Mental Health Officers (Scotland) Report 2020

17 Aug 2021

The Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) today published the Mental Health Officers (Scotland) Report 2020.

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

The Mental Health Officers (Scotland) Report 2020 presents information on:

  • the number of practising MHOs in post at 7 December 2020, 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.

Download (PDF, 778KB) 

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

    • There were 704 filled MHO posts in 2020, which is one more than the 703 of 2019.
    • The percentage rise in estimated MHO hours worked was 3.5%.
    • A small drop was seen in the estimated average time spent by MHOs from mental health teams on MHO work.
    • A rise was seen in the estimated average time spent by MHOs from non-mental health teams on MHO work.
    • Exclusive MHOs rose by 6.4%, non-exclusive MHOs fell by 1.9% and cover MHOs fell by 8.6%.
    • The estimated amount of MHO hours worked per 10,000 head of population in Scotland has increased from 20.5 in 2019 to 21.25 in 2020.
    • Between December 2019 and December 2020 staff left 89 MHO posts, this is five less than the high of 94 in between December 2018 and December 2019.
    • There was a decrease in the number of authorities reporting a shortfall in MHOs, however there was an increase in the total number of weekly additional hours required.

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

The  Mental Health Officer time series data section of the data website can be found here. 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 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 2020. 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 2020

Description File Type File size (KB)   
All 2020 Tables   xlsx 79 Download 
All 2020 Tables zipped CSV   csv  20 Download  
All 2020 Tables   ods 35 Download 
Table 1a:  MHO  headcount  filled  posts  and  their  contracted  WTE  2016-2020  csv 1 Download 
Table 1b: Estimated hours worked on MHO duties and weekly average per MHO post 2016-2020  csv 1 Download   
Table 2a: MHOs posts by type 2016-2020  csv 1 Download 
Table 2b: Percentage MHOs posts by type 2016-2020  csv 1 Download 
Table 2c: Exclusive MHO positions by team category 2016-2020  csv 1 Download 
Table 2d: Non exclusive MHO positions by team category 2016-2020  csv 1 Download 
Table 2e: Cover MHO positions by team category 2016-2020  csv  Download 
Table 2f: Local authorities with cover MHOs by number and year  csv  Download 
Table 3: Filled MHO posts, estimated hours on MHO work and estimated hours per 10,000 population by local authority 2020  csv  Download 
Table 4: Filled post types in each Local authority  csv  Download 
Table 5: Numbers and percentage of males and females in MHO posts 2016-2020  csv Download 
Table 6a: Percentage of all MHOs by age group 2016-2020  csv  Download 
Table 6b: Percentage of men by age group 2016-2020  csv  1 Download 
Table 6c: Percentage of women by age group 2016-2020  csv 1 Download 
Table 7: Ethnicity of MHOs by percentage 2016-2020  csv 1 Download 
Table 8: Admissions to and completions of MHO Award Programmes  2015-16 to 2019-20   csv 1 Download 
Table 9a: MHO leaver numbers by reason for leaving 2016-2020  csv Download 
Table 9b: MHO leaver percentages by reason for leaving  2016-2020  csv Download 
Table 9c:  MHOs moving to another local authority as an MHO 2016-2020  csv Download 
Table 10: Unfilled MHO posts and unavailable MHOs 2016-2020  csv  1 Download 
Table 11: MHO staffing shortfalls 2016-2020  csv  1 Download 
Table 12: Staffing shortfalls for specific groups of using services 2016-2020  csv 1 Download 
Table 13: Estimated shortfall rate 2016-2020  csv 1 Download 
Table 14a: The proportion of MHOs who are practising social workers 2020  csv 2 Download 
Table 14b: The proportion of practising social workers who are MHOs 2020   csv 2 Download 
Table 15: Filled MHO posts and percentage in mental and non-mental health teams 2016-2020  csv 1 Download 
Table 16a: Percentage of filled MHO posts by MHT types 2016-2020  csv 1 Download 
Table 16b: Estimated average weekly hours MHOs spend on MHO work by type of MHT 2016-2020  csv 1 Download 
Table 16c: Estimated percentage of contracted hours spent on MHO work by MHOs in MHT 2016-2020  csv 1 Download 
Table 16d: Estimated percentage share of hours spent on MHO work by MHOs in MHT by team type 2016-2020  csv 1 Download 
Table 17a: Percentage of filled MHO posts by NMHT types 2016-2020  csv 1 Download 
Table 17b: Estimated average weekly hours each MHO spent on MHO work by type of NMHT  2016-2020  csv 1 Download 
Table 17c: Estimated percentage of contracted hours spent on MHO work by MHOs in non-mental health teams 2016-2020  csv 1 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 1 Download 
Appendix A: Filled MHO posts, hours on MHO work and hours on
MHO work per 10,000 population by health board area – 2020.
 csv 1 Download 
Appendix B:HSCP status of MHOs by local authority 2020  csv 1 Download
Appendix C: Number of MHOs working in out of hours services by
local authority – 2020. 
 csv 1 Download