Introduction

The No One Left Behind: Statistical Summary (Opens in a new window) is our quarterly statistical report, in which we focus on the No One Left Behind strategic approach to employability delivery in Scotland. It covers the period April 2019, when No One Left Behind was first implemented, up until the most recent quarter for which statistics are available. 

As official statistics in development, we are continually reviewing our methodology and engaging with users to ensure our publication meets the Code of Practice for Statistics (Opens in a new window) standards of trustworthiness, quality and value. This is important on the journey towards these statistics becoming official statistics. We have identified participants entering and sustaining employment as key indicators, gaining interest from both internal and external stakeholders. In line with the Code of Practice for Statistics standards, we have carried out a deep dive to ensure our publication provides a clear picture on how those entering employment are progressing

This paper sets out the methodology we currently use to calculate and present the statistics for No One Left Behind participants that enter employment, and those that are still in employment at set follow-up points. Employment is defined as anybody that carries out at least one hour’s paid work in a week or is temporarily away from a job (e.g. on holiday). Follow-ups are carried out at 4, 13, 26 and 52-week intervals. 

In this paper, we detail the challenges of our current approach to reporting on progression and propose areas of improvement. The goal of this exercise is to improve our statistical output, ensuring it most accurately reflects the progression of participants. 

The first changes to our methodology will be May 2025, with further improvements anticipated later down the line. As official statistics in development, our publication is regulated by the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR). We carefully consider any changes to our methodology, and we will only implement such changes if we are confident of the quality of our data and the robustness of the results.

It is important to note that employability services are about more than getting people into any job at any cost and No One Left Behind differs from other employability support programmes such as Fair Start Scotland and those offered by DWP in important ways that mean comparisons are not appropriate. 

No One Left Behind support is offered on an individual need's basis, meaning support varies significantly in intensity, frequency and levels of disengagement / reengagement. While participants can disengage and reengage, there is no set definition at which point a participant is officially considered disengaged, with local areas applying their own approach to this. This means unlike other support offers, there is no set support period before outcomes are measured. Please note that participants retain their original start date within the dataset and there is currently no method to report on how often participants may disengage / reengage.

There are also a wider range of positive outcomes participants can achieve as not all are ready for employment, such as entering further or higher education or training, gaining a qualification, starting work experience opportunities, volunteering and re-engaging with school. These are important points on a participant’s journey towards eventual employment. The quarterly report includes statistics on these other positive outcomes in addition to employment outcomes. The initial changes to the progression methodology, however, are focused on employment as our current priority given the high levels of interest surrounding these statistics. We are intending to make similar improvements to the statistics surrounding other positive outcomes in the future.