These tables look in detail at the children's services workforce in Scotland. It supplements data already published in the Scottish Social Service Sector: Report on 2024 Workforce Data.

Children’s services account for just over one-quarter of the Scottish social service workforce and have the following sub-sectors:

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Analysis of the data as at 13 June 2025

This report presents findings on the WTE number of practising social workers (PSWs) and vacancies in local authorities in June 2025. The term PSWs covers all those employed as a social worker (SW) or senior social worker (SSW) in local authority social work services. It does not include social workers employed by local authorities in registered care services such as adoption or fostering services.

This is the fifth report on local authority PSWs and vacancies that we have published.

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This spreadsheet contains information about the Social Services Workforce collected from services regulated by the Care Inspectorate (via its Annual Returns in December) and from the annual December Local Authority Social Work Services Staffing Return in 2024.

We created this spreadsheet to provide you with more detailed information about the workforce than is currently available in the Workforce Data Report. The spreadsheet will allow you to interrogate the data in detail at a local authority area level.

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The Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) today published Scottish Social Service Sector: Report on 2024 Workforce Data.

This is the 17th workforce data report published by the SSSC and the 14th set of Official Statistics. The report combines administrative data from the Care Inspectorate with data collected by the SSSC directly from local authorities to form a comprehensive picture of the paid workforce employed in the social service sector in Scotland at the end of 2024. 

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The Scottish Social Services Council publishes information on those undertaking qualifications relevant to work in the social service sector. This data is to help support workforce planning.

There are two main SVQ frameworks that are relevant to people working in care services. One is Social Services and Healthcare which is aimed primarily at those working in adult social care services. The other is Children and Young People which is aimed mainly at those working in day care for children and residential child care services. All of the SVQs are benchmark qualifications for workforce registration.

The tables published below present SVQ provision data separately for the two frameworks and cover the period 2016 to 2025. Data on the numbers of modern apprenticeships (MAs) within each framework is also provided including the proportion of SVQ activity made up by MAs.

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The Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) today published the Mental Health Officers (Scotland) Report 2024. 

The Mental Health Officers (Scotland) Report 2024 presents information on: 

The number of practising MHOs in post at 2nd December 2024, 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.

The key points from this year’s MHO report are set out below.

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