New Nursing Workforce Report Launched

Scottish Care has this week launched its Nursing Workforce Survey 2026 Briefing Report at the Scottish Care Nursing Conference.

The report provides insight into the current realities facing social care nursing across Scotland and highlights both the strengths of the workforce and the challenges affecting its future sustainability.

The central message emerging from the report is clear:

Social care nursing remains one of the sector’s greatest strengths. However, persistent recruitment difficulties, increasing complexity of care, workforce pressures and growing administrative demands continue to place significant strain on the sustainability of the nursing workforce.

Drawing on responses from providers operating nursing services across Scotland, the report demonstrates the critical role social care nurses play in supporting people with increasingly complex needs, providing clinical leadership and helping services deliver high-quality care within communities.

One of the strongest findings was the scale of change in care complexity. Almost all respondents reported increasing acuity and complexity over the previous 12 months, reflecting wider changes across health and social care and increasing expectations on community-based services.

Professor Donald Macaskill, Chief Executive of Scottish Care, said: “The findings highlight a workforce that remains deeply committed to the people it supports. Social care nurses continue to provide leadership, expertise and reassurance in some of the most complex care environments across Scotland.

“Yet the report also shows that the pressures on that workforce are growing. Increasing complexity, workforce shortages, stress, administrative burden and recruitment difficulties are creating cumulative challenges that cannot be ignored.

“As Scotland continues to pursue ambitions around prevention and care closer to home, it is essential that social care nursing is recognised as a key part of delivering those ambitions. Investment in community-based care must include investment in the nurses who make that care possible.”

The report also highlights concerns about the increasing difficulty of international recruitment, with respondents citing Home Office processes and immigration requirements as significant barriers.