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Staff of Local Authority Social Work Services 2006
27/06/2007
The latest in a series of publications which provide information on staffing of Scottish Local Authority Social Work Services was published today.
It contains the results of a staffing census held across all Scottish local authorities on October 2, 2006 and presents findings from a range of statistics to provide an overall picture of demand for, supply of, and outcomes from, the social care workforce.
A change was made in the way staff were recorded in the October 2006 Census to eliminate double counting of staff who were not actually working on the census day (e.g. on maternity leave) and those staff who were covering for the absent member of staff. Therefore, no comparisons have been made with previous years as a result of the change in counting methodolody.
Headline messages are:
There were 41,343 whole time equivalent (WTE) staff employed by Scottish Local Authority Social Services in October 2006
The 41,343 WTE staff in October 2006 corresponded to 8.1 staff per 1,000 population. The number of staff per 1,000 population was highest in the island councils (23.2 in Shetland Islands, 17.8 in Orkney Islands and 17.1 in Eilean Siar), and lowest in Moray (5.2), Falkirk (5.2) and Clackmannanshire (5.3)
Just under 1 per cent of all staff are reported as being from an ethnic minority group and under 2 per cent declared having a disability in 2006. However, 24 per cent of all staff had a not known/disclosed ethnic group and 23 per cent had a not known/disclosed disability
In October 2006, 71.1 per cent of social work services staff (with a known age) were at least 40 years old. In addition, 3.5 per cent were aged under 25 years of age
The majority (84.3 per cent) of all staff in 2006 were female. This proportion was highest for staff providing services for adults, where 88.3 per cent were female, and lowest for staff providing services for offenders (63.4 per cent)
Just under 30 per cent of staff employed by Scottish Local Authority Social Work Services in October 2006 were fieldwork staff and 26.6 per cent were domiciliary staff (mainly home carers). A further 15.5 per cent worked in residential establishments for adults and 9.5 per cent were located in day care centres for adults
There were 3,007 WTE vacancies in Scottish Local Authority Social Work Services in October 2006. This represents 8.6 per cent of all posts that were vacant as at October 2006
Of the 3,007 WTE vacancies, 400 WTE vacancies were for qualified social workers. The proportion of all social worker posts that were vacant was 7.5