Social Security Scotland – insights research programme: overview

2. Key Findings

• The insights programme has had feedback from clients and staff on their experiences of engaging with the organisation during the first three months of its existence. 
• Over 200 clients left ratings on how their experience of engaging with the Social Security Scotland telephony service. Of those, 95% felt their call was answered quickly, 91% felt that they got what they needed from the call, and 94% were happy with the service they received.
• Over 500 clients left ratings following online and telephony applications for the Best Start Grant – Pregnancy and Baby Payment. Of online applicants who responded, 98% rated the service as good/very good. Of telephony applicants who responded, 100% rated the service as good/very good.
• A smaller proportion of clients left feedback in the form of open text comments following applications for the Best Start Grant – Pregnancy and Baby Payment. The majority of comments (96% for telephony applications and 85% for online applications) were positive. Commonly used words in the comments include: ‘easy’, ‘straight forward’, ‘simple’, ‘quick’, ‘helpful’, ‘good’ and ‘happy’.
• A staff survey was undertaken in October 2018 and received a response rate of 97%. Results were very positive overall, with an engagement score (measuring employee attachment and motivation) of 85% positive.
• Early indications from staff survey data suggest that Social Security Scotland staff are representative of the Scottish working population. For example, 22% of those who completed the survey reported having a long-standing physical or mental health condition, illness, impairment or disability, versus 19% in the population. Regarding ethnicity, 8% of staff survey respondents identified as ethnic minorities, compared to 4% in the Scottish working population.