Social Security Directorate staffing level changes due to COVID-19: FOI release

Information requested

 

• The number of civil servant staff transferred from working for the Social Security Directorate to other departments as a result of COVID-19 (in total and broken down monthly since March 2020)
• The number of civil servant staff who remained working for the Social Security Directorate during the COVID-19 (in total and broken down monthly since March 2020).

Response

The total number of civil servant staff transferred to other departments as a result of covid-19 in the relevant period i.e. the cumulative total, was 60.

The table below provides a snapshot of remaining and transferred staff as at the first day of each stated month.

Month	March	April	May	June	July	August	September
Civil servants remaining in Social Security Directorate	483	480	452	440	448	453	451
Civil servants transferred to other departments	1	11	43	56	51	49	46

Explanatory notes
From March 2020, as a result of the covid-19 outbreak, staff from across the Scottish Government started to be moved into roles within priority areas, such as the Health and Social Care Directorate, either on temporary redeployment or permanently through managed moves or on a competitive recruitment basis, in order to meet immediate critical need.

The information regarding civil servants who transferred from working for the Social Security Directorate to other departments as a result of COVID-19 was produced from a local record maintained by the Social Security Resourcing Team.
The figures for civil servants remaining within Social Security Directorate have therefore been produced manually by cross-referencing central HR MI records (produced by the Scottish Government Human Resources Management Information (HR MI) team from our electronic HR (eHR) system) against the local records on redeployees to ensure that individuals have not been double-counted or omitted.

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