NHSScotland CAMHS Workforce 31 March 2026
Quarter ending 31 March 2026
Official Statistics
Published: 02 June 2026
About this release
This release by Public Services Delivery Scotland (PSDS) provides a quarterly update, as at 31 March 2026, 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.
Main Points
At 31 March 2026:
- There were 1506 WTE (1725 Headcount) staff in post within NHS Scotland CAMHS, an increase of 51.2% since last decade, a decrease of 1.6% since last year, and an increase of 0.3% since last quarterly census. This is an increase of 1.9% within the Psychology professional group, a decrease of 1.8% in the Nursing professional group and a decrease of 6.4% in the Medical professional group since last year. Of the total staff in post, 56.7 WTE (3.8%) were on maternity/paternity leave and 25.4 WTE (1.7%) were on long term sick leave.
- There were 68.5% members of staff working in whole-time posts and 31.5% working in part-time posts, a decrease of 2.5% in whole-time posts, and increase of 1.1% in part-time posts since last year census. Within the Medical professional group, more than half (57.9%) of the workforce worked part-time, compared to 43.8% in the Psychology professional group and 18.9% in the Nursing professional group.
- There were 68.1 WTE vacancies advertised which is an increase of 35.5% vacancies since last year. 41.3% of vacancies were in the Psychology professional group, 29.4% of vacancies were in the Nursing professional group, and 11.2% were in the Medical professional group.
- Of the total vacancies advertised, 58.6% were advertised for less than 3 months, 18.4% were advertised for 3-6 months, and 23.1% were advertised for more than 6 months.
- There were 28.4 WTE vacancies approved for recruitment but not yet advertised and 21.5 WTE vacancies were sent for approval but were not yet approved.
- Of the total 68.1 WTE vacancies advertised, 69.9% were advertised as replacement posts, 27.2% were advertised as new posts, and 2.9% were advertised as maternity/paternity cover. The total vacancy rate of 4.3% has increased compared to 2.9% for the last quarterly census and increased compared to 3.1% for last year census.
CAMHS Workforce census data - 31 March 2026
Background
Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) provide essential assessment, care and treatment of children and young people (and their parents/carers) who are experiencing serious mental health problems. They also have an important role in supporting the mental health capability of the wider network of children’s services. The delivery of good quality CAMHS services depends upon adequate numbers of staff being recruited and retained across NHSScotland.
Information on members of staff employed are sourced from each NHS Health board and verified by CAMHS lead clinicians using the National CAMHS Workforce Information Database held centrally at PSDS. Public Services Delivery Scotland work closely with these clinicians to ensure a high level of accuracy. Continuous work is undertaken to improve the data quality and consistency of the information provided. Previously published information may change to reflect any improvements. Further information is available on Turas Data Intelligence.
PSDS CAMHS Workforce data are part of the UK CAMHS and Mental Health Services Benchmarking network and are included in the work published in:
Further Information
As of 1 April 2026, NSS and NES merged to create Public Services Delivery Scotland with responsibility for NHS Scotland Official Workforce Statistics
As of 1 October 2019, ownership and responsibility for collecting and reporting workforce data transferred from Information Services Division (ISD) to NES.
The data from this publication are available to download as Excel tables from our web page and available as dashboards. Publications prior to 3 December 2019 can be accessed via the Public Health Scotland (previously ISD Scotland) Workforce publication page.
CAMHS Psychology Workforce information is also included in the main Psychology Workforce publication.
The next release of this publication will be in September 2026.
NHSScotland CAMHS Workforce Annual Reports are available from 2020 - 2025.
Pre-release access to this official statistics release was granted for a period of 5 working days prior to the date set for its publication to those people whose organisations and job titles are listed in the attached document.