Main Points

This report presents statistics for the No One Left Behind strategic approach to employability delivery in Scotland. Statistics are presented to the most recent quarter of October to December 2024.

• There can be a delay between participant’s starting to receive No One Left Behind support and this being reported to the Scottish Government while the process of verifying eligibility takes place. This means participants starting in earlier quarters may not be reported until future publications. Therefore, data for the most recent quarters is provisional.  

• Official statistics in development for No One Left Behind show a total of 79,196 people started receiving support from April 2019 to December 2024. The number of people starting to receive support has increased each year from 2,653 in 2019/20 to 22,205 in 2023/24.

• In the most recent quarter, quarter 3 of year 6, 4,904 people started to receive support through No One Left Behind. This was a 19% decrease on the previous quarter and a 9% decrease on the same quarter in the previous year.

• In the most recent quarter, 1,877 (38%) participants reported having no or limited work experience, 1,078 (22%)  reported transport and 882 (18%) reported childcare as barriers to entering employment.

• Overall, most participants were unemployed when starting to receive support on No One Left Behind 46,041 (58%), while 9,492 (12%) of participants were in employment. A further 15,580  (20%) of participants were economically inactive when starting to receive support on No One Left Behind.

• There has been at least 56,473 positive outcomes achieved by the 79,196 people supported under the No One Left Behind approach between April 2019 and December 2024, including 24,361 people (31%) entering employment and a further 10,759 (14%) entered further or higher education or training.