any large data quality concerns are noted.

These surveys collect aggregate data which means that it is not possible to track the progression of vacant posts over time, nor link posts to vacancies.

ISD (now PHS) refined the vacancy definition in 2014 in collaboration with NHS Boards and the Scottish Government.

Users of the data should be aware of the following:

• Adding the staff in post and total vacancies together will likely over-count the establishment. For example, if a member of staff is working their notice period, but their post is being advertised, then the post would be counted twice (one staff in post plus one vacancy).
  
  
• Posts are counted as vacant until someone starts. This means that some vacant posts reported may have already been filled (but the person hasn't started yet).