Fair Start Scotland Evaluation Report - Year 6: Phone Survey with Service Participants - March 2026
Research report detailing findings from the fifth Wave of a phone survey undertaken to capture the experiences of Fair Start Scotland (FSS) participants. The report is one element of an evaluation programme of FSS, and focuses on evaluating Year 6 (April 2023-March 2024) of FSS delivery
Chapter One: Introduction
Background to Fair Start Scotland
Under the Scotland Act (2016), the Scottish Government has legislative responsibility to ensure appropriate employment support and measures are in place for disabled people, and those at risk of long-term unemployment who are claiming reserved benefits.
Fair Start Scotland (FSS) launched in April 2018 and continued to take new referrals until March 2024. The service continues to provide employability support to those who already started on the service. Delivery of Scotland’s devolved employability obligations is now met through the No One Left Behind approach.
FSS is underpinned by the following principles:
- delivery of a flexible ‘whole person’ approach
- services that are responsive to those with high needs
- a drive towards real jobs
- services designed and delivered in partnership
- services designed nationally but adapted and delivered locally
- contracts that combine payment by job outcome and progression towards work
Delivery of FSS has been contracted out by the Scottish Government to service providers over nine geographical Lots across Scotland[10]. Over the course of its lifetime, there were 104,208 referrals to the service, with 70,513 people receiving support[11]. During the time period covered by the Wave 5 survey (October 2023 to March 2024), there were 12,910 starts.
Since the start of Year 4 (April 2021–March 2022) of FSS, and in order to drive service improvement, a number of changes to delivery were introduced, including allowing those who had previously taken part to re-join the service. Individuals have also been able to pause their participation in FSS and then resume their journey with no loss to the balance of time. Other changes starting from April 2022 included allowing those undertaking a part-time education course (including ESOL-English for Speakers of Other Languages) to take part in the service, and a move to a hybrid delivery model, enabling a mix of online and in-person support (following the use of remote delivery of the service during the Covid-19 related restrictions).
As part of the ongoing evaluation of FSS, a telephone survey with FSS participants has been undertaken in each Wave over the period 2019 to 2024. In 2025, a further Wave of telephone survey research was commissioned to capture Year 6 of FSS.
The aim of the survey is to provide a representative picture of how participants are experiencing FSS and the outcomes they achieve. The research was designed to enhance the Scottish Government’s current understanding of what works in employment support for individuals and ultimately to apply continuous improvement of policy and service delivery. This includes a particular focus on the views of individuals who face multiple and complex barriers to employment, and the views of those from families at highest risk of being affected by child poverty. As Fair Start Scotland is no longer taking new referrals, findings will contribute to the continuous improvement of employability services in Scotland, currently delivered under the No One Left Behind approach.