No One Left Behind: user experience research

1. Background and methods

About No One Left Behind

No One Left Behind aims to support people in Scotland into sustainable employment, with a particular focus on those who face the greatest barriers. Its mission is:

“To deliver an employability system that tackles inequalities in Scotland’s labour market, creating a responsive and aligned approach that helps people of all ages who face the greatest barriers to progress towards, into and to sustain work.” (No One Left Behind: employability strategic plan 2024 to 2027)

The implementation of No One Left Behind in 2019 represented a strategic shift to a place‑based model of devolved employability support, replacing multiple nationally contracted programmes with a single, locally delivered offer that empowers Local Employability Partnerships (LEPs) to lead the design, commissioning and delivery of services tailored to local contexts and labour market needs. Each local authority in Scotland is therefore responsible for working with partners to plan and commission provision of local employability services, to meet local needs. However, No One Left Behind-funded services are expected to reflect its core principles, as set out in the No One Left Behind Strategic Plan 2024–2027. These principles include:

• The provision of flexible and person-centred support, supporting people into the right job at the right time
• Making services more straightforward to navigate, ensuring they are better integrated and aligned with other services and ultimately providing clear pathways into sustainable and fair work
• Being driven by evidence, including data and the experience of participants.

There are also minimum expectations for user experience and dignity assured by the Customer Charter and Employability Service Standards, which include services working for users, treating people with dignity and respect, learning and improving, and placing partnership at their heart.

The role of evidence in No One Left Behind

Monitoring and evaluation are built into the core principles of No One Left Behind in terms of measuring its impact and driving continuous improvement. The Employability Shared Measurement Framework (SMF) is at the centre of these activities, aiming to create shared understanding of how the reach and impact of employability services are measured. A key element of this is the regular series of statistics on No One Left Behind reach and progression published by the Scottish Government which provide detailed data on No One Left Behind service users, the barriers they face, and their progression since accessing support. A National Implementation Evaluation, conducted by Ipsos in 2023, explored how effectively No One Left Behind had been implemented, the experiences of service providers and service users, and lessons from early delivery.

The implementation evaluation and the Shared Measurement Framework both identified gaps in evidence around a more detailed understanding of user experience, particularly for those groups who may face additional barriers. Ipsos was commissioned by the Scottish Government to conduct this research to help fill these gaps, inform continuous improvements, and provide a better understanding of whether the ambitions of No One Left Behind, to provide flexible, person-centred support, are being realised in practice.

Research aims

The overall aim of this research was to provide timely, robust insights into service user experiences. The core research questions were:

• How are users accessing services?
• What motivates users to access and persist with services?
• What specific support are users receiving as part of the service?
• To what extent are services being delivered in line with expected No One Left Behind standards, in the experience of users and providers?
• To what extent do users disengage from services, and what are the reasons for this?

The research had an explicit focus on understanding the experiences of three priority groups who may face additional barriers to accessing employment: parents; disabled people; and people from minority ethnic backgrounds. No One Left Behind statistics indicate that each of these groups is less likely than average to have entered employment since receiving support, and where they have entered employment, it has taken longer.^[1] This research seeks to better understand how these groups’ experience of employability support may differ, to identify opportunities to better tailor support, as well as any examples of good practice.

Summary of approach

This research included two main elements: a survey of 1,041 No One Left Behind service users and 36 in-depth qualitative interviews with service users who were parents, disabled people, or from a minority ethnic background. The following definitions were used to identify these groups in this research:

• Parents: parents or carers with shared or sole responsibility for looking after a child under 16 years old^[2]
• Disabled people: people who have a physical or mental health condition or illness expected to last 12 months or more, which reduces their ability to carry out day-to-day activities (either a little, or a lot)
• People from a minority ethnic background: people from the following ethnic groups – Asian, Scottish Asian or British Asian; African, Scottish African or British African; Caribbean or Black; Mixed or multiple ethnic groups; or who identify as being from any ‘other’ ethnic group other than ‘White’.

Survey of service users

A sample of service users was provided to Ipsos by the Scottish Government, who collated this sample from local authorities. It included service users whose first contact with No One Left Behind funded support was recorded as having taken place roughly 6-18 months prior to the planned fieldwork dates. This time frame was agreed to ensure that they had enough experience of support to provide informed feedback, and that this feedback reflected relatively recent experiences of support (rather than support provided when No One Left Behind was in its infancy). The sample was stratified to ensure it was broadly reflective of the profile of No One Left Behind service users, with numbers of respondents from minority ethnic backgrounds boosted to enable more robust sub-group analysis.

No One Left Behind service users can opt to be contacted by services by phone, email or post. The survey therefore took a multi-mode approach to inviting people to participate, depending on contact preferences, with invites sent by email, text message, or (for a small number of cases) letter. The text used for these invites is included in Annex B. The survey was online, but invitations included a freephone telephone helpline that people could contact if they needed any help participating or preferred to take part by phone.

Survey questions were designed to address the research questions, and covered topics including:

• How respondents heard about employment support
• Barriers they were facing to accessing employment, education or training
• Ease or difficulty of accessing support
• Reasons for continuing with or discontinuing support
• Views on whether the support met various No One Left Behind service standards (e.g. whether they felt treated with dignity and respect, whether support was flexible, and whether it was tailored to them)
• Satisfaction with support and suggestions for improvement.

It also collected demographic information and asked about their economic activity when they first contacted support services and at the time the survey took place. It is important to note that the name ‘No One Left Behind’ was not used in the questionnaire (or qualitative topic guide), in recognition of the fact that local services funded through No One Left Behind may not include this in their name, so service users may not think of services as ‘No One Left Behind’. Rather, respondents were asked about ‘Employment support services’, with a definition including in the survey and topic guide to explain that the focus is on local services, and not those they may have been provided through Jobcentre Plus. The full questionnaire is included in Annex C.

The survey was open from mid-January to mid-March 2026.^[3] A total of 1,041 No One Left Behind service users took part (an overall response rate of 9.6%). Participating respondents were offered a £5 shopping voucher to thank them for taking part.

Once fieldwork closed, data from open questions was coded, the data was weighted, and tables produced for analysis. Weighting was intended to ensure the overall profile matched that of eligible No One Left Behind service users in terms of gender, age, ethnicity, disability and parental status. Weighting adjusted for the under-representation of service users under 25, as noted below. Further technical details on the sample (including sample profile) and weighting design are included in Annex A.

Qualitative research

Participants for qualitative interviews were recruited from respondents who had consented to be recontacted at the end of the survey. Participants were approached by the Ipsos research team, by email or phone, to ask if they would be willing to take part in a longer, more in-depth discussion about their experiences. Interviews took place via video or phone call, depending on respondent preferences, at a time to suit them. Translators were arranged for two respondents who had English as a second language.

The interviews deliberately focused on No One Left Behind service users from the three main priority groups that were the focus of this research: parents, disabled people, and people from minority ethnic backgrounds. As these are not mutually exclusive, participants sometimes fell into more than one of these groups – for example, we interviewed disabled parents, and parents from minority ethnic backgrounds. Participants were recruited from across 18 different local authorities, including both urban, rural and more mixed authorities, to ensure they reflected a spread of views from across Scotland.

Table 1.1 shows the overall numbers and characteristics of qualitative research participants. As there was strong interest in identifying areas for improvement, the researchers also tried to recruit more people who were less satisfied with the support they had received. As discussed in chapter 3, overall 77% of respondents were very or fairly satisfied with the support they had received, but this figure was lower (around 6 in 10) among qualitative participants. We also aimed to recruit some participants who had disengaged for reasons other than having achieved the outcome that they wanted, and a mix of people who were and were not employed at the time they took part in the survey.

Ipsos researchers interviewed people one-to-one, using a flexible topic guide agreed with the Scottish Government to ensure key areas were covered (see Annex C). Participants were sent a £35 shopping voucher to thank them for their time.

Interviews were audio recorded and transcribed for subsequent analysis, starting with summarising interviews into a thematic grid. Further analysis focused on identifying the range of views expressed, and any patterns or themes in the experiences of the three priority groups.

Service user advice on research design

Questionnaires and topic guides were drafted by Ipsos, in close consultation with the Scottish Government Research Advisory Group. Ipsos and the Scottish Government also sought feedback on draft materials from four existing local No One Left Behind lived experience panels (groups of employability service users). Feedback from these sessions, which was incorporated in final drafts, included:

• Suggestions to expand the explanation of what is meant by ‘employment support services’ when introducing the research
• Adding ‘health and wellbeing’ to answer options around support needs/issues faced
• The importance of capturing what can be improved
• Providing greater clarity around why some questions are being asked, and greater reassurances around confidentiality and the fact that taking part will not impact on benefits, which was a significant concern for disabled service users, in particular.

Lived experience panels also provided additional reflections on the draft findings and recommendations, which have informed this final report.

Scope and limitations

All research has limitations. It is important to be clear about these upfront and to reflect on any implications for how findings should be interpreted and used. Known limitations to this research include:

• Geographic coverage of the survey. All local authorities were asked to provide sample to enable service users to be invited to take part, with 29 out of 32 able to do so within the research timeframe. Responses were received from service users in all 29 of the local authorities provided sample, reflecting the experience of service users in most areas of the country.^[4] However, as three local authorities were unable to provide sample, the findings are not completely reflective of the whole of Scotland. Given the small number of respondents from each local authority, it is not appropriate to analyse the data at local authority level. The sample should be considered a snapshot of experiences of No One Left Behind among users across most of Scotland.
• Diversity within provision. No One Left Behind provides funding for local areas to commission employability support that meets their specific local needs. As such, as discussed above, the range and nature or provision varies significantly both between and within local authorities. This means that variability of experience may relate to differences between local authorities or between providers within local authorities. However, as noted above, the sample size for this research means that it is not possible to analyse difference by local authority, or within individual local authorities.
• Response rate. The overall response rate for the survey was 9.6%. This was within the expected range, given the fact that respondents were receiving invites from an external organisation, primarily by email or text (given respondent preferences), which can be easy to ignore. However, it is a relatively low response rate. While the sample has been weighted to reflect the characteristics of all No One Left Behind service users recorded as accessing services for the first time in the relevant time period, is possible that the profile of those who did and did not respond differs in other ways, that are not corrected for by this weighting. For example, it may be that those have had either a particularly positive, or a particularly negative experience are more motivated to respond than those whose experience was more average. In addition, contact details were only available for those who had registered for support. Experiences of those who enquired about support, but decided not to register, are not included.
• Younger people (under 25 years old) were less likely to take part in both the survey and the qualitative research. Lower response rates among the youngest age groups are a common challenge across survey research.^[5] This is partially corrected for via weighting the survey. However, the researchers had hoped to include more under 25 year-olds in the qualitative research, but experienced a higher rate of broken appointments with this age group. At the same time, although there are relatively few participants in the very youngest age group, the qualitative research did include people across a wide range of age groups, as indicated in Table 1.1.
• Diversity within different sub-groups. As discussed, this research focused particularly on the experiences of three sub-groups that experience particular barriers in relation to employment – parents, disabled people, and those from minority ethnic backgrounds. While the research design enables insight into how the experiences of people within these broad groups differ (or not) from the wider population of No One Left Behind service users, these are not homogenous groups. Disabled people, for example, may have very different experiences in the labour market depending on the nature of their disability, where in Scotland they live, their family circumstances and support networks, etc. Similarly, recruitment to the research did not distinguish between people from minority ethnic backgrounds who grew up in the UK and more recent migrants. Findings for this group reflect a range of different backgrounds and experiences and may not be equally generalisable to all. Sample sizes within the survey and qualitative research precluded detailed analysis of diversity within sub-groups, but this does not imply that this diversity is not important in shaping experiences of support.

While this research provides insights into the specific experiences of employability support among people in these groups, it is impossible for the full diversity of disability, ethnicity and parenthood to be reflected within a single research project.

• Collecting feedback specific to No One Left Behind. No One Left Behind is the Scottish Government’s name for its approach to funding local employability support. However, it is not typically a name that is used locally or that would be recognised by service users. Given this, the survey and qualitative interview topic guide did not refer to ‘No One Left Behind’, but instead talked about ‘local employment support services’. However, it is important to note that people accessing support funded through No One Left Behind may also be accessing support funded in other ways (for example, through another local authority funding stream or by the third sector). The survey and qualitative topic guide explicitly distinguished local employability support from support provided by DWP through the Jobcentre, but it remains possible that people may have included other support, not funded through No One Left Behind, when providing feedback.

Report structure and conventions

The remainder of this report is structured as follows:

• Chapter 2 describes how service users heard about employability support services and what motivated them to access support.
• Chapter 3 discusses service users’ experiences of employability support services. It explores the types of employability support received, and the extent to which service users felt that services were being delivered in line with expected Employability Service Standards.
• Chapter 4 focuses on reasons for service users’ continued engagement or disengagement with employability support. It also discusses perceived outcomes and impacts from support, as well as service users’ suggestions for improvement.
• Chapter 5 provides recommendations based on the findings and highlights areas for further research or consideration.

Findings are discussed thematically within each chapter, with qualitative findings used to expand and provider deeper insights into the survey findings. Unless otherwise stated, reported differences between sub-groups in the survey are statistically significant at the 95% level. Responses may not always sum to 100%, either because respondents could choose multiple answers, or due to rounding.

Qualitative findings are not intended to be statistically representative but rather to explore the diversity and range of experiences. As such, quantifiable terms such as ‘all’, ‘most’ a few’ and so on are avoided as far as possible when presenting findings from the qualitative interviews. Quotes are included where appropriate to show how participants described particular issues, while a number of short ‘pen portraits’ are also included to illustrate participants experiences in more detail. These are anonymised (names are pseudonyms and potentially identifying details have been removed or modified).