Main Points

This report presents statistics for Scotland’s Devolved Employment Services including Fair Start Scotland and No One Left Behind. Statistics are presented to the most recent quarter of July to September 2023.

• There have been 111,105 starts on either Fair Start Scotland (FSS) or No One Left Behind since April 2018 up to September 2023. In the most recent quarter, July to September 2023, there were 6,967 starts. This was a 5% decrease on the previous quarter and a 6% decrease on the same quarter in the previous year.

• Official statistics in development for No One Left Behind show a total of 47,342 people started receiving support from April 2019 to September 2023. The number of people starting to receive support has increased each year from 2,711 in year 1 (2019/20) to 17,367 in year 4 (2022/23).

• In the most recent quarter, quarter 2 of year 5, 3,968 people started to receive support through No One Left Behind. This was a 5% decrease on the previous quarter and a 13% decrease on the same quarter in the previous year.

• Of the 47,342 people receiving support on No One Left Behind, 14,822 (31%) have entered employment, while a further 7,301 (15%) entered further or higher education or training.

• There have been 63,763 starts to FSS since April 2018, including 5,615 re-joins which has been possible since April 2021. There were 2,999 starts in the most recent quarter, 5% lower than the previous quarter but 5% higher than the same quarter in 2022.

• For FSS, there were 1,256 job starts this quarter, 8% lower than the previous quarter but 3% higher than the same quarter in 2022. Overall, there has been 22,659 job starts since FSS launched.