Documents containing social media survey results

Simon made this Freedom of Information request to Services Australia

This request has been closed to new correspondence from the public body. Contact us if you think it ought be re-opened.

This request has been withdrawn by the person who made it. There may be an explanation in the correspondence below.

To the FOI Officer,

I write seeking access to all documents (including datasets) detailing results and/or summary statistics from surveys conducted by Centrelink in gathering feedback from the public on Centrelink's use of social media.

So as to avoid privacy concerns, I specifically exclude individual responses to surveys from my request. Where an otherwise relevant document contains individual response(s), or parts thereof, I will accept a version of that document modified to exclude the individual response content.

Additionally, I request access to the surveys themselves (including any superseded versions but excluding drafts) as they were presented to potential participants.

Finally, I request all documents containing policy or guidance to staff on administering the surveys.

For context, I refer you to the statement provided by Centrelink to Junkee and published at http://junkee.com/student-centrelink-soc... which included the following quote:

"We know that 65 per cent of recipients whose questions are answered on social media do not phone or visit a service centre about the same issue afterwards."

And to Centrelink's subsequent reply to my query on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Centrelink/status/89...

Please treat this as a request for administrative access. If the request cannot be fulfilled under administrative access please treat this as a formal request under the Freedom of Information Act.

I also note the onus rests with the agency to prove why any information should not be released under the Act and I request the agency provide evidence in support of any assumptions or assertions used to justify non-disclosure.

Yours sincerely,
Simon Elvery

FOI.LEGAL.TEAM,

1 Attachment

Dear Mr Elvery,

 

I refer to your request, dated 28 July 2017, and received by the
Department of Human Services (the department) on the same day, for access
under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 to:

 

‘…all documents (including datasets) detailing results and/or summary
statistics from surveys conducted by Centrelink in gathering feedback from
the public on Centrelink's use of social media.

 

So as to avoid privacy concerns, I specifically exclude individual
responses to surveys from my request. Where an otherwise relevant document
contains individual response(s), or parts thereof, I will accept a version
of that document modified to exclude the individual response content.

 

Additionally, I request access to the surveys themselves (including any
superseded versions but excluding drafts) as they were presented to
potential participants.

 

Finally, I request all documents containing policy or guidance to staff on
administering the surveys.’

 

This email is to confirm that you have withdrawn your Freedom of
Information request.

 

You may, of course, make a new request for documents at any time.

 

Kind regards,

 

Chelsea

FOI Legal Team

FOI and Litigation Branch | Legal Services Division
Department of Human Services

[1][email address]

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Description: Description: Description: cid:image001.png@01CE26E6.4AB93B70

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Simon left an annotation ()

I have agreed to withdraw this request because the media office offered to respond to my questions outside the FOI process.

I will add updates here as annotations and if they're not satisfactory, I will open a similar request in the future.

Dear FOI.LEGAL.TEAM,

Thank you—I look forward to receiving administrative access to the information I requested via the media team.

Kind regards,
Simon

Simon left an annotation ()

RESPONSE:

- The Department of Human Services conducts regular social media surveys to help measure the effectiveness of our responses and provide feedback for enhancing the service.
- From 1 November 2016 to 31 July 2017, 365 people responded to almost 1000 survey invitations – a 37 per cent response rate.
- The survey contains two key questions:
- Whether the help provided saved the person from having to contact us another way, like by phone or going to an office
- How likely the person would be to use this service again in the future.
- Over the period 1 November 2016 to 31 July 2017, 63 per cent of respondents said they did not call or visit a service centre about their query afterwards. From 1 January to 30 June 2017 this has been trending at 65 per cent.
- In response to the second question, 72 per cent of people said they were likely to use social media to contact us again in future. From 1 January to 30 June 2017, this has been trending at 71 per cent.
- These results are an indicator that our social media channels are a useful resource for people to find out information about payments and services.
- Staff answering social media enquiries do not have access to individuals’ records, meaning some people will be encouraged to call us or visit a service centre to resolve their specific request in a private setting.
- The security and protection of personal details is extremely important, and why it would be clearly inappropriate to discuss information of this nature in an open forum like social media.