Scots professionals showing their age

Scotland’s local authority social care workforce is ageing.

The proportion of social work staff older than 50 employed by the country’s 32 local authorities rose from 35 per cent to 38 per cent last year, while the percentage of staff younger than 30 dropped from 10 to 9 per cent, according to the Scottish executive’s annual census.

Overall, there was a 4 per cent rise in the number of social work staff to nearly 43,000 whole-time equivalent staff (54,000 in total).

Just 1 per cent of staff were from an ethnic minority and less than 2 per cent declared a disability.

Sixty-one per cent provided services for adults, 17 per cent worked in children’s services, and 10 per cent worked across client groups.