Psychology Workforce NHSScotland

This release by NHS Education for Scotland (NES) provides a quarterly update, as at 30 September 2019, on the number of staff directly employed by NHSScotland and the number of vacant posts there were for nursing and midwifery staff, allied health professions, and medical and dental consultants. The release also includes data on the number of dentists working in Scotland and on student nurses. When describing the size of a particular staff group figures are presented either as headcount (actual number of staff) or whole time equivalent (WTE) which adjusts the headcount to take account of part time working

• Within Psychology Services in NHSScotland as at 30 September 2019, there were a total of 1176.1 WTE (1,434 headcount) clinical staff in post. This is 85.4% (541.7 WTE) higher than in September 2006, 2.3% (26.3 WTE) higher than reported 12 months previously, and -0.3% (-3.8 WTE) lower than the June 2019 census. Out of an establishment of 1318.9 WTE, 142.8 WTE posts were vacant, 72.9 WTE staff were on maternity/parental leave and 10.8 WTE staff were on long-term sick leave.
• There has been a consistent increase in the number of female staff working part-time within NHSScotland Psychology Services, from 325 headcount at 31 March 2011 to 720 headcount as at 30 September 2019 (+395 headcount, +121.5%). The number of female staff working whole time has remained relatively stable over this period (+23 headcount, +4.8%). At 30 September 2019, 58.7% of contracts for female staff were part-time, compared to 28.0% for male staff.
• There are currently 142.8 WTE vacancies being advertised for recruitment, of which 93.3 WTE (65.3%) are for Clinical Psychology positions. New posts account for 36.0% (51.4 WTE) of the total vacancies. While September vacancy rates tend to be higher than other quarters, the current rate of 10.8% of post vacant is the highest observed in NHSScotland Psychology Services since data collection began.