Psychology Workforce NHSScotland

This release by NHS Education for Scotland (NES) provides a quarterly update, as at 31 December 2020,
on the Psychology Services workforce staff in post and vacant posts.

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

As at 31 December 2020:

• Within Psychology Services in NHSScotland, there were a total of 1,282.1 WTE (1,548 headcount) clinical staff in post. This is an increase of 102.1% (647.7 WTE) from September 2006, 5.6% (67.7 WTE) from December 2019, and 1.3% (16.2 WTE) from the previous quarter.
• The WTE of All Applied Psychologists increased by 1.5% (13.4 WTE) from the previous quarter: 903.1 WTE in December 2020 compared to 889.7 in September 2020. This represents a total headcount of 1112 Applied Psychologists. Of these, 672 headcount (60.4%) held one or more part-time posts, while 440 headcount (39.6%) held one whole-time post.
• Out of the total of 143.6 WTE advertised vacancies, 57.7% (82.9 WTE) had been advertised for less than three months, 30.5% (43.8 WTE) for three to six months and 11.8% (16.9 WTE) for longer than six months. The vacancy rate was 10.1%, compared to 10.7% in December 2019. A further 32.7 WTE vacancies were approved but not yet advertised.