Psychology Workforce NHSScotland

This release by NHS Education for Scotland (NES) provides a quarterly update, as at 31 December 2025, on the Psychology Services workforce staff in post, vacant posts and staff in training.

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.

At 31 December 2025:

• There were a total of 1733.6 WTE (2088 headcount) clinical staff in post. This is an increase of 1.9% (31.6 WTE) since the previous quarter, an increase of 0.4% (7.6 WTE) since the previous year, and an increase of 61.7% (661.7 WTE) since the previous decade. Of the total staff in post, 4.3% of staff were on maternity/paternity leave and 1.2% were on long-term sick leave.
• Applied Psychologists were the largest staff group in this workforce, accounting for 63.5% (1100.4 WTE) of clinical staff in post. Since last year, this staff group has grown by 30.2 WTE (2.8%). Other Clinical Staff, comprising Clinical Associates in Applied Psychology, Psychology Assistants and other therapists, accounted for 36.5% (633.2 WTE) of clinical staff in post. Since last year, this staff group has decreased by -22.6 WTE (-3.4%).
• There were 87.3%(1512.9 WTE) working in permanent posts,10.1% (174.8 WTE) working in fixed-term less than two years posts and 2.6% (45.9 WTE) working in fixed-term more than two years posts. This is an increase of 3.1% (45.2 WTE) for permanent posts and decrease of -14.6% (-37.6 WTE) for fixed-term posts since the previous year.
• The vacancy rate was 3.2% (56.4 WTE), a decrease of vacant posts of -1.7 WTE over the last year and a decrease of -38 WTE over the last quarter. A further 19 WTE vacancies were approved for recruitment but not yet advertised and 42 WTE had not yet been approved for recruitment. The majority of advertised vacancies, 54.9%, had been advertised for less than three months, 34.2% for three to six months, and 10.9% for longer than six months.