Psychology Workforce NHSScotland

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

• There were a total of 1478.3 WTE (1770 headcount) clinical staff in post. This is 10.6% (142.1 WTE) higher than reported 12 months previously. Since the last quarterly census, the WTE of staff in post has increased by 3.3% (47.2 WTE).
• The WTE of All Applied Psychologists has risen by 4.2% (37.3 WTE) since June 2021, from 894.6 WTE to 931.9 WTE, but fallen by 0.5% (-5.1 WTE) since March 2022, from 937.0 WTE. The WTE of Other Clinical Staff has risen by 23.7% (104.7 WTE) since June 2021, from 441.6 WTE to 546.3 WTE. Since March 2022, this figure has risen by 10.5% (52.1 WTE), from 494.2 WTE.
• Female staff comprise 85.4% (1512 headcount) of the workforce. While more female staff work part-time than male staff (52.9% compared to 34.1%), there has been a recent increase in whole-time working patterns among female staff. As at 30 June 2022, 712 headcount (47.1%) female staff worked whole-time; this is a 17.1% increase from 608 headcount (44.3%) in June 2021, and a 7.1% increase from 665 headcount (45.4%) in March 2022.
• There were a total of 217.5 vacant posts. This is 16.4% (30.7 WTE) higher than twelve months previously, but 17.9% (47.4 WTE) lower than March 2022. Of these vacancies, 51.1% (111.1 WTE) had been advertised for less than three months, 31.2% (67.9 WTE) for three to six months and 17.7% (38.5 WTE) for longer than six months. The vacancy rate was 12.8%, compared to 12.3% at 30 June 2021 and 15.6% at 31 March 2022.