Social Security Scotland temporary staff information: FOI release

Information requested

Request for information 1:

What was the value of spend on temporary staff from recruitment agencies by SSC from April 2023 to June 2024?
a. Please ensure that a gross spend value is detailed and include all spend associated to any contract let for the management/provision of temporary staff by a contracted provider (whether Vendor neutral or Master vendor). Please ensure that all figures are provided separately by year.

Request for information 2:

If you have a managed service provider (MSP) in place for the provision of temporary agency staff, please provide the following.
a. How was the contract to manage/provide the supply of agency/temporary staff let?
b. Who was the contract to manage/provide the supply of agency/temporary staff let to?
c. When did the contract to manage/provide the supply of temporary/agency staff commence, how long does it run for and what is the end date?

Request for information 3:

If you use Frameworks please state which frameworks you use and for which categories of staff.

Request for information 4:

If you don’t have a managed service provider (MSP) in place for the provision of temporary recruitment agency staff, which recruitment agencies do you use, and what basis were they awarded?

Request for information 5:

Please can you provide details of the names of the decision-makers who ultimately decide which recruitment agencies your organisation uses.

Request for information 6:

Please provide the name(s) of the person(s) who the manage the recruitment agency contract on a day-to-day basis.

Request for information 7:

Please advise what the permanent agency spend was between April 2023 to June 2024.

Response

You asked Social Security Scotland to provide answers to the questions below. For clarity, each question has been answered directly.

Request for information 1:

Please see the table below. The data is broken down by the appropriate Contract or Framework Agreement and then supplier.

The return is split into 3rd Generation and 4th Generation Frameworks. The Temporary & Interim Staff Services Framework Agreements have been re-let every 4 years. During the time period you have specified, there is spend under both the 3rd generation and 4th generation Framework Agreements.

Temporary & Interim Staff Services Frameworks - 3rd Generation
Framework Agreement			March 2023- April	April 2024 - June
			2024	2024
Interim Professional
ASA			£210,182.75	£39,370.00
Harvey Nash			£25,910.00	£0.00
Pertemps			£17,951.00	£12,466.00
Venesky-Brown			£104,817.00	£24,824.00
Total			£358,860.75	£76,660.00
Interim IT
ASA			£162,905.06	£49,440.50
Harvey Nash			£154,424.00	£73,344.00
Lorien			£0.00	£0.00
Venesky-Brown			£653,035.00	£85,122.00
Total			£970,364.06	£207,906.50
Admin, Catering & Manual - South
ASA			£0.00	£0.00
Blue Arrow			£0.00	£0.00
Brightwork			£0.00	£0.00
Pertemps			£36,294.28	£0.00
Total			£36,294.28	£0.00
Temporary & Interim Staff Services Frameworks - 4th Generation
Framework Agreement			March 2023- April	April 2024 - June
			2024	2024
Interim Professional
ASA			£0.00	£0.00
Harvey Nash			£119,548.00	£88,495.63
Lorien			£0.00	£0.00
Venesky-Brown			£165,773.00	£48,690.00
Total			£285,321.00	£137,185.63
Interim IT
ASA			£25,111.00	£0.00
Harvey Nash			£317,609.00	£209,129.50
Lorien			£0.00	£0.00
Venesky-Brown			£160,423.00	£78,840.13
Total			£503,143.00	£287,969.63
Admin, Catering & Manual - South
ASA			£0.00	£0.00
Blue Arrow			£0.00	£0.00
Brightwork			£0.00	£0.00
Venesky-Brown			£624,213.00	£189,924.63
Total			£624,213.00	£189,924.63
Interim Digital Resource Services - Contract
Supplier/Lot			March 2023- April	April 2024 - June
			2025	2024
Harvey Nash - Lot 1 Architecture and Design			£784,082.00	£162,760.00
Harvey Nash - Lot 2 Security Design and Digital Risk Management			£487,688.00	£101,462.00
Harvey Nash - Lot 3 Cloud Infrastructure Implementation and Systems Operations			£1,379,788.00	£410,171.00
Be-IT Resourcing Limited - Lot 4 Delivery Support; and Delivery and Integration			£499,581.00	£75,295.00
Total			£3,151,139.00	£749,688.00

Request for information 2:

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

This is because Social Security Scotland does not have a managed service provider (MSP) in place for the provision of temporary agency staff. As the related questions are conditional on having a managed service provider, these have not been answered further.

Request for information 3:

Social Security Scotland used the following Scottish Government Framework Agreements:

• Interim Professional Staff Services Framework Ref: SP-22-001
• Interim IT Staff Services Framework Ref: SP-22-002
• Temporary, Administrative, Catering and Manual Staff Services – South Region Framework Ref: SP-22-003

The categories of staff were Professional, IT and Admin. Further information on the Framework Agreements is available from the Scottish Government Website: Procurement - temporary and interim staff services frameworks 2023 to 2027 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot).

Request for information 4:

Social Security Scotland makes use of the recruitment agencies detailed in the response to request for information 1.

All of the information you have requested is available from Procurement - temporary and interim staff services frameworks 2023 to 2027 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot). Under section 25(1) of FOISA, we do not have to give you information which is already reasonably accessible to you. If, however, you do not have internet access to obtain this information from the website(s) listed, then please contact me again and I will send you a paper copy.

For the Interim Digital Resource Service, four contracts were awarded to two recruitment agencies (Harvey Nash and BE-IT Resourcing Ltd) as the result of a competitive procurement process under Lot 2 - Digital Technology Resources of the Scottish Government Digital and Technology Services Dynamic Purchasing System. Further details can be found on the Contract Award Notice: View Notice - Public Contracts Scotland.

Under section 25(1) of FOISA, we do not have to give you information which is already reasonably accessible to you.

Request for information 5:

Within Social Security Scotland, individual Hiring Managers are supported through the procurement by trained Delegated Purchasing Officers (DPOs). The DPOs are responsible for ensuing all awards of individual call off contracts to recruitment agencies follow the award procedures in the Framework Buyer’s guide and either engage the top-ranked supplier through a direct award or invite all suppliers on that Framework to a mini-competition.

For those requirements that could not be met through the Scottish Government Temporary and Interim Staff Frameworks, Social Security Scotland used the Interim Digital Resource Service Contracts which were procured by a DPO in the Scottish Government’s More Powers Implementation Procurement team on behalf of Social Security Scotland in 2022. The DPO conducted a competitive procurement process under Lot 2 - Digital Technology Resources of the Scottish Government Digital and Technology Services Dynamic Purchasing System.

Request for information 6:

The Temporary and Interim Staff Framework Agreements are managed by Scottish Government. Individual Hiring Managers across Social Security Scotland are responsible for managing the individual call off contracts on a day-to-day basis.

The Interim Digital Resource Services Contracts are managed on a day-to-day basis by a Technical Contract Manager in Social Security Scotland’s Chief Digital Office supported by a Procurement Contract Manager from Social Security Scotland’s Procurement and Commercial branch.

Under Section 38 of FOISA, we are exempt from providing the name of the individuals as it relates to Personal Data.

Request for information 7:

There was no permanent agency spend between April 2023 to June 2024.

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.