About Advice Direct Scotland
What is Advice Direct Scotland?
Advice Direct Scotland is a Scottish charity (SC034473) that provides free, practical advice to Scottish citizens across a range of life areas. From the about page: "advice.scot is an advice hub. All of the services we provide are completely free. We offer a genuine multimedia service. Our aim is to help customers using the access channel of their choice."
Advice Direct Scotland operates a family of online identities: advice.scot (general advice — benefits, employment, housing, neighbourhood disputes, family and relationships), moneyadvice.scot (debt advice, FCA-authorised), consumeradvice.scot (in partnership with the Scottish Government and Trading Standards Scotland), postaladvice.scot (Royal Mail and postal complaints), energyadvice.scot (energy supplier and bill issues), homeheatingadvice.scot (Home Heating Support Fund delivery in partnership with the Scottish Government), and socialenterprisedirect.org.uk (an accredited SQA Training Centre). British Sign Language users can access the service via contactSCOTLAND-BSL.
After twelve years of operation, the charity has accrued 32 awards & honours. Phone service hours are Monday to Friday, 9am–5pm.
Where will I work?
The Registered Office is at Mercantile Chambers, 39–69 Bothwell Street, Glasgow G2 6TS. Per external reporting on the 4DW rollout the charity also operates a contact centre in Stornoway. The charity describes its working arrangements as flexible with the option to work remotely combined with the reduced-hours schedule (DB remote_level: hybrid).
What is the Advice Direct Scotland team like?
Around 30 people work across the charity's family of services. The team operates as a single 5-day-public-service organisation — even though every individual works 4 days, the days are rotated so that customer phone lines run Monday–Friday, 9am–5pm. The charity holds itself out as Scotland's early-adopter 4DW employer.
Work-Life Balance
From the charity's own dedicated 4-day-week page at advicedirect.scot/4-day-week/: "In 2018, ADS led the way in innovative working practices by implementing the four-day working week, and has seen measurable benefits throughout the years since." The model is full-pay-for-reduced-time: "the four-day working week ensures that employees are paid the same weekly amount as they would be were they working five days a week."
Measured results disclosed by the charity on its own 4DW page: "employee absence was greatly reduced, decreasing by 71% between 2017 and 2019," "the employee average number of absent days was reduced by 55%," and "the rate of employees leaving the company dropped by a third during this time."
The charity also notes (citing external study): "the work/life balance of employees improved by 34% during the first four weeks alone."
Critically — the days off are rotated, not synchronised: the model "ensures that a five-day service is still delivered by adjusting schedules" so customers see no service degradation.
Perks and Benefits
- 4-day working week since 2018 — same pay, rotated days off to preserve a 5-day public service
- 24 days annual leave + UK public holidays
- Flexible work arrangements with the option to work remotely
- Scottish charity — work directly on the public-good mission for Scottish citizens