1. Main points
Experimental analysis of a pilot time use survey for public sector workers in Great Britain shows that, on average, workers participating in student management (including teaching), patient management, or policing activity as their main activity did so for at least 6 hours of their working day.
On average, around 85% of all public sector workers perceived themselves to be at least 80% productive, and almost half perceived themselves to be at least 90% productive, on the working day recorded in the online diary.
Accompanying research shows that participants generally felt that most of their administrative responsibilities were essential but highlighted some challenges in relation to volume of these tasks, systems and procedures that could make them inefficient, and scope for more delegation.
Research participants across sectors responded favourably to the introduction of innovations related to Artificial Intelligence and automation, providing there was careful implementation and oversight; current adoption among those involved varied depending on knowledge within an area or organisation.
Estimates are based on data collected in a pilot time use survey of public sector workers. Participants only completed diaries for days on which they worked.
2. Understanding how public sector workers spend their time
To understand in more detail how public sector workers spend their time, and their views around productivity at work, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) ran a pilot public sector time use survey. These results provide insight into the tasks and activities public sector workers undertake and will help inform our measures of public service productivity, as described in our Public services productivity review. The survey was accompanied by follow-on interviews and focus groups with a subset of the survey participants, exploring in more detail how they spend their time, their views on the impact of administrative tasks on their productivity and on possible changes to reduce administrative burden.
We would value your feedback. Please email us at hhsa@ons.gov.uk to let us know your thoughts on the pilot survey, and to tell us whether this publication meets your needs to help inform potential further analysis of the data.
Back to table of contents3. Average time and participation in activities
The amount of daily time that public sector workers in Great Britain reported spending on work activities (averaged among those undertaking those duties) is shown in Figure 1. Estimates of time are presented for primary activities (where the activity is the main focus) and secondary activities (where the activity is done alongside a main activity) based on data collected in February 2024.
Figure 1: On average those participating in student management, patient management, or policing activity did so for at least six hours of their working day
Average daily time (minutes) spent doing specified activities by public sector workers who recorded doing them as main or secondary activities, Great Britain, February 2024
Source: Time Use Survey from the Office for National Statistics
Notes:
Activities are defined in the Glossary section.
Main activities are those that take up most of an individual's attention.
Secondary activities are those that an individual does alongside or during their main activity. Participants were able to record multiple secondary activities. Main and secondary activities should not therefore be aggregated.
Estimates for "Other policing", "Court activity" and "Travel" as secondary activities are not included because of low sample sizes.
Estimates are the average time reported being spent on each activity and are not adjusted to account for different working hours or patterns.
Download this chart Figure 1: On average those participating in student management, patient management, or policing activity did so for at least six hours of their working day
Image .csv .xlsPublic sector workers participating in student management (such as teaching professionals), patient management (such as healthcare professionals) and policing activities, as their main activity, report doing so for over 6 hours of their workday on average.
Within the student management activity, on average, those public sector workers participating in teaching or assisting learners in the classroom as a main activity reported doing so for 4 hours and 46 minutes. Further breakdowns of the activities are included in the accompanying tables.
On average, public sector workers participating in communication, and separately those participating in staff management, as main activities did so for over 1 hour and 45 minutes each day. These were two of the activities with the shortest amount of time being spent on them (excluding travel and other work-related activities, which includes taking breaks) when comparing to the other activities presented.
Estimates of time spent on activities are averaged across respondents, reflecting the different occupations of public sector workers. For example, those reporting spending time on records management (2 hours and 42 minutes) or project management (2 hours and 4 minutes) as a main activity include public sector records managers and project managers as well as those who participate in the activity alongside their primary role.
The survey enabled public sector workers to report secondary activities that they participated in, alongside their primary activity. The secondary activities with the highest amount of time reported being spent on them were patient management, and other health care. This may partially reflect the connectivity of activities within healthcare, as assessing patients, observing patients, treating patients, and writing prescriptions were all recorded as separate activities.
Accompanying qualitative research with public service workers across four sectors (Education, Health, Social security and Public safety) enabled participants to describe their activities in more depth, ranging from more basic and repetitive tasks, to those requiring higher skills and professional judgement. Tasks that involved basic administrative elements included data entry or scheduling, for example planning school trips for teachers, and operational admin, such as sending appointment letters for health staff. Tasks that involved administrative elements but also decision-making and communication, requiring some sector-specific expertise and/or clearance, included medical record keeping, or writing up case reports by police officers.
In most cases, participants saw their administrative tasks as important, however they expressed some challenges in relation to the amount of time they spent on these tasks.
[The] process of looking at an individual student and then writing their report… I think it informs my teaching as well. It's clearly a very old-fashioned notion now, but that's one of the things that I find – one of the admin tasks that I find really, really useful.
Patient letters would definitely be something secretaries do, but we don't have secretaries [...] printing out the letters and putting them in envelopes and addressing them, it takes a ridiculous amount of time
We have huge admin problems at the minute in that all of our negative behaviour, anything we log has to be written with a personalised comment explaining that behaviour and the following sanction to the parent. Which is wonderful until you have to do it for seven kids in one class. For five lessons a day, it's then awful
4. Perceptions of productivity
The pilot time use survey also collected information on public sector workers' perceptions of their own productivity level on the working day recorded in the online diary. Figure 2 shows the average perceived productivity levels by selected workforces.
Figure 2: On average, around 85% of public sector workers perceive themselves to be at least 80% productive
Public sector worker perceptions of their productivity level: by selected workforces, Great Britain, February 2024
Source: Time Use Survey from the Office for National Statistics
Notes:
- Participants were asked “During this day, roughly how productive were you?” and provided with the response categories included in the chart. A definition of productivity was not provided to participants.
Download this chart Figure 2: On average, around 85% of public sector workers perceive themselves to be at least 80% productive
Image .csv .xlsOn average, around 85% of all public sector workers perceived themselves to be at least 80% productive, and almost half perceived themselves to be at least 90% productive, on the working day recorded in the online diary.
Figure 2 shows some variation by workforce sector, with the proportion of public sector workers perceiving themselves to be at least 80% productive, varying from 77% to 91% across the sectors.
Among respondents who reported undertaking a non-essential task within the day, the most common activities reported across all workforces were associated with the completion of tasks such as photocopying, data entry, arranging resources, booking appointments, emails, and attending meetings.
When considering administrative tasks specifically, (during the accompanying qualitative research with a subset of respondents), participants generally felt that most of their administrative responsibilities were essential and, in some cases, important for them specifically to complete.
I would say that some of it is necessary for accountability, as well, in recording sort of the good practice and the things that we do
[Yeah, so our documentation again, I know it is not great. But] we use it as a tool really to fall back on it because litigation is massive in maternity. If it's not documented, it didn't happen, basically. Our documentation has to be top notch, basically.
A small number of participants expressed that their administrative workload could contribute to feelings of pressure and stress at work, and in some instances could lower the quality of their performance for their core responsibilities, if limiting the time they can dedicate to them.
Where participants expressed concerns about their administrative workload, this generally stemmed from:
the volume of administrative tasks they were required to complete
tasks that provided little to no value for the amount of time involved, or that could be easily completed by someone more junior
systems and procedures making administration inefficient
We don't nurse anymore, we just input stuff into a computer. It's all about targets. [...] The higher up you go, the less you nurse [...] Obviously I'd like to spend less time working behind a computer, because it's not what I became a nurse for
In some cases, having to complete administrative tasks outside of working hours had a negative impact on work-life balance, and could have a negative impact on staff retention.
Participants felt some tasks could be completed by an administrative member of staff or someone more junior, however it was acknowledged that sector-specific knowledge would still be required. When limitations to delegation were discussed, the main one being mentioned related to the availability of support staff.
We have really amazing admin staff but because they're always so busy [...] we now are encouraged to do that ourselves [...] not because they're not efficient [...] because there aren't enough of them.
A number of participants felt that obsolete IT systems and a lack of connection between systems was a barrier to more effective automation, with substantial differences in the degree of implementation across organisations.
A lot of extra work comes from needing to duplicate things that have already been done. A lot of that is from having multiple different computer systems that don't interact with each other. [...]
Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and automation at work was discussed as a possible improvement to the way administrative tasks are completed. Adoption varied substantially among participants, and often was dependent on individual knowledge and understanding within an area. However, participants across the sectors tended to respond favourably to the introduction of innovations relating to AI and automation. This was on the condition that there was a strong rationale and business case -- including weighing up the costs and benefits, and careful implementation and oversight, which considered the risks and limitations, such as data security, and whether working in this way would adequately meet service users' needs.
Participants felt that, used appropriately, automation and AI had the potential to improve public sector worker's efficiency, reduce stress, and overload, and allow them to work on more complex or "core" tasks (those tasks that are central to their roles). Popular use cases included AI reporting tools to summarise data, practitioner notes and long documents, AI chat bots that could provide simple information and signposting to employees or customers, automated messaging and case management systems, and generative AI tools that could produce reports, learning and training resources, such as images, case studies or quizzes.
Across sectors, participants talked about the importance of protecting some human-led activities and human-to-human interactions. This was especially important for tasks that required professional judgements and risk assessments, empathy, creativity and ingenuity. Participants also felt that it was important to avoid using automation or AI where the technology might make errors or might struggle to account for the complexities and nuances involved with carrying out tasks.
Back to table of contents5. Time use in the public sector data
Time use in the public sector
Dataset | Released 04 March 2024
Estimates of daily time spent by public sector workers on a range of activities. These are official statistics in development.
6. Glossary
Communication
Includes:
emails
phone or video calls
instant messaging
having a conversation
writing letters
creating or updating website
noticeboard or display boards
media or press duties
Court activity
Includes court duties.
Data processing
Includes data processing, data analysis, data science.
Meetings or events
Includes organising meetings, meeting administration; and attending a meeting or event.
Offender management
Includes:
offender-facing activities
other offender management activities
security checks and searches
Other general administration
Includes:
photocopying,
printing or scanning
recruitment-related administration
booking travel and accommodation
booking travel and accommodation
ordering supplies or equipment
finance-related activities; auditing
health and safety
postal or mailing duties
planning
Other healthcare
Includes:
treatment preparation
other healthcare activities
Other policing
Includes:
community activities or events
other policing and public order activities
Other public service duties
Includes:
military duties
other public service activities
social care activities
working directly with members of the public service users or customers
housing or welfare related activities
safeguarding
environmental or waste management activities
checking, testing, cleaning or replenishing equipment
Other work-related activities
Includes:
taking a work or lunch break
changing clothes
sleeping or resting during work time
waiting
other work activity
Patient management
Includes:
assessing patients
observing patients
treating patients
supporting patient care, for example, changing beds, bathing or feeding
writing prescriptions
Policing activity
Includes:
crime-related activities
patrolling
intelligence gathering
crime prevention activities
warrant executions
prison interviews and non-crime-related activities, for example, public safety and welfare
Project management
Includes:
writing or reviewing reports
planning
Records management
Includes:
storing, filing or managing documents
taking notes
creating or updating records databases, case files or similar documents
completing or processing forms
creating or updating an appointment or booking
data entry
recording medical notes
writing medical reports or treatment planning
reading, reviewing, or editing documentation or paperwork
non-offender-facing activities
Staff management
Includes:
staff management
staff-related administration
Student management
Includes:
teaching or assisting students in the classroom
supervising children outside of the classroom
preparing classroom lessons
preparing or delivering extra-curricular activities
registering attendance
reporting, assessing, or marking pupils' work
safeguarding and wider support for pupils
other teaching or education activities
Training and research
Includes:
conducting research
personal study
attending or completing a course
physical or practical training
delivering a training course
Travel
Includes travelling as part of paid work.
Artificial Intelligence
A form of automation with the potential to automate non-routine tasks and cognitive functions that we associate with human minds, such as perceiving, reasoning, learning, interacting with an environment, problem solving, and even exercising creativity, such as by generating text or images.
Automation
A set of technologies that can substitute routine, non-cognitive tasks or jobs (for example, the introduction of the telephone switchboard replacing switchboard operators, or accounting software).
Back to table of contents7. Measuring the data
This release contains data collected in the Office for National Statistics (ONS) pilot public service online Time Use Study (TUS), undertaken between 2 February and 12 February 2024 (inclusive). Participants were issued with eight diary days and asked to select any two days on which they worked. They then recorded the activities (both detailed work and high-level non-work activities) that they undertook during the whole 24-hour periods within an online diary tool. This included their main activities (in 10-minute periods) and up to five secondary activities (in 5-minute periods).
Estimates of the average daily time spent on different activities by the public sector as a whole and by selected sector workforces with accompanying 95% confidence intervals, are included in our accompanying dataset. Where comparisons are made between estimates, confidence intervals should be used to assess the statistical significance of the differences. Read more about confidence intervals and statistical significance in our Uncertainty and how we measure it for our surveys web page.
Sampling and response
The pilot survey sampled 4,774 individuals living in Great Britain who had responded to the Opinions and Lifestyle Survey in the past year and indicated that they were working in a public sector role or organisation (and had agreed to be recontacted to participate in further Office for National Statistics (ONS) research), or who volunteered to take part following an invitation through their employer or workplace. In total, 1,915 individuals (40.1%) responded and submitted 3,005 diaries of sufficient quality, which have been used to produce the estimates in this release.
Weighting
Prior to weighting, the quality of diaries was assessed according to the amount of time and number of activities recorded, and by the duration of work activities recorded.
The Annual Population Survey (October 2022 to September 2023) was used to weight the diaries to the public sector population. Individual diaries were calibrated with calibration controls applied for age and sex groups, geographical regions, workforce sector and gross annual pay. Calibration controls were not applied for working patterns, and therefore, average daily time cannot be aggregated to provide weekly or annual time spent on activities.
Qualitative fieldwork
Two stages of qualitative research were conducted. The first stage was undertaken by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) to inform the design of the TUS, and cognitive test it. This stage took place between November 2023 and January 2024 and included 10 structured interviews, three focus groups and seven cognitive interviews, with participants across education, health, public safety and social security, recruited through purposive sampling.
| Health | Education | Public Safety (11) Social Security (1) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Focus Groups | 4 | 5 | 6 |
| Interviews | 6 | 5 | 6 |
| Total | 10 | 10 | 12 |
Download this table Table 1: Stage 1 Qualitative Sample
.xls .csvThe second stage of qualitative research was commissioned by the ONS, and led by the National Centre for Social Research (NatCen) to complement the TUS, by capturing a deeper and richer understanding of the tasks that public sector workers complete as part of their work, including administrative tasks, as well as facilitators and barriers to improving productivity.
Participants were recruited from a sample of 300 TUS respondents who previously took part in the Opinions and Lifestyle Survey and had agreed to be invited to take part in third-party research. A purposive sampling approach was adopted for recruitment, which involved aiming for a mix in terms of age, gender, and a balance across the four targeted sectors. The secondary characteristics and criteria we monitored for were length of service and region of the country.
Interviews and focus groups took place online between 7 and 20 February 2024, supported by structured topic guides and the use of definitions and vignettes provided to participants for concepts such as automation and Artificial Intelligence. Interviews were recorded and transcribed to facilitate the qualitative analysis.
Qualitative research involves in-depth investigation of a topic with a small number of participants recruited through purposive sampling to cover a range of individual characteristics. Therefore, qualitative findings are not aimed at being representative of an entire population; instead, they provide a richer exploration of a topic from the perspective and lived experiences of those directly involved in a phenomenon.
Stage 2 focus groups sample
A group of 18 participants attended three focus groups. The table below describes participants' demographic characteristics and roles.
| Education (6) | Health (7) | Social security (4) Public safety (1) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sex | |||
| Male | 1 | 2 | 4 |
| Female | 5 | 5 | 1 |
Download this table Table 2: Focus group participants’ demographic characteristics and roles (n = 18)
.xls .csvStage 2 interviews sample
20 interviews were carried out. The table below described participants' demographic characteristics and roles.
| Education (5) | Health (6) | Social security (4) | Public safety (5) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sex | ||||
| Male | 3 | 1 | 2 | 1 |
| Female | 2 | 5 | 2 | 4 |
Download this table Table 3: Interview participants’ demographic characteristics and roles (n = 20)
.xls .csv9. Cite this statistical bulletin
Office for National Statistics (ONS), released 01 March 2024, ONS website, statistical bulletin, Time use in the public sector, Great Britain: February 2024