NHSScotland CAMHS Workforce

This release by NHS Education for Scotland (NES) provides a quarterly update, as at 30 September 2022, 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.

At 30 September 2022:

• There were 1,259.4 WTE (1447 Headcount) staff in post within NHSScotland CAMHS, an increase of 92.7% since 2006, 26.8% since 31 March 2016, 17.3% since September 2021 and 2.3% since last quarterly census. This is an increase of 21.2% within the Psychology professional group, 8.3% within the Nursing professional group and 3.1% within the Medical professional group since last year census. Of the total staff in post, 3.7% (47 WTE) of staff were on maternity/paternity leave and 1.2% (15.2 WTE) were on long-term sick leave.
• There were 70.8% (892 WTE) CAMHS staff working in whole-time posts and 29.2% (367.4 WTE) working in part-time posts, an increase of 18.1% in whole-time posts and 15.4% in part-time posts since last year census. Within the Medical professional group, 59.2% of staff worked part-time, compared to 41% in the Psychology professional group and 15% in the Nursing professional group.
• Of the total NHSScotland CAMHS workforce, 91.1% (1147.4 WTE) were working in permanent posts and 8.9% (112 WTE ) were working in fixed- term posts. This is an increase of 17.2% in permanent posts and 18% in fixed- term posts since September 2021 census.
• There were 136 WTE vacancies advertised of which 59.9% of vacancies were in the Psychology professional group, 21% of vacancies were in the Nursing professional group and 7% were in Medical professional group. The WTE of vacancies decreased by 7.7% since last quarterly census. Of the total vacancies advertised, 54.2% were advertised for less than 3 months, 25.1% were advertised for 3- 6 months and 20.7% were advertised for more than 6 months. A further 76.4 WTE were approved for recruitment but not yet advertised.
• Of the total 136 WTE vacancies advertised, 40.7% (55.3 WTE) were advertised as new posts,59.3% (80.7 WTE) were advertised as replacement posts. The total vacancy rate of 9.7 % has decreased compared to 10.7% for the last quarterly census and 14.8% for September 2021 census.