Analysis of the data as at 6^th December 2024

This report presents data on the whole time equivalent (WTE) number of social workers and social work vacancies in local authority social work services in December 2024. It is the fourth of our half-yearly reports on practising social workers (that is, main grade social workers and senior social workers). The last report was published in November last year with data from June 2024. That report can be downloaded from

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This report was reissued and republished on the 12th November 2024 after a revision which is detailed here

Analysis of data at 14th June 2024

This report presents data on the whole time equivalent (WTE) number of social workers and social work vacancies in local authority social work services in June 2024. It is the third of our half-yearly reports on practising social workers (that is, main grade social workers and senior social workers).

This third report presents data from all 32 local authorities. Key findings from the report are set out below:

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Analysis of the data as at 4^th December 2023

This report presents data on the whole time equivalent (WTE) number of social workers and social work vacancies in local authority social work services in December 2023. It is the second of our half-yearly reports on practising social workers (that is, main grade social workers and senior social workers). The first report was published in October last year with data from June 2023. That report can be downloaded from here

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Analysis of the data collected as at 30 June 2023

This report presents findings from the first run of a proposed new six-monthly survey of local authority social work services (LASWS), which took place between June and August 2023. The survey asked for information on ‘practising social workers’, namely those in main grade social worker and senior social worker posts working within local authority social work services. It also asked for information on vacancies for practising social workers and about hard to fill vacancies.

The Office of the Chief Social Work Adviser (OCSWA) in the Scottish Government established a short life working group (SLWG) on social work workforce data in December 2022. It was set up to support the development of the National Social Work Agency (NSWA) by monitoring workforce trends, establishing demand for social work services and implications for recruitment, retention and training. The findings from the survey will feed back into the work of the SLWG and other intelligence and research that the group is looking to gather. This includes research into demand for social work services and a report due to be published later in 2023/24 by the SSSC on the inflows and outflows to the local authority social work workforce.

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