The number of specialist mental health social workers in Scotland has hit a record high, but staff shortages remain, a survey has found.
Councils increased their number of active mental health officer (MHO) posts from 729 to 765 from in the year to December 2024, the highest since records began in 2005, said the Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC), in a report published last week.
These posts were filled by 729 practising social workers, up from 697 in 2023, with some practitioners filling more than one MHO roles, while the number of whole-time equivalent posts rose from 609 to 635 from 2023-24. This was the third consecutive annual rise in the size of the workforce.
What is an MHO?
MHOs are council-employed social workers with at least two years' post-qualifying experience who have achieved the mental health officer award. This means they are specially trained to work with people with mental health problems and carry out functions under the Mental Health (Care and Treatment) (Scotland) Act 2003 and certain other legislation.Their responsibilities include providing consent for people with a mental disorder to be assessed or treated in hospital on an emergency or short-term detention certificate, and applying for a person to be placed under a compulsory treatment order, providing for longer-term detention.
Where a person is subject to specified orders under the 2003 act, the MHO's role is to interview them and advise them of their rights, including to independent advocacy, legal representation and a named person to look after their interests.
Source: Scottish Government
More hours worked by MHOs
The SSSC's annual census on the specialist role, based on a survey of councils, also found that the number of hours worked by MHOs in 2024 reached record levels, hitting 13,880, a rise of 5.6% on the level in 2023.There was an accompanying fall in the shortfall in hours councils reported requiring to meet demand without putting the MHO service under undue pressure, which stood at 2,914 hours in 2023.
Though this fell to 2,417 hours in 2024, the shortfall represented 67.1 whole-time equivalent MHO posts. The shortfall was distributed across 23 of the 32 councils.
SSSC chief executive Maree Allison welcomed the latest rise in the size of the MHO workforce, but added that this needed to be balanced against the continuing shortfall in post numbers.
