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.

The key findings from the report are:

• There were 6,095 WTE practising social workers in June 2025. This a fall from the previous collection but is still one of the highest totals since records began in the 1990s.
• There was a 1.2% decrease in the whole time equivalent (WTE) number of practising social workers between December 2024 and June 2025. 
• However, the WTE of practising social workers has increased by 7.6% between December 2021 and June 2025.
• Between December 2024 and June 2025, the WTE of senior social workers decreased (-6.6%) while main grade increased slightly (+0.3%).
• At the Scotland level the WTE per 100k population has increased from 104.7 PSWs in December 2021 to 109.9 in June 2025.
• The data from June 2025 shows a higher number of WTE vacancies compared to the December figures but there are more reporting authorities. A minimum of 551 WTE were reported in June 2025 compared to 511 in December 2024.
• The June 2025 vacancy rate was 8.9%. This is the same as in December 2024 even though the vacancies were higher, due to the change in the staff WTE of the reporting authorities, but down from 9.3% in June 2024.
• Vacancy rates vary by fieldwork team, with higher rates in the children and adult fieldwork teams.
• Vacancy rates are higher for main grade posts (9.5%) than senior posts (6.4%).
• 19 of 26 responding local authorities said vacancies were hard to fill, with the most common reason being a lack of applicants with experience.

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

If you have any enquiries about the report please contact:

James Arnold
Intelligence Analyst
Workforce Intelligence Team
Scottish Social Services Council
Compass House
11 Riverside Drive
Dundee DD1 4NY

Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.