Fair Start Scotland: evaluation report 4 - year 3 overview

6. Employability support

This chapter focuses on participant views and experiences of support received through FSS. It starts by describing participants' feedback on their experiences of pre-employment support and then moves onto describing feedback on in-work support. This chapter also describes the experiences of accessing support during the COVID-19 pandemic. Finally, this chapters talks about long- term experiences of support for those participants who joined the FSS service in the first and second year of delivery to see how perception of the impacts of FSS changed over time.

The chapters draws on several data sources including the telephone survey, the qualitative interviews with FSS participants and the case studies.

6.1 Pre-employment support

Telephone survey respondents were asked about which forms of pre-employment support they were offered as part of FSS. Figure 8 shows the different types of pre-employment support that Year 3 FSS participants reported they were offered, how many went on to take that support and of those who took up such support, how many found it useful.

As can be seen in Figure 8, the three types of pre-employment support that FSS participants took up most often were: a dedicated key worker or employability advisor (83% were offered and took up), one to one appointments with regular support and contact (75% were offered and took up) and help with job search activities and applications (68% were offered and took up).

Regarding the offer of specialist support for a health condition, 32% of Year 3 FSS participants reported that they had a mental health condition and nearly half of these participants (47%) said they were offered specialist support for their condition through the FSS service. 15% of Year 3 FSS participants had a physical health condition or a disability and of those, less than a quarter (24%) reported being offered specialist support for a physical health condition through the FSS service.

Participants' take up of the different types of pre-employment support remained broadly consistent across first, second and third year of service delivery. remained broadly consistent across first, second and third year of service delivery. The one exception was take up of a personalised Employment Action Plan, which reduced slightly in the third year of service delivery (82% of those who were offered this type of support took it up in the third year compared with 89% in the first and second year of FSS).

Source: Telephone survey, D5d: Were you offered the following support to help you remain move into work as part of the Fair Start Scotland service? D5e: Did you take up this support? Base: All 2020 cohort respondents (644). D6: On a scale of 1 extremely useful to 5 not at all useful, how useful would you say that each of the types of support your received were to you? Base: All who used the support type: one to one appointment (484), key worker (533), help with job search activities (441), Employment Action Plan (264), work tasters etc. (104), specialist support with mental health (74), specialist support with physical health (23), specialist support with an addiction (13), help managing finances (45)

Year 3 FSS participants were also asked how often they met with their key worker. Half of participants (50%) meet with their key worker about once a week and 27% meet about once every two weeks. Compared with the first and second year of service delivery the frequency with which participants met with their key worker has reduced slightly in the third year. For example, 50% of participants met with their key worker about once per week in Year 3 compared with 63% in Year 2 and 65% in year one. It is however highly likely that the frequency of meetings has reduced in the third year as a result of the switch to remote delivery of the service due to COVID-19 pandemic and an increased use of phone calls, text-messaging, emails and online meetings to provide support to FSS participants.

Figure 8 also shows the proportion of Year 3 FSS participants who found each type of pre-employment support useful, out of those who were offered this type of support and took it up. This shows that at least around three quarters of participants found each type of support useful. Help with addiction, specialist support for a physical health condition and help with managing finances or dealing with debt were found useful by the highest proportion of participants who took them up (89%, 83% and 88% respectively). It is however important to note that this was also the type of support offered to and taken up by the smallest proportion of FSS participants.

There was significant variation between demographic groups regarding how useful they found different types of support offered. Minority ethnic participants were less likely to find several types of support useful, compared to those who were not from minority ethnic groups, including in reference to having a dedicated key worker/employability adviser (65% compared with 80%), one to one appointments with regular support and contact (71% compared with 81%) and access to work tasters, work experience or apprenticeship opportunities (55% compared with 81%).

Those with a limiting health condition were less likely to find help with job search activities and applications useful compared to participants on average (76% compared with 81% on average). Female participants were more likely than male participants to find access to work tasters, work experience or apprenticeship opportunities useful (87% compared with 65%).

Telephone survey respondents were also asked an open text question about what part of the FSS support made the most difference to them. The most commonly mentioned types of support were help with CVs and application forms (21%), receiving one to one support (18%) and having regular contact or a consistent adviser (17%). Around one in ten participants also mentioned help with interviewing techniques (10%), job searches (10%), suitable job suggestions (9%) and confidence building exercises (8%).

FSS participants who took part in the qualitative interviews were asked about their experiences of support received through FSS and about things they liked and disliked about the service. Overall, interviewees spoke very positively about the support received. In particular, many interviewees highlighted the greatly beneficial role of general support and encouragement they received from their key worker in terms of building up confidence to start and then to keep up job searching activities, as well as practical advice on preparing a CV and job applications as well going through the recruitment process itself.

"The interaction with my [key worker] was good. Because when I told her that I had this interview on such and such a date. So one day prior we would have an online phone call and she would give me some tips or if I had any doubts she would try and help me. That was the major thing that I saw that was good [in the FSS support]. And she even after the interviews, she had a follow up and she wanted to know how did it go. '...did you feel comfortable?' 'What was the result?'"

- FSS Participant

Support regarding mental health provided by a key worker was also often mentioned by interviewees as a positive aspect of taking part in FSS.

"It was just very helpful that we had somebody to talk to because I felt really isolated because of my situation [of being unemployed] and because of lockdown." - FSS Participant

Other examples of pre-employment support positively rated by the interviews included financial support (e.g. to pay for a course to build skills in a chosen field, acquire appropriate clothes for a job interview, transportation costs), help with accessing food banks, help with housing and specialist help for those with convictions.

In one instance, issues around communication from the FSS provider and lack of contact from the key worker had an adverse effect on the experience of pre-employment support for the FSS participant.

"I actually had very little contact with my [key worker] for quite a while. No replies to email, and various other things. Recently it transpires that that particular [key worker] has left the company for some reason (…). And the new person (…), I've had very little contact from either. So I've been left particularly unimpressed for the last month or two."

- FSS Participant

Interviews conducted with FSS participants as part of case studies also provided insights into the experiences of pre-employment support. Some FSS participants in the third year described help they received to improve their confidence and technical ability to conduct interviews on Zoom which has become necessary as a result of the pandemic. Another participant had taken part in a Steps to Work programme at his local college which was certified on completion.

"They were instrumental in helping me to take part in an Introduction to IT security course – I wouldn't have done that before Fair Start."

- FSS Participant

Participants highly valued the tailored support that FSS offered them with many feeding back that it felt like it was delivered in a way to suit their individual needs.

"It was a longer course – it gave me more time to get things right, not rushed, really had time to work on my confidence."

- FSS Participant

6.2 In-work support

Respondents who were in work at the time of the telephone survey were asked about their views on the in-work support offered by FSS. Of those Year 3 FSS participants who were in work, 43% recall being offered any type of in-work support. The proportion of FSS participants who recall being offered any type of in-work support has decreased compared with second and first year of FSS where 57% (Year 2) and 67% (Year 1) of those in work recalled being offered any type of in-work support.

Of several types of in-work support offered, Year 3 FSS participants were most likely to take up support from a dedicated key worker (29% of all participants and 76% of those who were offered this type of support), one-to-one appointments with regular support and contact (25% of all participants and 73% of those who were offered this type of support) and monthly workplace reviews with their employer (10% of all participants and 69% of those who were offered this type of support).^[13]

As shown in Figure 9, satisfaction with different types of in-work support offered among those who were offered and took up the support ranged from 77% for the development of an In Work Support Action Plan to 100% for financial guidance.^[14]

Source: D11j: On a scale of 1 extremely useful to 5 not at all useful, how useful would you say that each of the types of support your received were to you? Base: All 2019 cohort who used the support type: key worker (63), one to one appointment (54), workplace inductions (15), In Work Support Action Plan (22), financial guidance (13), monthly reviews (22)

* Please note that results on the usefulness of support types have low bases sizes

FSS participants who took part in the qualitative interviews and who found employment while taking part in the FSS were asked about their experiences of in-work support received through FSS. Of these, many interviewees acknowledged that FSS providers stayed in touch with them, usually through regular phone calls once they were in work. A number of interviewees found the in-work support beneficial while others were neutral. Positives which were identified mainly included being able to contact the key worker about a range of queries they might have about the new job that they did not feel confident to raise directly in their workplace, as well as general encouragement and being able to talk about new experiences.

"Looking back, getting the job's probably the easiest part. Keeping the job is harder. Because you don't know where you're going and there is a....of like...of e-learning, I've never heard of e-learning before and I thought, what is this? So although you do get support through work as well for me it felt, I didn't want to come across as being stupid and ask questions. So I would text the person who helped me through [FSS] and say, 'What does this mean?' and she would phone me straightaway and just say, 'Don't panic, that's only what about A, B or C.'...I felt conf[ident] because I'd built up a relationship with her, I felt confident about not feeling stupid or her not making me feel stupid for asking questions."

-FSS participant

Another aspect of in-work support spoken about positively by interviewees was help received with covering costs of getting to and from work, for example by covering the costs of bus tickets in the first couple of weeks after starting a new job.

With regards to negative experiences with in-work support, one interviewee commented that they received regular phone calls from FSS provider but these were from different phone numbers and from different people each time who seemed to ask the same questions which the FSS participant disliked.

6.3 Accessing support during the COVID-19 pandemic

Year 3 FSS participants who took part in the telephone survey were asked about their experiences of accessing support during the periods when government guidelines restricted the ability to meet in-person. The telephone survey indicated that during those times, 90% of participants accessed support over the phone and 55% accessed support online via email, messaging and video conferencing. 2% accessed support through outdoor meetings and 6% did not access support during those times.

Telephone survey respondents were also asked if they experienced difficulties accessing support when the ability to meet in-person was restricted. 66% reported no difficulties in accessing support, while 17% reported not feeling comfortable using technology / video conferencing. Lack of access to the internet and lack of access to device/technology was reported by 12% of participants.

There were some differences in the likelihood of experiencing difficulties in accessing support during the time when government restrictions were in place for those who had a limiting health conditions. Specifically, participants with a limiting health condition were more likely to have difficulties accessing a device or technology to engage with support online compared to those with a non-limiting health condition or no health condition (17% compared to 8% and 9% respectively). Those with a health condition were also more likely to have felt uncomfortable using technology or video conferencing to access support than those with no health condition (24% compared to 10%).

6.4 Long term experiences of support

Some of the respondents who took part in the telephone survey carried out in the first and second year of FSS delivery were contacted again in the current telephone survey to identify any long term changes in barriers to work, impact of FSS on addressing those barriers and the effect of FSS on motivation to work.

Barriers to work reported by the first and second year FSS participants in the current telephone survey were similar to those reported in the earlier surveys. The three most commonly reported barriers in the current survey were:

• Not having the right qualifications, skills or experience (reported by 21% of the second year FSS participants and 15% of the first year FSS participants)
• Mental health condition making it difficult to carry out tasks at work' (reported by 14% of the second year FSS participants and 16% of the first year FSS participants)
• Physical health condition or a disability making it difficult to carry out tasks at work (reported by 13% of the second year FSS participants and 21% of the first year FSS participants)

In addition, 8% of second year FSS participants and 8% of first year FSS participants reported that the Covid-19 pandemic making it difficult to find work as a new barrier in the current survey.

Second and first year FSS participants were also asked to what extent they thought the support received from FSS had helped them to overcome each of their reported barriers as part of the current telephone survey. There was no significant difference in the proportion of participants who reported that FSS support helped them to overcome the reported barriers in the current survey compared to the past surveys.^[15] For example, 45% of second year FSS participants reported that FSS helped them to overcome the barrier of not having the right qualifications, skills or experience in the current survey (compared to 46% in the second year survey). 32% of first year FSS participants reported that FSS helped them to overcome a barrier of having a physical health conditions that made it difficult for the person to carry out tasks at work in the current survey (compared with 36% in the second year survey).

Finally, second and first year FSS participants were asked about the effect of FSS on their motivation to work in the current survey. Overall, this showed that the perceived impact on participants' motivation had reduced over time. For the second year FSS participants 63% of participants indicating that taking part in FSS increased their motivations (a lot or a little) in the second year survey to 52% reporting an increase in motivation in the current survey. For the first year FSS participants the proportion of those who reported that their motivation to work have increased as a result of taking part in FSS fell from 65% in the first year survey to 52% in the second year survey and 48% in the current survey.

What worked well?

Despite the effects of the pandemic on service delivery participants remained generally very positive about the support they received through FSS with a clear majority agreeing that they found both pre-employment and in-work support useful.

In particular the forms of support rated highest in terms of usefulness were elements of specialist support such as help with an addiction, help managing finances or debt and a specialist support for a physical health condition.

What were the challenges? / How could we improve?

There were significant differences in ratings of usefulness between demographic groups with minority ethnic respondents and those with a limited health condition less likely to find certain elements of support as useful compared to other participants.

What is Scottish Government doing?

We recognise that we can do more to support participants with health conditions and who come from minority ethnic communities, and we are already taking steps to remedy this. In response to the findings from the Year 2 Evaluation report, we commissioned external training for service provider staff in both disability and diversity & ethnicity awareness. The aim of this was to enhance their knowledge and understanding of the range of challenges faced by participants within these groups, and to inform how the service providers could best respond.

Learning from this training is now being embedded by service providers and, along with the feedback from this year's test and learn pilots, we will monitor the impact on services through our performance management framework and future evaluation activity.