High Level Summary of Statistics Trend Last update: Thursday, September 15, 2011
Vacancies
It is estimated that 5.7% of all posts were vacant as at October 2010, compared to 7.0% in October 2009. This is based on the 27 out of 32 local authorities who provided vacancy information
In terms of client groups, vacancy rates were highest for staff providing services to people with mental health problems (9.2%) and lowest for those providing services to older people (4.5%) in October 2010.
It is estimated that 4.8% of all social worker posts were vacant as at October 2010, compared with 6.8% in October 2009.
Source: Staff of Scottish Local Authority Social Work Services, 2010
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Percent vacancies = vacancies as a percentage of the staff complement - i.e. relevant WTE+vacancies. Relevant WTE excludes home care staff.
For some councils, certain services are provided by other departments (e.g. some services for children may be provided by education departments). This will result in some differences in the level of vacancies between councils.
Staff numbers may fluctuate over time as a result of various factors, including changes in the way services are provided and changes in the numbers of vacancies. Please refer to Background Notes for further information.
For the 2010 publication, the overall vacancy rate for Scotland has been estimated based only on those local authorities who were able to provide vacancy information. In order to enable a comparison with the previous year, the 2009 figure has been re-calculated on the same basis. This re-calculation revised the overall vacancy rate from 7.1 percent to 7.0 percent, but has resulted in larger changes by client group. Therefore, figures published for years prior to 2009 are not directly comparable with these figures.
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