New Mapping Tool Supports Better Insight Into Mental Health Workforce

The Association of Mental Health Providers has launched a national picture of the mental health workforce, including data from Skills for Care

To establish a clearer overview of the national and regional picture of the mental health social care workforce the Association – the national voice of mental health charities providing services in England and Wales – has undertaken the first national mental health workforce analysis which can be visualised via a freely available interactive map and dashboard

The Mental Health Social Care Workforce and Census Data dashboard combines data from The Association’s members, Skills for Care workforce data and Census 2022 data; this includes demographic data relating to gender, ethnicity, religion, age, health status, and hours of unpaid care provision

By bringing these datasets together in one place The Association hopes to improve understanding of how local, regional and national labour markets interact and what these interactions mean for workforce planning locally and regionally, particularly when reviewing specialist positions

As of 24 May key findings from the workforce analysis highlight: Overall the mental health workforce has over 536 000 positions filled of which over 16 000 are specialist positions

Over the last five years the overall mental health workforce decreased by over 11 000 and the specialist workforce by almost 7 000 27% of the overall and 9% of the specialist workforce is on zero-hour contracts and 88% of the whole workforce have a permanent employment status

Shropshire Telford and Wrekin integrated care board (ICB) has one specialist mental health workforce role per 20 000 people within the population while comparatively South East London ICB has one specialist mental health workforce role per 667 people within the population

This new mental health workforce mapping resource complements The Association’s map of mental health service provision across England which has been designed to be used by integrated care systems (ICS) local councils Government and other decision and policy makers in the mental health and social care sector as well as Voluntary Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE) mental health service providers to help with planning strategies and commissioning from local to national level