Social Security Scotland - Staff working from home: FOI release

Information requested

Request for information 1: The average call waiting times for the current and previous years.

Request for information 2: The % of helpline staff who are "working from home”.

Request for information 3: The % of all staff who are working from home for part of the week.

Response

Request for information 1:
While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance Social Security Scotland does not have all of the information you have requested. To provide the data requested, we require to run reports from our telephony system. The system only holds data for the 12 rolling months prior to the requested report - for any time period prior to that point the information is not held.

This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that Social Security Scotland does not have some of the information you have requested.

We do publish Insights reports which give average call waiting times across different periods.

From September 2018 to 23 March 2020 the average call wait time was 16 seconds across all benefit queues - Supporting documents - Social Security Scotland: insights research findings to March 2020 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Between 4 July 2020 to 29 March 2021, the average call wait time was 10 minutes and 58 seconds across all benefit queues -Social Security Scotland - Insights Research findings - April 2020 to March
2021.

From 1 April 2021 to 31 March 2022, the average call wait time was 5 minutes and 51 seconds across all benefit queues -Social Security Scotland - Insights Research Findings – April 2021 to March 2022.

From 1 April 2022 - 31 March 2023, the average call wait time was 22 minutes and 17 seconds across all benefit queues – Social Security Scotland – Insights Research Findings – April 2022 to March 2023. 

I have included an attachment which contains information on call wait times from 1 April 2023 - 31 March 2024 below.

Average call wait time April 2023 to 31 March 2024
Month	Number of calls	Average call wait time
April 2023	94,105	00:23:57
May 2023	91,470	00:16:54
Jun 2023	96,704	00:14:52
July 2023	83,719	00:15:24
August 2023	90,272	00:12:49
September 2023	82,380	00:11:13
October 2023	88,795	00:11:41
November 2023	87,147	00:12:43
December 2023	67,317	00:09:19
January 2024	111,790	00:12:49
February 2024	95,980	00:11:04
March 2024	93,646	00:12:39

Request for information 2:

I have interpreted your request for information relating to “helpline staff” as members of staff that answer calls on our inbound lines. You should be aware that the resource applied to this changes with demand. Staff working in this area will also be involved in other tasks such as processing applications, ongoing case maintenance and making outbound contact with clients to request supporting information.

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance Social Security Scotland does not hold the information you have requested.

This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that Social Security Scotland does not have the information you have requested.

Request for information 3: 

At Social Security Scotland we are committed to hybrid working for all colleagues. We believe it is the right thing for the long-term health, wellbeing and performance of our people and our organisation. Following review and consultation with Trade Unions, a decision has been made that colleagues contractually based in our buildings are expected to work in an office 2 days per week. This will be prorata for those who work part time hours.

We have interpreted your request as the percentage of all staff who are classed as hybrid workers. Based on the March 2024 Social Security workforce count (4121 employees) 99.5% of staff within the agency would be considered hybrid workers. 

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at http://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.