NHS Scotland Mental Health Workforce Technical Document
30th June 2026
This document describes the data sources and methodologies used within the NHS Scotland mental health workforce statistics and provides explanatory notes about data quality to aid interpretation.
1 Overview
The mental health workforce statistics report on NHS Scotland employees specifically employed to work in mental health services, teams and roles. The statistics capture a multidisciplinary workforce working in inpatient and community settings in roles across medical, nursing, psychology, allied health professions, pharmacy, emergency services, social work and other therapists and support workers.
This includes:
- Staff who are providing frontline mental health services and treatments and who are specifically employed by NHS Scotland to do so within a funded mental health service, team, setting or role.
- Staff in administrative and support services roles that are funded specifically to support delivery of mental health services.
The statistics include staff employed in all territorial health boards, as well as The State Hospital, NHS 24 and Scottish Ambulance Services. The statistics do not include any employees working in national & special boards where mental health treatments and interventions are not delivered: NHS Education for Scotland, National Services Scotland, Healthcare Improvement Scotland, Public Health Scotland, and the National Waiting Times Centre.
The statistics presented are for staff employed as at 31 March 2026, showing:
- Overall headcount and whole time equivalent (WTE)
- Composition by/within staff groups
- Mean WTE by age group and sex
Data can be examined by NHS board, staff group, band/grade and contract type.
1.1 Official Statistics in Development
These statistics are Official Statistics in Development. This is the first time we are releasing these statistics, for which we use a novel methodology for identifying employments in mental health services.
These statistics are subject to change, and we advise users to interpret them accordingly. The development plan for these statistics details why we are publishing them and the timeframe for their continued development. We invite users to provide feedback to help us further develop and improve them.
2 Data sources
Mental health workforce statistics are derived from three data sources regularly used to produce Official Statistics and to support workforce planning:
- NHS Scotland workforce data is drawn from national HR and payroll systems. It includes all staff employed at the census date working contracted hours, excluding bank staff. Resident doctors are recorded by their board of placement. More details about the data source, processing and quality assurance are described in the NHS and Primary Care workforce in Scotland Technical Document.
- CAMHS workforce data is a national database capturing staff delivering clinical care in specialist child and adolescent mental health services. Data are entered and maintained by lead clinicians in each board. More details are available online.
- Psychology services workforce data records staff delivering psychological services, with data entered by clinicians or administrative staff in each board. More details are available online.
3 Methods
3.1 Inclusion criteria
Only staff recorded in the NHS Scotland workforce data are included in the mental health workforce statistics. NHS Scotland staff are counted within the mental health workforce if employed in a role or service specifically focused on mental health, meeting at least one of the following criteria:
- Their post is funded or described as specific to a mental health service or team, as identified by board-provided methods, based on guidance (Appendix 1). Posts are identified using finance coding, except for NHS Ayrshire and Arran, NHS Highland and NHS Orkney (service area information from HR data is used to provide more complete coverage) and all roles within The State Hospital are included due to its dedicated forensic mental health function.
- They work in CAMHS, as identified by a matching record in CAMHS workforce data.
- They provide mental health care within psychology services, as identified by a matching record in psychology services workforce data with a mental health related area of work (Appendix 2).
- They are medical staff (including resident doctors) working in psychiatry or psychotherapy, according to their post specialty on the census date.
Most staff are included by the first criterion (board-provided methods). The remaining criteria ensure more complete coverage by including relevant resident doctors and incorporating detailed information from CAMHS and psychology service leads.
To be considered matching, CAMHS and psychology services workforce records must match to staff in NHS Scotland workforce data at the same census date by payroll number, health board and either:
- At least two of National Insurance Number (NI number), band/grade and contracted WTE; or
- NI number only, where it is present once in NHS Scotland workforce data (indicating this person has only one active employment record).
3.2 Measures
Three measures of employment are used in this report.
3.2.1 Headcount
An individual person is identified by their NI number. Headcount is the distinct count of NI numbers. If a person has more than one employment contract in NHS Scotland, they’ll only be counted once in each group shown in the data. For example, if a person is employed in two NHS Boards, they would be counted once in each NHS Board, and once in NHS Scotland. This means that adding up headcount sub-totals may produce different results than the published grand totals.
3.2.2 Whole Time Equivalent (WTE)
Whole time equivalent (sometimes referred to as Full Time Equivalent) is defined as:
\[ \frac{Contracted hours}{Conditioned hours} \]
where contracted hours is the number of hours that an employee is contracted to work in one week, and conditioned hours is the number of hours that a full-time employee would work.
As at 31 March 2026, the conditioned hours for Agenda for Change staff is 37 hours and for medical and dental and senior management staff is 40 hours.
3.2.3 Mean WTE
Mean WTE is an average WTE per person, and is defined as:
\[ \frac{sum of WTE}{sum of Headcount} \]
for each group presented.
3.3 Staff groups
3.3.1 Occupations
Job family is a high-level occupational grouping of the workforce employed by NHS Scotland. The variables guide describes how job family and sub job family information is mapped from the information encoded in HR systems. For example, senior managers are included within the administrative services job family. Medical and dental staff are reported by specialty, rather than a sub job family.
3.3.2 Band / grade
The medical and dental workforce is reported by grade, such as Consultant or Resident Doctor, while other professions are reported by Agenda for Change (AfC) pay band.
For reporting purposes, we group AfC bands into two groups: support for bands 2 to 4, qualified for bands 5 to 9. This grouping is primarily based on nursing, midwifery and AHPs, where bands 5 and above are restricted to staff with a registration in the profession; support/qualified roles may appear in different bands for other professions, including psychology and pharmacy.
More information about the workforce structure is provided in the NHS Scotland Workforce technical document glossary.
3.3.3 Mental health staff group
Within this report, data are presented by an additional staff grouping to make some mental health-relevant occupations more visible. ‘Mental health staff group’ is determined according to job family and sub job family or specialty information, as follows:
- Psychiatry includes medical staff where specialty is child & adolescent psychiatry, forensic psychiatry, general psychiatry, old age psychiatry, psychiatry of learning disability, or (medical) psychotherapy
- Other medical includes all other staff in the medical & dental job family
- Pharmacy includes staff in the pharmacy sub job family within the other therapeutic services job family, including pharmacists and pharmacy technicians
- Clinical psychology and counselling includes staff in the clinical psychology and counselling sub job family within the other therapeutic services job family
- Other therapeutic includes all other staff within the other therapeutic services job family, combining sub job families genetic counselling, optometry, play specialists (nursery nurses), and not assimilated/not known
- All other mental health staff groups match existing job families
3.3.4 Staff delivering treatments and interventions
To understand the size of the workforce who may be directly delivering mental health treatments and interventions, administrative services and support services job families are labelled ‘non-clinical remit’ on the dashboard, with the remaining job families labelled as ‘clinical remit’.
- On the Key points page, headcount and WTE statistics are shown for all mental health staff and for those in job families with a clinical remit.
- On the Employment by Occupation page, statistics are presented for job families with a clinical remit only.
- Users can exclude staff from administrative and support services job families using the filters by job family or by staff group elsewhere in the dashboard pages and data table.
This is not an indication of the size of the clinically qualified mental health workforce. Occupation coding broadly reflects the current remit of the staff member’s role. The administrative services job family includes clinically qualified staff who are in leadership, education and policy roles and are required to be registered clinicians. In addition, there are staff in job families with a clinical remit where a clinical qualification is not required and/or in roles that do not involve delivering treatments and interventions, such as operational management.
3.3.5 Psychology professional group
Psychology professional group, sourced from psychology services workforce data, is available for any staff where a matching record has been found in the psychology services database. It can be selected in the self-service data table and is presented in the Psychology tab on the Employments – by discipline dashboard page.
Most staff with a matching psychology services record are recorded in HR data in the clinical psychology and counselling sub job family; a small number are assigned to other staff groups. Where no matching record has been found in psychology services data for staff in the clinical psychology and counselling sub job family, psychology professional group is reported as ‘Not known’. This includes band 6 psychology trainees, who are not recorded in the psychology services database.
Where no matching record has been found in psychology services data for staff in any other staff group, psychology professional group is reported as ‘Not applicable’.
4 Data quality
4.1 Quality assurance processes
4.1.1 NHS Scotland, CAMHS and psychology services workforce data quality assurance
We work with NHS Scotland boards to ensure HR, payroll, CAMHS and psychology services workforce data are complete and accurate at each quarterly census. Our quality assurance processes have been assessed against the Quality Assurance of Administrative Data framework, with enhanced assurance in three areas and basic-to-enhanced in one (producers’ assessment).
Data quality notes are reported with each Official Statistics publication: see the latest NHS Scotland workforce data quality report; CAMHS and psychology services data notes are on the ‘Information’ page of the dashboards shared with each publication.
4.1.2 Mental health workforce data quality assurance
The published mental health workforce statistics are quality assured by data providers in health boards through early-release access to the statistics and underlying list of included staff.
The inclusion methodology combines two new elements: board-provided identifiers for mental health posts and matching CAMHS and psychology services records to NHS Scotland workforce data. Both elements have been tested internally and validated with data providers during development.
User feedback will also inform ongoing assessment during the development period.
Quality assurance of board methods to identify mental health employments
Boards identify mental health employments primarily using cost centre codes from payroll data within NHS Scotland workforce datasets. As operational finance data used for pay and budgeting, these records are considered highly accurate. Some boards instead use HR information about service area (such as sub-department) where this better captures mental health roles – this data is more susceptible to errors but is actively used by boards for local analytics and planning.
Boards first provided identifiers for mental health employments during method development in summer 2025. A validation exercise using 31 December 2025 workforce data then assessed coverage. Boards reviewed staff captured by these methods and those in relevant occupations (mental health nursing and psychology) not yet included. They either confirmed the methods produced a meaningful estimate of their workforce or supplied updated identifiers for mental health staff as at 31 March 2026.
Quality assurance of matching CAMHS and psychology services records to NHS Scotland workforce data
These records have been matched for the first time as part of producing the mental health workforce statistics. During development, match validity was assessed in detail by cross-checking names, job titles, and professional groups, with a focus on high-confidence matches and avoiding potential errors.
As part of quarterly quality assurance for CAMHS and psychology services workforce data, data providers were asked to review cases where NI number or payroll number did not match NHS Scotland workforce records despite other indicators suggesting they should. This exercise has improved the accuracy and completeness of the data.
4.2 Data quality notes
In the following notes, we refer to the number of employments: an individual employment is one person working in a contracted post. One person can be employed in more than one employment at any one time, so the total number of employments is slightly more than the total headcount.
- On 1 April 2026, NHS National Services Scotland and NHS Education for Scotland health boards, came together to form Public Services Delivery Scotland. As the data presented here is as at 31 March 2026, this change had not come into effect: the boards are referred to separately in this document, neither are included in these statistics.
- Resident doctors have both a training programme specialty and a current post specialty. Inclusion is based on post specialty, so the statistics include those currently rotating in psychiatry or psychotherapy posts, which includes resident doctors in psychiatry, GP and core training programmes.
- Some boards host regional services, for example NHS Grampian hosts a North region eating disorders unit. Staff are reported under the employing board.
- Eight pharmacists employed by NHS Lothian but working in The State Hospital are reported under The State Hospital (board of placement) in these statistics. They are reported under NHS Lothian (employing board) in NHS Scotland workforce Official Statistics.
- Psychology professional group is not known for 822 staff (716.1 WTE), where staff in the clinical psychology and counselling sub job family did not have a matching record in the psychology services workforce database. This is partly due to differences in scope: the psychology services database excludes psychology trainees (which accounted for approximately 50% of the “not known” WTE) and currently omits NHS 24 staff (7.2% “Not known” WTE). Some clinical psychology and counselling posts are likely outside psychology services scope, for example administrative roles, peer support workers and psychotherapists. We are reviewing whether any of the unmatched employments should be included in psychology services data; some may already be included but not matched due to data quality issues. NHS 24 staff will be included in the psychology services database in future.
- Five staff are recorded under ‘healthcare science’ job family, where none were expected. This is likely due to data entry errors (for example coding under ‘clinical physiology’ instead of ‘clinical psychology and counselling’). A low rate of data entry errors is expected in administrative data and will be reviewed with boards as part of ongoing development work.
- Administrative and support services staff included in these statistics are typically involved in clinical support/operation functions. Given the whole board is included, The State Hospital has a higher proportion of administrative and support services staff than other boards and this includes 80.8 WTE involved in corporate/board functions (36% of their included administrative and support services staff).
4.2.1 Comparison to other NHS Scotland workforce statistics
- Most staff reported in ‘mental health nursing’ sub job family in the NHS Scotland workforce statistics as at 31 March 2026 are also included in the mental health workforce: under 5% (534 headcount, 473.2 WTE) are not included. This staff group includes registered mental health nurses, as well as support roles and staff with other qualifications. The inclusion methodology does not assume all such staff are currently working in mental health services, however low inclusion may indicate data quality issues. In NHS Lothian, 12% WTE (226 staff, 192.1 WTE) of their mental health nursing workforce are not included: a data quality review is underway.
- Up to 6% WTE (at most 110 staff, 90.6 WTE) of the reported CAMHS workforce as at 31 March 2026 are not included in the mental health workforce statistics because records could not be matched across data sources. These staff may have been captured by other methods, such as those working in funded CAMHS posts, which means the headcount and WTE not included may be less than stated. Overall, 93% CAMHS workforce records were matched to NHS Scotland workforce data and the match rate was above 90% for almost all boards. Match rate was lower (around 80%) for NHS Highland, which is mostly explained by staff currently included in CAMHS workforce data who are employed by the local authority and therefore out of the scope of this report.
- Up to 12% WTE (239 headcount, 207.2 WTE) of the reported Psychology services workforce as at 31 March 2026 are not included in the mental health workforce statistics because records could not be matched to NHS Scotland workforce data or they did not meet the inclusion criteria:
- Up to 6% WTE (at most 120 headcount, 108.3 WTE) are from psychology services records that could not be matched to NHS Scotland workforce data. These staff may have been captured by other methods, such as those working in funded posts within mental health services, which means the number not included for this reason may be less than stated. Overall, 93% employments were matched to NHS Scotland workforce records and the match rate was above 90% for almost all boards. Match rate was lower for NHS Highland (80%). Some records could not be matched due to data quality issues – we continue to work with boards to improve data.
- Around 6% WTE (127 staff, 98.9 WTE) are from psychology services records that could be matched to NHS Scotland workforce data and are not included because they do not meet any of the inclusion criteria, for example they are not recorded as working in mental health care.
- Pharmacy staff who contribute to mental health services are likely under-reported in these statistics. Around twice as many NHS-employed pharmacy staff working in mental health were reported in the NHS Scotland pharmacy workforce (managed service) statistics as at 30 September 2025 than are included in the mental health workforce statistics as at 31 March 2026. This is likely due to differences in methodology - the pharmacy managed service statistics come from survey data collected directly from boards - and some pharmacy staff working in mental health may not be encoded under mental health-specific finance codes. Doubling the current pharmacy WTE included in the mental health workforce statistics would increase the total mental health workforce WTE by around 0.6%.
4.2.2 Inclusion methodology notes and limitations
- Only NHS Scotland employees are reported in these statistics. This is part of Scotland’s mental health and wellbeing workforce as described in the Scottish Government Mental Health and Wellbeing: Workforce Action Plan 2023-2025. Primary care staff not directly employed by NHS Scotland (for example GPs in independent practices) or local authority staff where mental health services are delivered in partnership are not included. Service delivery models vary by NHS board and Health and Social Care Partnership (HSCP) and affected services include CAMHS, substance use and community services.
- Funded staff working specifically in mental health services does not reflect total mental health spending, which also covers vacancies, contributions towards staff supporting mental health as part of a wider remit, and non-staff costs.
- For individuals with more than one contracted post, only WTE linked to the mental health specific post(s) is included.
- The total WTE for each included post is counted, which may overstate mental health workforce capacity where roles involve work in other service areas. For example, these statistics include the full WTE for any psychiatrist who spends some of their time conducting neurodevelopmental assessments.
- These statistics do not include staff contributing to mental health support as part of non-specific roles. For example, a GP may provide frontline mental health interventions and triage as part of their role, and an occupational therapist may work across mental health, primary care and community services – neither would be included in these statistics. While Scottish Ambulance Service and NHS24 mental health specialist teams are included, these statistics do not capture the wider workforce in SAS, NHS24 or A&E staff who contribute to mental health emergency response without being in mental health specific posts.
- Where possible, only teams involved in mental health treatments and interventions are included. However, in many boards, it has not been possible to distinguish between staff delivering mental health interventions and treatments and those providing other services to people with learning disabilities, dementia, ADHD and autistic people. Notably, autism and ADHD assessments are currently conducted within CAMHS, and all CAMHS staff are included.
4.2.3 Inclusion methodology statistics
Most (96%) employments in the mental health workforce were identified using board-provided methods.
Of the remainder:
- Over 60% of psychiatry and medical psychotherapy employments were already captured by board-provided methods. Including all doctors in these specialties added 569 employments accounting for 499.9 WTE (2.8% of the total mental health workforce WTE). Nearly 90% of the added employments are resident doctors.
- Most (93%) employments matching CAMHS records were already included by board-provided methods. Including all matching CAMHS employments added 107 employments (0.5% of the total mental health workforce) and most notably increased inclusion of CAMHS staff in NHS Dumfries & Galloway, with an additional 32 employments with 29.2 WTE included (5.8% of their total mental health workforce).
- Most (95%) employments matching psychology services records were already included by board-provided methods. A further 84 employments (<0.5% of the total mental health workforce) are included by other methods (psychology staff working in mental health care and/or working in CAMHS). Including psychology staff working in mental health care increased inclusion of psychology services staff the most in NHS Grampian, adding 36 employments totalling 32.9 WTE (2.2% of their total mental health workforce).
- The mental health workforce includes some staff working in psychology services outside of mental health care. Specifically, 229 staff with matching psychology services records where their area of work is currently classifed as not related to mental health (for example physical health or neurodevelopment) are included by board-provided methods and/or because they are working in CAMHS. These staff account for 177.4 WTE (around 1% of the mental health workforce).
5 Appendix 1: Board guidance for mental health services to include
Boards were asked to provide finance cost centre codes (or alternative HR indicators) that identify staff posts in all general and specialised mental health services, age-specific and non-age specific, and in community and/or inpatient settings. This range of services, teams and settings includes:
- Adult and older adult mental health services
- Child and adolescent mental health service (CAMHS)
- Acute wards and intensive psychiatric care settings
- Low, medium and high secure units
- Community mental health teams, home treatment teams and specialist community clinics
- Mental health assessment units
- Mental health services delivered through primary care settings following a referral, such as mental health nurses working in GP surgeries
- Digital therapies, including NHS24 mental health provision
- Psychology staff providing mental health-related services
- Mental health counselling services
- Inpatient wards/units and/or community services specialised in:
- Perinatal mental health, including mother and baby units
- Eating disorders
- Early intervention for psychosis
- Rehabilitation services, where mental health interventions are involved
- Drug and alcohol recovery / substance use / addiction services
- Trauma services
- Veteran support services
- Crisis/unscheduled care
Not all territorial boards provide the full range of services listed above.
6 Appendix 2: Mental-health related areas of work in psychology services
Up to four areas of work can be recorded for each staff record in the psychology services database. An employment with a matching psychology services record is included in the mental health workforce where at least one area of work is mental health related.
For the purposes of this inclusion method, psychology services in physical health, neuropsychology, ADHD, autism, management and training are not considered to be mental health related, although employments with these areas of work could be included by other methods (for example, board-identified mental health posts or staff working in CAMHS).
The full list of psychology services areas of work and whether they are currently classified as mental health related (‘Yes’) or not (‘No’) is as follows:
| Area of work group | Area of work | Mental health related |
|---|---|---|
| Alcohol and Substance Use | Alcohol and Substance Use | Yes |
| Forensic | General | Yes |
| Forensic | Mental Health | Yes |
| Forensic | Offending Behaviours | No |
| Forensic | Other | Yes |
| Learning Disabilities | Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder | No |
| Learning Disabilities | Autism | No |
| Learning Disabilities | Challenging Behaviour | Yes |
| Learning Disabilities | Mental Health | Yes |
| Learning Disabilities | Offenders | Yes |
| Learning Disabilities | General | Yes |
| Mental Health | Early Intervention | Yes |
| Mental Health | Eating Disorders | Yes |
| Mental Health | General Mental Health | Yes |
| Mental Health | Mild to Moderate Mental Health | Yes |
| Mental Health | Severe & Enduring Mental Health | Yes |
| Neuropsychology | Neuropsychology | No |
| Other | Academic | No |
| Other | Autistic Spectrum Disorder | No |
| Other | Dentistry | No |
| Other | Gender based violence | Yes |
| Other | Health Improvement | No |
| Other | Healthcare for the Elderly, Dementia | Yes |
| Other | Local Area Tutor | No |
| Other | National Assessor | No |
| Other | Occupational Health | Yes |
| Other | Other (including management) | No |
| Other | Prevention | Yes |
| Other | Prison Service | Yes |
| Other | Psychosexual | Yes |
| Other | Self-help workers | Yes |
| Other | Sexual Abuse | Yes |
| Other | Sexual Assault | Yes |
| Other | Services to Cultural Minorities | No |
| Other | Student Health | No |
| Other | Trauma Services | Yes |
| Other | Waiting Times initiatives | No |
| Physical Health | Cancer/Palliative Care | No |
| Physical Health | Chronic fatigue syndrome | No |
| Physical Health | Coronary heart disease/cardiac rehabilitation | No |
| Physical Health | Cystic Fibrosis | No |
| Physical Health | Long Term Illnesses e.g. diabetes, renal | No |
| Physical Health | Maternity and Neonatal | No |
| Physical Health | Pain | No |
| Physical Health | Physical Health General | No |
| Physical Health | Physical Health Other | No |
| Physical Health | Sexual Health - HIV/AIDS | No |
| Physical Health | Sleep Disorders | No |
| Physical Health | Stroke | No |