Scottish social workers were forced to miss more than 30,000 days of work because of mental health issues in the last year, figures have shown.

Data obtained by the Scottish Liberal Democrats through freedom of information (FOI) requests revealed that 30,649 days were lost across 27 local authorities in 2021/22 due to mental ill health.

The highest absences were reported in Glasgow, with 8,539 days lost, followed by 3,387 in North Lanarkshire.

The categorisation of mental health absences varies by council area, and includes illnesses like anxiety and depression, as well as work-related concerns.

Leader of the Lib Dems, Alex Cole-Hamilton, urged the Scottish Government to focus on improving pay and conditions within the health and social care sector.

Legislative plans for a National Care Service, which would hand responsibility of the sector to ministers, are being scrutinised by the Scottish Parliament.

But Cole-Hamilton has said the Scottish Government should listen to concerns about the centralisation plans, which he said could exacerbate the issues experienced by social work staff.

He said: “These are shocking figures for just a single year. Social workers deal with some of the toughest cases imaginable and it is no wonder that it takes a toll on people’s mental health.

“The last thing these hardworking staff need is to be folded into a bill-pound bureaucracy answerable to ministers and insensitive to local demands.

Want to see more SNP fails? – Education Matters