The latest staff survey results for the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator shows that confidence in management and vision at the regulator has depleted.

In the fourth annual report, undertaken as part of the Civil Service People Survey, OSCR staff reveal dramatic shifts of contentment in a number or areas relating to the management of the organisation.

The regulator performed worse than last year in 20 out of 25 statements relating to key drivers of engagement in an organisation, divided into 'leadership and managing change', 'my work' and 'my line manager'.

Relating to leadership at the organisation the results include a 20 per cent reduction (to 60 per cent) of staff that overall have confidence in the decisions made by OSCR's senior managers, and a 22 per cent drop in those who believe the board has a clear vision for the future of the organisation, just 48 per cent agreeing with the latter. Only 40 per cent agree that change is managed well at the organisation, down from 63 per cent last year.

Staff are also feeling less motivated than last year, with 17 per cent fewer believing either the regulator motivates them to help achieve its objectives (52 per cent) or that their manager is open to their ideas (69 per cent). Less than half of OSCR staff feel inspired to do the best in their job, the survey revealed.

In contrast motivation levels in the previous survey had increased significantly compared with the previous year, with a jump of 22 per cent in those who agreed that ‘OSCR motivates me to help it achieve its objectives’. This year 42 OSCR staff responded to the survey, compared to 36 last year.

Despite the overwhelming loss in these areas over the past year, the regulator is still performing over and above the average results for the wider civil service in most areas. 

A spokesman for OSCR said: "We’re naturally disappointed to see a reduction compared to last year’s results, but it’s important to keep a sense of proportion. Our scores remain very high – in fact we have the highest overall engagement level for Scottish government organisations. That said, we recognise that we are going through a period of internal change, and this is reflected in the scores. We’re working together to improve our results in these areas for next year."