Fair Work action plan: progress report September 2024 - April 2025

6. Headline action 4

6.1 Our Aims

We will work collaboratively to develop resources to support workers to access, remain and progress in fair work.

6.2 Delivery Overview

Action 4.3 (in progress) – publish and drive forward the actions of the No One Left Behind Strategic Plan 2024-27.

• An uplift of £5 million in 25/26 was budgeted to Local Employability Partnerships across Scotland to support the implementation of Specialist Employability Support across Scotland by summer 2025 so that more disabled people and those with long term health conditions can access fulfilling and suitable employment. This commitment was outlined in the Programme for Government and the No One Left Behind Strategic Plan 2024 - 2027.

Action 4.6 (in progress) – Public Health Scotland will collaborate with NHS Boards to develop the NHS Scotland contribution to fair and healthy work outcomes for people across Scotland.

• The Healthy Working Lives website has continued to grow and develop with the inclusion of information relating to retention and long-term conditions.
• Over the last 6 months ill health and absence sections on the website have had 5230 page views.
• The website offers improved access to the Working Health Services Scotland (WHSS) service, which provides free and confidential advice and health support for the self-employed and people working in companies with fewer than 250 employees. The extended opening hours for this service have proven successful, with 74% of the new pre 9 am slots and 89% of the post 5 pm slots having been filled.

6.3 Related actions across the Scottish Government

Digital (in progress) – include Fair Work throughout all aspects of the next iteration of Connecting Scotland.

• 39 two-year grant funded digital inclusion projects (device libraries, social housing projects and place-based projects) have been initiated with support from the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations as part of the latest iteration of Connecting Scotland. An interim Minimum Digital Living Standard report was published in March 2025.

Employability (in progress) – Improve outcomes and impacts for the six priority family groups through No One Left Behind

• The latest Devolved Employment Services: Statistical Summary which were published on 14 May 2025 for No One Left Behind show that between April 2020 and December 2024, 23,465 (31%) parents have started to receive support through our No One Left Behind approach. The number of parents has generally increased over time, reaching a high of 8,080 (36%) parents in the most recent full year (year 5 - 2023/24).

Health (in progress) – build mental health support into employability initiatives

• We have engaged directly with Local Employability Partnerships (LEPs) to gather evidence and seek their views on what further mental health support might be needed. Following feedback from partnerships, in October 2024 we delivered a workshop on mental health to all LEPs. Over 250 participants engaged in this event, which enabled us to hear directly from a wide range of partners and supported the sharing of practice between partnerships. We continue to build our evidence base to inform next steps.

Social Security (not on track) – target benefit take-up and maximisation of income

• The Scottish Government will invest at least £15m in debt, welfare and income maximisation advice services in 2025/26 which will support a range of organisations such as Citizens Advice Scotland, CPAG, One Parent Families Scotland and Advice Direct Scotland. This channels our support to the organisations who are best placed to offer personally tailored expert advice for individual clients, to ensure that Scottish households are supported to access the benefits they are entitled to, challenge benefit decisions and maximise their incomes.
• An updated Social Security Charter was published in February 2025.

Trauma-Informed Workplaces (in progress) – through the National Trauma Transformation Programme (NTTP) continue to raise awareness of the benefits of adopting trauma-informed and responsive approaches in the workplace.

• The NTTP is underpinned by a host of trauma training resources and implementation support. There has been a series of well attended national learning events, aimed at anyone with an interest in embedding a trauma-informed and responsive approach in their service or organisation. An online webinar in January 2025 (with over 560 attendees) focused on the Roadmap resource, sharing practical learning from the Scottish context around how a range of services and organisations are using the Roadmap to support them in their work.
• NHS Education for Scotland estimates that there have been around 2 million views of the short and accessible animations Opening Doors and Sowing Seeds and nearly 100,000 views of the four trauma-skilled e-modules with 89% of participants saying they would recommend the resources to a colleague and 74% indicating their intention to change how they work as a result of training.