Mental Health Officers (Scotland) Report 2019

13 Aug 2020

The Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) today published the Mental Health Officers (Scotland) Report 2019.

National Stats LogoThis report carries National Statistics designation and is the eighth statistical report on Mental Health Officers (MHOs) in Scotland to be produced by the SSSC.

The Mental Health Officers (Scotland) Report 2019 presents information on:

  • the number of practising MHOs in post at 2 December 2019, excluding long-term absentees.
  • MHO trainees, leavers, vacancies and staffing shortfalls.
  • Key characteristics of the MHO workforce (e.g. age) and the type of teams they work in.

Key points from the report are set out below:

  • There were 703 filled MHO posts in 2019.
  • There were 27 fewer filled MHO posts in 2019 than in 2018 which is equivalent to a drop of 3.7%.
  • The percentage drop in estimated MHO hours worked was 2.3%.
  • Exclusive MHOs fell by 2.2 %, non-exclusive MHOs fell by 2.1% and cover MHOs by 18.3%.
  • The number of exclusive MHOs unavailable for work increased from 18 to 30.
  • The fall from 2016 in the estimated amount of time spent by MHOs on MHO work in Scotland is more than 9%.
  • The estimated amount of MHO hours worked per 10,000 head of population in Scotland has decreased from 22.9 in 2016 to 20.5 in 2019.
  • Between December 2018 and December 2019 staff left 94 MHO posts, this is more than the 87 in 2018. Over the last two years there has been the highest number of leavers since we started recording leavers in 2012. The next highest was 62 in 2014.

Download (PDF, 778KB) 

As a National Statistics product, this publication complies with The Pre-Release Access to Official Statistics (Scotland) Order 2008. The list of people who were given pre-release access can be found here.

Data Tables and blank Survey Template

Copies of the individual tables and charts in the latest report will to be made available below later this week .

The  Mental Health Officer time series data section of the data website can be found here (2019 data will be added w/c 17/08/2019). This means the latest data can be viewed as part of the full time series data, some of which goes back to 2005. The tables and charts are available for download in Microsoft Excel (.xlsx) and OpenDocument Spreadsheet (.ods) format, and the data tables in non-proprietary Comma Separated Values (CSV) format, individually and together in a compressed ZIP file. The provision of the data in these formats is intended to facilitate its analysis and re-use. Below you can download the blank survey template used by survey respondents to submit their data for December 2019. Please note that this illustrative blank template is in normal Excel 365 format (.xlsx); the real template used by local authorities was a macro-enabled worksheet (.xlsm).

 

Description File type File size (KB)  
Blank Survey Template 2019 (Excel 365 ) .xlsx 42.3 Download


Tables from The Mental Health Officers (Scotland) Report 2019

Description File Type File size (KB)   
All 2019 Tables   xlsx  63 Download 
All 2019 Tables zipped CSV   csv   21 Download  
All 2019 Tables   ods  29 Download 
Table 1a:  MHO  headcount  filled  posts  and  their  contracted  WTE  2015-2019  csv  9  Download 
Table 1b: Estimated hours worked on MHO duties and weekly average per MHO post 2016-2019  csv 10 Download   
Table 2a: MHOs posts by type 2015-2019  csv 15 Download 
Table 2b: Percentage MHOs posts by type 2015-2019  csv  9 Download 
Table 2c: Exclusive MHO positions by team category 2015 2019  csv  9 Download 
Table 2d: Non exclusive MHO positions by team category 2016-2019  csv  9 Download 
Table: 2e Cover MHO positions by team category 2016-2019  csv  15  Download 
Table 2f: Local authorities with cover MHOs by number and year  csv  15  Download 
Table 3: Filled MHO posts, estimated hours on MHO work and estimated hours per 10,000 population by local authority 2019  csv  16  Download 
Table 4: Filled post types in each Local authority  csv  18  Download 
Table 5: Numbers and percentage of males and females in MHO posts 2015-2019  csv 16  Download 
Table 6a: Percentage of all MHOs by age group 2015-2019  csv  16  Download 
Table 6b: Percentage of men by age group 2015-2019  csv  16 Download 
Table 6c: Percentage of women by age group 2015-2019  csv 16 Download 
Table 7: Ethnicity of MHOs by percentage 2015-2019  csv 16 Download 
Table 8: Admissions to and completions of MHO Award Programmes  2014-15 to 2019-20   csv 16  Download 
Table 9a: MHO leaver numbers by reason for leaving 2015-2019  csv 16  Download 
Table 9b: MHO leaver percentages by reason for leaving  2015-2019  csv 16  Download 
Table 9c:  MHOs moving to another local authority as an MHO 2015-2019  csv 15  Download 
Table 10: Unfilled MHO posts and unavailable MHOs 2015-2019  csv  9  Download 
Table 11: MHO staffing shortfalls 2015-2019  csv  9 Download 
Table 12: Staffing shortfalls for specific groups of using services 2015-2019  csv 10 Download 
Table 13: Estimated shortfall rate 2016-2019  csv 10 Download 
Table 14a: The proportion of MHOs who are practising social workers 2019  csv 16  Download 
Table 14b: The proportion of practising social workers who are MHOs 2019   csv 11 Download 
Table 15: Filled MHO posts and percentage in mental and non-mental health teams 2015-2019  csv 10 Download 
Table 16a: Percentage of filled MHO posts by MHT types 2016-2019  csv 10 Download 
Table 16b: Estimated average weekly hours MHOs spend on MHO work by type of MHT 2016-2019  csv 10 Download 
Table 16c: Estimated percentage of contracted hours spent on MHO work by MHOs in MHT 2016-2019  csv 10 Download 
Table 16d: Estimated percentage share of hours spent on MHO work by MHOs in MHT by team type 2016-2019  csv 10 Download 
Table 17a: Percentage of filled MHO posts by NMHT types 2016-2019  csv 10 Download 
Table 17b: Estimated average weekly hours each MHO spent on MHO work by type of NMHT  2016-2019   csv 10 Download 
Table 17c: Estimated percentage of contracted hours spent on MHO work by MHOs in non-mental health teams 2016-2019  csv 10 Download 
Table 17d: Estimated percentage share of hours spent on MHO work by MHOs in non-mental health teams by team type 2016-2019  csv 16 Download