CAMHS Workforce NHSScotland

This release by NHS Education for Scotland (NES) provides a quarterly update, as at 31 December 2019, on the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) workforce staff in post and staff 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.

• There were 1,057.4 WTE staff in post within NHSScotland CAMHS services, an increase of 403.7 WTE (61.8%) since 2006, 63.9 WTE (6.4%) since 31 March 2016, and 13.8 WTE (1.3%) since 31 December 2018. Of the total establishment of 1,139.3 WTE, 7.2% of posts were vacant, 4.7% of staff were on maternity leave and 2.1% were on long term sick leave. The available capacity of staff was 979.4 WTE, or 86.0% of the establishment.
• At 31 December 2019, 716.5 WTE (67.8%) of CAMHS staff worked in whole-time posts and 340.9 WTE (32.2%) worked in part-time posts, compared to 605.9 WTE (71.9%) whole-time and 236.6 WTE (28.1%) part-time in December 2011. Within the Nursing professional group, 17.4% (77.6 WTE) of staff worked part-time, compared to 48.2% (135.1 WTE) in Psychology and 55.4% (52.7 WTE) in Medical.
• As at 31 December 2019, 892.3 WTE (84.4%) of the NHSScotland CAMHS workforce were female and 164.1 WTE (15.5%) were male (gender was missing for one member of staff). The WTE of male staff has increased slightly from 162.9 (+1.2) since December 2011, and the WTE of female staff has increased from 679.5 (+212.8), which is a 3.8% change from male to female in the overall composition of the workforce.
• There were 81.9 WTE vacancies advertised at the time of the December census, of which 58.8 WTE (71.8%) were for Psychology posts. Of the total number of vacancies, 25.6 WTE (31.3%) were for new posts. 32.4 WTE (39.6%) of posts had been advertised for three months or less, 41.9 WTE (51.2%) for between three and six months, and 7.6 WTE (9.3%) for six months or more.