NHSScotland CAMHS Workforce

This release by NHS Education for Scotland (NES) provides a quarterly update, as at 31 December 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 31 December 2022:

• There were 1,293.7 WTE (1481 Headcount) staff in post within NHSScotland CAMHS, an increase of 97.9% since 2006, 30.2% since 31 March 2016, 17.7% since December 2021 and 2.7% since last quarterly census. This is an increase of 17.6% within the Psychology professional group, 14.1% within the Nursing professional group and 1.1% within the Medical professional group since last year census. Of the total staff in post, 3.6% (46.6 WTE) of staff were on maternity/paternity leave and 1.3% (17 WTE) were on long-term sick leave.
• There were 70.9% (916.9 WTE) CAMHS staff working in whole-time posts and 29.1% (376.8 WTE) working in part-time posts, an increase of 19.7% in whole-time posts and 13% in part-time posts since last year census. Within the Medical professional group, more than half (58.3%) of the workforce worked part-time, compared to 41.5% in the Psychology professional group and 14.5% in the Nursing professional group.
• Of the total NHSScotland CAMHS workforce, 91.7% (1185.8 WTE) were working in permanent posts and 8.3% (108 WTE ) were working in fixed- term posts. This is an increase of 17.2% in permanent posts and 22.2% in fixed- term posts since December 2021 census.
• There were 190 WTE vacancies advertised of which 43.3% of vacancies were in the Nursing professional group, 37.8% of vacancies were in the Psychology professional group and 5.5% were in the Other Therapy professional group. The WTE of vacancies increased by 39.7% since last quarterly census. Of the total vacancies advertised, 53% were advertised for less than 3 months, 29.6% were advertised for 3- 6 months and 17.4% were advertised for more than 6 months. A further 85.1 WTE were approved for recruitment but not yet advertised.
• Of the total 190 WTE vacancies advertised, 51.3% (97.5 WTE) were advertised as new posts,47.6% (90.5 WTE) were advertised as replacement posts and 1% (2WTE) were for maternity/ paternity posts. The total vacancy rate of 12.8 % has increased compared to 9.7% for the last quarterly census and decreased for 14.7% for December 2021 census.