National Strategy for Economic Transformation: third annual report

Evaluation of the Strategy

We have established regular monitoring of our progress against delivery of NSET and tracking of success measures which are outlined in the following chapter. In addition to this, we also undertake a range of bespoke evaluation activity to assess the impact of substantial activities within NSET.

Evaluations help to inform whether our actions are making a difference, but it is important to recognise that NSET is a 10-year strategy and therefore the evaluation work needs to be phased to reflect delivery. For a number of initiatives, it may be too soon to assess their impact although work is underway to implement evaluation plans.

In the last year we have commenced an assessment of value for money for our inward investment and export support, and employed innovative uses of commercial datasets to track, monitor and evaluate the performance of Scottish exporters and inward investors. These results will publish in 2026 and will be the first evaluation solely covering periods following the publication of our international strategies A Trading Nation and the Inward Investment Plan.

The evaluation of the Techscaler programme is now underway. As a long-term initiative, some of its key outcomes will take time to emerge in the data. This year, the evaluation made strong progress on the initial phase which is focused on learning from the delivery of Techscaler so far, with the aim of supporting ongoing improvements to the programme.

Evaluation activity is also underway for the Innovation Strategy, and we are publishing the second update to the Innovation Scorecard which uses a range of data to compare Scotland’s innovation performance to UK and global peers.

Our Employability Strategic Plan published in September 2024 set out our commitment to undertake a range of evaluation activity for No One Left Behind and Fair Start Scotland to inform the further development of our employability activities and evaluate their impact. Building on the implementation evaluation of No One Left Behind, which was published in 2023, we are working with partners to develop approaches for robustly evaluating the Scotland-level impact of No One Left Behind. We are also taking forward research to better understand the experiences of those supported through No One Left Behind, which will help influence future delivery of employability interventions and ensure the voice of lived experience informs continuous improvement at national and local levels.

Fair Start Scotland closed to new referrals in March 2024, and research is underway into the experiences of participants in Years 5 and 6 of the programme. This project is exploring the experiences of participants who received pre-employment and in-work support through Fair Start Scotland; whether services were delivered as intended; and assessing employment outcomes associated with taking part in the programme. The final phase of evaluation activity of Fair Start Scotland is currently being developed, and it is envisaged that a final evaluation will be undertaken once sufficient time has elapsed to allow for observation of outcomes associated with the programme.

Analytical activity in Fair Work is guided by the Fair Work Evidence Plan, which was published in early 2024. A key initiative is the evaluation of Fair Work First, which is being taken forward in consultation with the Fair Work Convention. This project will gather evidence on the implementation of Fair Work First conditionality in public sector grants and contracts and explore the impact on organisations and workers. The project is due to report during summer 2026 and will support future development of Fair Work policy. Work is continuing monitoring the impact of the Fair Work Action Plan, and progress against the Fair Work Evidence Plan is reported to the Fair Work Oversight Group.

Following on from the published evaluation of the £28.75 million Scottish 4G Infill Programme, an evaluation is underway of the £600 million+ R100 programme, which aims to bring faster broadband to thousands of homes and businesses across Scotland. Informed by the best practice set out in Scottish Government’s Digital Appraisal Manual for Scotland (DAMS), the evaluation of R100 has involved engaging with affected households and business across Scotland via surveys and focus groups to measure a wide range of impacts, in line with established DAMS criteria: environment & climate change, resilience, economy & wellbeing, integration & future proofing, and accessibility & inclusion. Publication of the evaluation report is anticipated by the end of 2025.