Implementation of the Scotland Act 2016: ninth annual report

8. Employability

The Scotland Act 2016 gave Scottish Ministers the powers to deliver employability support that helps disabled people or those at risk of long-term employment to seek, obtain and retain employment, where the assistance is for at least a year.

Costs

2024-25 Developments

91. Referrals to Fair Start Scotland ended on 31 March 2024. Those participants who remain on the service at that point will continue to receive the full employability support it delivers, including up to 18 months pre-employment support and 12 months in work support. In their December 2024 forecasts, the Scottish Fiscal Commission changed their approach for Employability Services, including spending on Fair Start Scotland and elements of No One Left Behind that fall within their remit^[23]. They estimated that around 60 per cent of the Employability budget falls under their remit for 2024-25. This change does not result in additional spending by the Scottish Government but reflects an increase in forecasting scope consistent with the Scotland Act 2016 for 2024-25.

92. Scottish Ministers remain committed to supporting the delivery and continuous improvement of devolved employability services for those experiencing structural barriers to entering employment, which includes the cohorts set out in the Scotland Act 2016. Devolved employability support is now delivered solely through the No One Left Behind approach, which covers all five stages of the employability pathway^[24], from referral and engagement, through to in work support and aftercare.

93. On 13 September 2024, we published our strategic plan for devolved employability services, which outlines our actions to deliver key priorities such as raising awareness of employability support, increasing parental income to tackle child poverty and supporting those with long-term health conditions over the three-year period to 2027^[25]. Further, work is also underway on our Programme for Government commitment to implement Specialist Employability Support for disabled people and people with long term health conditions across all 32 local authorities by Summer 2025. This activity will enhance provision for disabled people already available through No One Left Behind, with the aim of ensuring that more disabled people and those with long-term health conditions can access and sustain secure, fair work.

94. We have continued to regularly publish official statistics releases on Fair Start Scotland service performance, alongside independent evaluation reports. The latest statistics release on Fair Start Scotland^[26], covering the period from launch (April 2018) to end September 2024, shows that there were 70,513 starts and 26,565 job starts. Similarly, the latest statistics release on No One Left Behind^[27], covering the period April 2019 to September 2024, shows that 73,470 people started receiving support, with 22,782 (31%) people having entered employment and a further 10,519 (14%) entering further or higher education or training.

Future Plans

95. Reaching those who are economically inactive remains a priority and work is underway to increase reach and awareness of our services, including with Social Security Scotland, Justice, Childcare, Carers as well as supporting the review of the skills landscape in Scotland.

96. The Strategic Plan sets out a commitment to refresh the Shared Measurement Framework^[28] to improve ease of use and ensure a clearer focus on the wider impact of our support. Further, we are committed to improving reporting on progress and the wider support provided to individuals on their journey towards positive outcomes, particularly for those further from the labour market. We are committed to continuous improvement, and to support this, we are developing a programme of evaluation which will run over several years to add to our evidence base of what is working, and where further improvements may be required across devolved employability services. This will build on previous evaluations of Fair Start Scotland^[29], and on the implementation evaluation conducted for No One Left Behind in 2022^[30].