The report shows there were 6,356 whole time equivalent (WTE) practising social workers in post in December 2025, a 4.3% increase from June 2025. However, the report notes various changes to the way the data was collected in December 2025 resulting in reclassifications, which increased the number of practising social workers by 78 whole time equivalent (WTE).
The number of social work vacancies was 536 WTE (8.3%), compared to 551 in June 2025.
Our reports
We’re producing six-monthly reports to provide an accurate picture of social work vacancies at the request of the Scottish Government.
This sixth report presents staffing data from 31 local authorities which we gathered in December 2025, 29 of them also provided data on the number of social work vacancies. We used WTE figures from the December 2024 data for the one local authority that did not provide staffing figures. We didn’t use vacancy figures for the three local authorities that didn’t provide them.
The data in the report comes from the annual censuses of local authority social work services (LASWS) each December plus data from the interim six-monthly survey collections, which started in June 2023.
Key findings from the report
- There were 6,356 WTE practising social workers in December 2025.
- There was a 4.3% increase in the whole time equivalent (WTE) number of practising social workers between June 2025 and December 2025.
- Overall, the WTE of practising social workers has increased by 11.2% between December 2022 and December 2025.
- Between June 2025 and December 2025, the WTE of senior social workers increased (+6.0%) while main grade increased slightly (+3.8%).
- At the Scotland level the WTE per 100k population has increased from 104.9 practising social workers in December 2022 to 114.6 in December 2025.
- The data from December 2025 shows a lower number of WTE vacancies compared to June 2025, with the same number, but different, reporting authorities. A minimum of 536 WTE were reported in December 2025 compared to 551 in June 2025.
- The December 2025 vacancy rate was 8.3%. This is the lowest figure since December 2020.
- Vacancy rates vary by fieldwork team, with higher rates in the children and adult fieldwork teams.
- Vacancy rates are higher for main grade posts (8.9%) than senior posts (6.1%).
Read the sixth Social worker filled posts and vacancies six-monthly survey report: Analysis of the data from 1 December 2025 published 30 June 2026.
You can read all our six-monthly social worker reports on our data website.