Background

Headcount and Whole Time Equivalent (WTE) figures

The tables present figures in both Headcount numbers and Whole Time Equivalents (WTE).  WTEs adjust headcount staff figures to take account of part-time staff.

An employee may hold more than one appointment in NHSScotland. Their appointments may be in more than one NHS organisation, in more than one region, in more than one specialty, or in more than one grade.  This issue must be considered when using tables showing Headcount figures as the employee is counted under each organisation / region / specialty / grade they work in but only once in the total. Tables showing WTE figures are not affected.

Hospital and Community Health Services (HCHS) medical and dental staff

The HCHS medical and dental workforce data presented in these tables includes all permanent paid and honorary contracts held by medical and dental staff in post in NHSScotland at the 30th September each year. Staff with locum appointments are excluded. The data are sourced from the annual medical and dental workforce census, and the annual census of consultant vacancies provided by all NHS Organisations.

Hospital and Community Health Services are referred to as HCHS in these tables.

Doctors may hold more than one appointment. Appointments may be in more than one NHS organisation, in more than one region, in more than one specialty, or in more than one grade.  In this case, they are counted once under each organisation / specialty / grade but only once in the total.

Grade groupings
The Specialist Registrar, Registrar and Senior Registrar grades have been grouped together as the 'Registrar Group'. The Specialist Registrar grade was introduced from 1996, replacing the Registrar and Senior Registrar grades.

Following the introduction of Modernising Medical Careers (MMC), a UK wide reform of post graduate medical training, House Officers have been renamed to Foundation Year 1 and some Senior House Officers have been renamed to Foundation Year 2 depending on the stage of their training.

'Doctors in training' includes doctors within the Registrar Group, Senior House Officers/Foundation Year 2 and Foundation Year 1 doctors.

Specialties
Staff working in the specialty Pain Management have been included under Anaesthetics.
Staff working in the specialty Blood Transfusion have been included under Haematology.

In 2006, Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery was reclassified as a hospital medical surgical speciality, rather than a hospital dental speciality. Data presented in these tables, including historical data from 1996 to 2006, reflect this reclassification.

Accident & Emergency specialty has been renamed to Emergency Medicine.

From 30th September 2004 a second specialty was recorded on the medical and dental workforce system. Consultants and Specialist Registrars working in general medicine are now classified under their second specialty.

Consultants
Consultant figures include Directors of Public Health.

Country of qualification
The European Economic Area (EEA) includes the following countries: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Republic of Ireland, Iceland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain and Sweden.

Maximum part-time contracts
Maximum part time contracts for consultants and associate specialists are appropriate where income from private practice exceeds 10 per cent of the gross NHS salary.  Such staff are counted as whole time (1.0 in any WTE counts) to reflect their essentially whole time commitment. This is not applicable for consultants on the new consultant contract.

General Medical Services staff
General medical services data from 2005 is at 30th September. For years prior to this, data is at 1st October.

Groupings
'Performer' previously 'GP Principal'.

'Performer Registrar' previously 'GP Registrar'.

'Performer Salaried' previously 'Other GP' (is comprised of assistants, associates, salaried doctors).

For further information on general medical service staff, please see General Practice Workforce page

GP performers may hold more than one appointment in the general medical service. Their appointments may be in more than one NHS organisation, or in more than one grade.  In this case, they are counted once under each organisation / grade but only once in the total.

For years prior to 2004, ISD hold data on the numbers of Whole Time Equivalent (WTE) GPs in addition to data on headcounts.  Since 1st April 2004, very little whole time equivalent information has been received by ISD, as this is not a key element of information relating to the new GMS contract.  Therefore, we are no longer able to provide detailed information on WTE numbers of clinicians working in general practices.  Information on headcounts only is available from 2005.  The workforce team has carried out some modelling on the available data, taking into account trends over time and the relationship between headcount and WTE in previous years, to estimate a WTE number of GPs at Scotland level for 2005, however this is not possible for 2006 data. There is work underway with a view to collecting comparable primary care workforce data and it is hoped in future to resume the reporting of GP WTE data. This data collection is currently being piloted.

WTE is estimated for all general medical services staff, using the results of a workload survey. WTE is calculated for each post using a weighting system based on the contract type.

                Full time post                    - 1 WTE
                Part time                          - 0.60 WTE
                Job share                         - 0.65 WTE
                Three-quarter time post     - 0.69 WTE

The method has been used to calculate WTE for Performers for all the years' data presented up to 2004, and to calculate WTE for Performer registrars and Performer Salaried in 2003 and 2004. For earlier years' data, the WTE for Performers Registrars and Performer Salaried shown is an estimate based on the calculated average WTE in 2003.
Performer retainees were collected  (and included in the total) for the first time by ISD Scotland in 2000.

Number of Dentists
Some dentists working in the General Dental Service (GDS) may also work in the Hospital or Community Dental Services (usually as a hospital practitioner or a clinical assistant (para 107)). 

There are various ways of calculating the number of dentists.  Classification of counting dentists was revised in 2004 to ensure a consistent way of recording dentist numbers. A dentist is counted once for each NHS Board where he/she has a contract to provide dental services. As a result, the sum of the number of dentists in each NHS Board area and in each region will exceed the number of dentists in Scotland (where a dentist is only counted once). Data for previous years have been revised to eliminate double counting between the different services and within the GDS.

As information is not collected on the working hours of dentists in the GDS, the data show the number of dentists in post (headcount), not the whole time equivalent.  In the absence of whole time equivalent data for the GDS, the 'All dentists' whole time equivalent has been calculated as follows: dentists working in the GDS (whether exclusively or in combination with the Hospital or Community Dental Services) are assigned a whole time equivalent of 1; dentists working in the Hospital or Community Dental Services only are assigned a whole time equivalent as indicated by census.

Due to improvements in the collection of information on GDS salaried dentists, figures for September 2005 include some GDS salaried dentists not previously recorded.  There are a number of cases where a salaried post will be recorded under a generic name and not under the name of a specific dentist.  Numerous dentists may work in this post at any given time.  For years prior to September 2005 it was assumed that, since there was no named individual recorded, a permanent dentist was not in post.  As a result, all posts recorded without a named individual were previously excluded from GDS salaried dentist counts.  However, information is now available on the individuals who fill these posts.  These dentists can now be included in the GDS salaried dentist count, which has resulted in a significant increase in the number of salaried dentists.

For further information on dentist numbers, please see section D: Number of Dentists

Non-medical and -dental staff

From 30th September 2005, staff in post figures for all non-medical and non-dental staff are sourced from SWISS. Prior to 2005 these figures were sourced from the bi-annual census of staff employed by NHSScotland at 31st March and 30th September collected from the Scottish Standard Payroll System (SSPS).
Staff employed by NHSScotland 'as and when required' are not included in these statistics, e.g. bank nurses.
Nurse teachers, nurses and midwives in training, and nurse students have been excluded.
GP practice staff employed by General Medical Practitioners are not included as they are not directly employed by NHSScotland.

From 30th September 2006 staff who have assimilated to Agenda for Change will be recorded under their new Agenda for Change pay band.  Staff who have not yet assimilated to Agenda for Change are reported under the ?Not-assimilated? heading.

Coding changes within the Payroll data over time may be reflected in the figures. Some examples are below:

· In the 1990s, senior manager grades were introduced in the NHS. Senior Administrative & Clerical posts were gradually assimilated to these grades. Additional nursing and other professional staff (and posts) have been assimilated into this staff grouping, partially explaining the increase in numbers.
· The ability to identify Registered Sick Childrens Nurses (RSCNs) from 2001 onwards led to an increase in those recorded under the paediatrics speciality and a decrease in those recorded under midwifery and other maternity between 2000 and 2001. This drift is mainly due to the RSCNs working in Special Care Baby Units and other RSCNs working in maternity recorded as working in paediatrics, rather than as midwives or other maternity as they were prior to 2001.

Nursing & Midwifery staff
'Registered' previously 'Qualified'.

'Non registered' previously 'Assistant'.

For 2006 data it is not possible to report fully on grades due to the non-direct match between old grades and new Agenda for Change pay bands therefore both Whitley grades and Agenda for Change bands are shown in the relevant tables.

1997 to 2006 Data
Nursing management - all nurses on clinical grades are excluded from this category. Some senior nurse managers are employed on senior management grades and are not included in the nursing total.

It is likely that some psychiatric nurses who are involved in community care are not recorded as such on payroll. Therefore, this category is likely to be under recorded.

The ability to identify Registered Sick Childrens Nurses (RSCNs) from 2001 onwards led to an increase in those recorded under the paediatrics speciality and a decrease in those recorded under midwifery and other maternity between 2000 and 2001. This drift is mainly due to the RSCNs working in Special Care Baby Units and other RSCNs working in maternity recorded as working in paediatrics rather than as midwives or other maternity as they were prior to 2001.

Health Visitor / District Nurse - Includes health visiting and district nursing teaching staff, and staff working in the field without a HV/DN qualification. The category 'Grades G & above' gives a broad indication of those staff with a HV/DN qualification.

Between September 2002 and March 2003 Greater Glasgow Primary Care NHS Trust have updated their coding for mental illness and community psychiatric nursing.    As such there has been a decrease in the number of staff recorded under mental illness and an increase in the number of staff recorded under community psychiatric nursing.

Grade E/F was a new grade that was introduced for midwives in 2002.

Nursing, Midwifery and Allied Health Professionals vacancies
Annual aggregated return of Whole Time Equivalent vacancies for Nursing, Midwifery and Allied Health Professionals at 31st March. Data are provided from NHS Organisations.  From 2007 onwards, this information will be collected at 30th September.

Agency Nurses
Hours worked and cost of Agency Nurses collected annually at the end of each financial year.

To calculate the average WTE, 1 WTE is taken as a contribution of 37.5 hours per week x 52 = 1950 hours per year. Rounding of individual figures may produce slight differences between the sum of constituent items and totals.

It is also worth noting that for the year ending 31st March 2001 return, NHS Boards were requested to collect information for the first time on the cost of employing agency nurses.  For this reason information on costs are only available from 2001 onwards.

Bank Nurses
Hours and cost of Bank Nursing and Midwifery staff produced annually at the end of each financial year.

Bank nursing and midwifery staff are individuals who are employed on a temporary basis to manage unforeseen staff absences e.g. sickness, as well as predicted shortages e.g. annual leave, study leave, maternity leave. They are employed on banks organised by NHS organisations which respond to requests for staff.

To calculate the average WTE, 1 WTE is taken as a contribution of 37.5 hours per week x 52 = 1950 hours per year. Rounding of individual figures may produce slight differences between the sum of constituent items and totals.

Clinical Nurse Specialists
A clinical nurse specialist is a registered nursing professional who has acquired additional knowledge, skills and experience, together with a professionally and/or academically accredited post-registration qualification (if available) in a clinical specialty. He/she practices at an advanced level and may have sole responsibility for care episode or defined client/group.

Data are collected annually at 30th September.

Nursing and Midwifery Student Intakes and students in training
Data are provided from NHS Education Scotland and the non-medical and dental census.

Therapeutic, healthcare science, technical, pharmacy and ambulance staff

Clinical Psychology staff:

The qualified Clinical Psychologist figures include Clinical Psychologists, Clinical Associates, Counsellors and Therapists.  For data on these individual staff groups in NHSScotland psychology services, please see the NES-ISD Psychology Workforce Data publication at:  WF_Planning_(psychology)

'Registered' previously 'Qualified'.

'Non registered' previously 'Unqualified'.

From March 2004 sonographers and sonographers in training are included in these statistics.

Prior to 2002, orthotists and prosthetists are included in the technical staff group.

High street pharmacy staff and optometrists are not included.

Dental technicians are included under medical technical officers.

Biomedical scientists were previously medical laboratory scientific officers.

Administrative and estates staff

Administrative, Clerical and Senior Management

1997 to 2006 data
Administration & Clerical grades 7 and above and senior management grades have been grouped together to more accurately reflect the overlapping nature of the corresponding payscales. The remaining administrative and clerical staff on Whitley grades, which include medical secretaries, medical records staff and payroll officers are split to show trends in the lower grades (A&C 1-3) and the middle grades (A&C 4-6).

Administrative staff employed on grade 3L are included in grades 1-3.

Administrative and clerical staff working in NHS24 include call handlers.

Works, Trades and Ancillary
The number of staff in these categories is dependent upon whether the service is provided by directly employed staff or by external agencies.

Turnover
The turnover trend analysis contains indices relating to the turnover of staff that are directly employed by NHSScotland organisations. All indices are dependant on the number of staff that leave NHSScotland as a whole and those who move between staff groups and/or NHS Boards for the years 2001/02, 2002/03, 2003/04, 2004/05, 2005/2006.

The data are derived from ISD's census-based workforce and exclude the following staff:
· those working 'as and when required' such as bank nurses and medical locums.
· staff holding a temporary National Insurance Number.
· the medical and dental staff group excludes General Medical Practitioners and General Dental Practitioners.
· in the Medical, Dental, Nursing and Midwifery staff groups training grades are excluded. This is to avoid the distortion caused by the frequent rotation of staff in training placements.

For this analysis, five different definitions of 'leavers' have been considered:
· leavers from NHSScotland (default option).
· movers from NHS Boards.
· movers from staff groups.
· movers from NHS Boards and staff groups.
· total number of leavers and movers in NHSScotland.
   
For this analysis, five different definitions of 'joiners' have been considered:
· joiners from NHSScotland (default option).
· movers to NHS Boards.
· movers to staff groups.
· movers to NHS Boards and staff groups.
· total number of joiners and movers in NHSScotland.

Other statistics shown are:
Turnover - the number of 'leavers' divided by the average number of staff in post in the year concerned. The denominator is calculated as:
 
(staff post at 30 Sept yr(n) + staff in post at 30 Sept yr(n+1))/2
'Stability index 1' - the percentage of staff who were in substantive posts at the 30 September that year and who were still in substantive posts in that organisation a year later.
'Stability index 2' - the percentage of staff who were in substantive posts at the 30 September that year and who were still in substantive posts in that organisation two years later.

Equality and Diversity

Information presented are based on self-reporting by staff in NHS Scotland. Data are collected via staff engagement forms when people join, or change organisations within, NHS Scotland, or via the "e:you" questionaire exercise undertaken for all staff in post during 2005 or the equality and diversity monitoring exercise in 2006 and 2007. Completion of the questionnaire exercise was optional and response rates varied across the country.  Those staff who did not return their questionnaires are counted under "not known".

Ethnic Origin data pre 31 March 2006
For non-medical and -dental staff, an aggregated ethnic origin return was undertaken by NHS organisations annually at 30th September. For medical and dental staff ethnic origin was sourced from the annual Medical and Dental workforce census. Data from 31st March 2006 is from SWISS.

NHS Organisations
The dissolution of NHS Argyll & Clyde took effect from 1st April 2006. From 2006, staff from NHS Argyll & Clyde transferred to NHS Highland and NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde.

On the 1st April 2003, the unified boards NHS Borders and NHS Dumfries and Galloway replaced their constituent trusts. NHS Argyll and Clyde was formed on the 1st July 2003.  NHS Fife was formed on 1st October 2003. The remaining NHS Boards were formed by 1st April 2004.

On 1st January 2004 Lothian Health Board Headquarters and Lothian University Hospital NHS Trust merged and combined figures are shown where appropriate. An employee may hold more than one appointment in NHSScotland.

Special Health Boards in these tables comprise NHS Education for Scotland, NHS Health Scotland, and NHS Quality Improvement Scotland.
On the 1st April 2003, the Public Health Institute of Scotland and Health Education Board for Scotland merged to become NHS Health Scotland.
On the 1st January 2003, the Clinical Standards Board for Scotland and Health Technology Board for Scotland merged to become NHS Quality Improvement Scotland.

On the tables the special health board totals from 2003 contain the 3 special boards; NHS Education for Scotland, NHS Health Scotland and NHS Quality Improvement Scotland. Totals for all years to 2002 contain data for organisations that merged to form the current special health boards.  Details of component organisations prior to 2003 are available in the Archive section of this site.

Regions
North Region includes Grampian, Highland (including part of NHS Argyll & Clyde from 1st April 2006), Orkney, Shetland, Tayside and Western Isles.
East Region includes Borders, Fife and Lothian.
West Region includes Ayrshire & Arran, Argyll & Clyde (up to 31st March 2005), Forth Valley, Greater Glasgow (up to 31st March 2005), Greater Glasgow & Clyde (from 1st April 2006), Lanarkshire and Dumfries & Galloway.
National Bodies and Special Health Boards includes State Hospital, Golden Jubilee, Scottish Ambulance Service, NHS24, NHS National Services Scotland, NHS Education for Scotland, NHS Health Scotland and NHS Quality Improvement Scotland.

Revision
Figures may be subject to revision in future tables although any changes are expected to be minor.

Symbols and Abbreviations
The following symbols and abbreviations have been used:
- nil
x - not applicable
.. - not available