Social Security Scotland – client and staff insights: research findings

2. Key Findings

• The research programme has continued to gather client and staff insights during the period September 2018 to March 2019. 
• During this period, Social Security Scotland received over 37,800 contacts by phone. Of these, approximately 17,300 were in relation to BSG, 18,600 were in relation to CAS and 1,900 were general enquiries.
• Call waiting times were on average 8 seconds; 11 seconds for BSG, 2 seconds for CAS and 3 seconds for general enquiries.
• Over 300 clients left ratings on their experience of engaging with the Social Security Scotland telephony service. Of those, 89% felt their call was answered quickly, 80% felt that they got what they needed from the call, and 86% were happy with the overall service they received.
• Over 1,000 clients left ratings following online and telephony applications for the Best Start Grant – Pregnancy and Baby Payment. Of online applicants who responded, 97% rated the service as good/very good. Of telephony applicants who responded, 100% rated the service as good/very good.
• At 31 March 2019 there were 363 directly employed staff and 39 contingent workers working for Social Security Scotland. The majority of these (58%) were based in Dundee. 
• At the end of March 2019, the largest proportion of Social Security Scotland staff (30%) fell into the 30-39 age bracket, and the majority were female (57%).
• Staff survey results also show that the majority of staff (60%) are new to working for the Scottish Government or its predecessors.