Publication - Corporate report

Fair Start Scotland - annual report: year one

Published: 6 November 2019
Part of: Work and skills
ISBN: 9781839602917

Sets out the impact Fair Start Scotland, our first devolved employability service, has made in the first year of delivery.

Supporting documents

2. Story of year one

Highlights

This report highlights the progress Fair Start Scotland has made in its first year of delivery. It outlines the impact on participants across Scotland. It demonstrates the way it is helping employers to adopt new ways of working to support people get the jobs they want. It outlines some of the different ways that Fair Start Scotland is making a difference in local communities. It also outlines some of the early challenges the service has experienced in supporting people towards and into work.

Key figures
A total of 17,616 referrals were made to Fair Start Scotland in its first year of delivery. Of those, over half (58%) subsequently chose to participate.^[1]	A total of the 10,063 people joined the service during the same period.	2,013 participants started a job after joining.	898 of those who started a job sustained employment for at least 13 weeks.	418 sustained employment for at least 26 weeks.
Who is using Fair Start Scotland		People who have not joined
More males (65%) than females (35%) achieved 13 week and 26 week job outcomes. This reflects the profile of people joining the service (64% male, 35% female).	64% of those joining Fair Start Scotland reported having a long-term health condition.	4% of people joining Fair Start Scotland reported being from minority ethnic groups.	2,838 participants (28%) left Fair Start Scotland services early in the first year of delivery.	The most common reason for early departure was “disengaging with the service”, with two thirds of participants leaving for this reason (66%). Just under one in ten participants left for health reasons (8.5%), and 3.7% left for other reasons (such as being detained in custody or experiencing financial issues).
What people think of Fair Start Scotland
94% of people understand the service is voluntary	92% of people feel they were treated with dignity and respect	89% of people thought it was easy to engage with Fair Start Scotland