The role of state agencies in delivering and supporting access to employment: FOI release

Information requested

Information on the role of state agencies in delivering and supporting access to employment.

Response

1. Central government spend on Modern Apprenticeships (by year) since 2019 including intended spend 2023/24 – please include information on spend rationale/expected local and national impacts

1a. Spend

The breakdown of Modern Apprenticeship (MA) spend based on the SDS statutory accounts balance from 2019/20 – 2023/24 is as follows:

Financial Year	MA Spend (£000s)
19/20	81,845
20/21	61,043
21/22	76,843

To Note: 2022/23 spend for MAs can be made available once audited spend for 2022/23 has been published in the SDS annual accounts later in the year.

Skills Development Scotland (SDS) have a budget of over £200m in 2023/24 – this is broadly comparable to their post-savings budget in 2022/23. In terms of MA spend for 2023/24, SDS have been asked by Scottish Government to deliver 25,500 MA starts this financial year with a projected budget of approximately £83 million. Final MA spend for 2023/24 will not be available until the SDS annual accounts for this financial year have been through the standard auditing process.

1.b Spend Rationale/expected local and national impacts

The SDS Modern Apprenticeship Programme Specification sets out clearly the key Scottish Government (SG) and Skills Development Scotland (SDS) aims and priorities for our Modern Apprenticeship programme in Scotland.

The dual purpose of the MA Programme is to support employers to recruit and train apprentices and to encourage economic growth across Scotland through increased employer participation. MAs are a joint investment between employers and the Scottish Government. Employers invest the greater amount through wage costs and on-going support, and public funding contributes towards the cost of training.

Apprenticeships help to deliver the Scottish Government’s aims of supporting economic growth and addressing youth unemployment. They support growth and STEM sectors while providing genuine employment for people and take account of demographic change and employer demand.

Funding priorities are:

• young people aged 16-24 across all sectors including key and supporting sectors
• higher level frameworks (SCQF 6 and above)
• increasing STEM occupations;
• increasing the focus on offering MA opportunities to those aged 25+ in key and supporting sectors in response to industry need
• supporting public-sector organisations to promote the uptake of apprenticeships
• increasing opportunities for young people progressing from a Foundation Apprenticeship
• aligning funding with the Skills Investment Plans and Regional Skills Assessments maximising opportunities for the wider availability of higher-level apprenticeships;
• contracting with organisations that have the capacity to deliver MA Services and achieving positive outcomes for people, have a Fair Work First culture and actively promote equality of opportunity and achievement.

Funding decisions and MA allocations are also informed by consultation with employers through demand statements from Sector Skills Organisations (SSOs) and bodies, Industry Leadership Groups, Skills Investment Plans, and Regional Skills Assessments. https://www.ourskillsforce.co.uk/spotlight-on -industry

In addition, there are overarching Scottish Government and SDS priorities to which the MA Programme aims to contribute, as follows:

• encouraging greater participation from small and micro businesses
• encouraging delivery in island and rural communities to support inclusive growth
• promoting Fair Work Practices
• increasing the participation of people from under-represented groups or groups who are known to have additional barriers to employment

2. Central government spend on Higher Education and Further Education (by year) since 2019 including intended spend 2023/24 – please include information on spend rationale/expected local and national impacts

All Scottish Funding Council (SFC) funding announcements for universities and colleges can be found on the SFC website Scottish Funding Council home page (sfc.ac.uk) under the funding tab.

Each year SG publishes budget documents which identify the funding allocated to the Scottish Funding Council split between the university and college sectors. These publications can be found for each year requested along with other supporting documents on the Scottish Government website - The Scottish Government - gov.scot (www.gov.scot).

3. Equality Impact Assessments and papers exploring intended reach, impact, and government spending on Modern Apprenticeships

• differences between Modern Apprenticeship resourcing and types of roles offered in urban/semi-urban (central belt) and remote/rural (including islands)
• differences between resources directed towards No One Left Behind in urban/semiurban (central belt) and remote/rural (including islands)

3a. Intended reach, impact, and government spending on Modern Apprenticeships

SDS is our national skills body and in July 2020 they published their Equality Impact Assessment (EQIA) for work-based learning. The EQIA provides detail about the actions SDS will take to comply with the public sector equality duty and in partnership with others to promote equality and diversity in Scottish Apprenticeships. Further information on the work-based learning EQIA can be found at Skills Development Scotland (SDS) has launched its Equality Impact Assessment (EQIA) for work-based learning. | Skills Development Scotland.

In addition, SDS published their Apprenticeship Equalities Action Plan (EAP) in 2015, focusing on increasing the number of disabled people, ethnic minority communities and care leavers entering apprenticeships, along with tackling apprenticeship areas where there are gender imbalances. The final progress report of the five-year Apprenticeship Equality Action Plan was published in December 2021 and outlines achievements and where further progress can take place.

Scottish Government is committed to working with Skills Development Scotland and Scottish Funding Council (SFC) to identify and understand how we can improve participation in apprenticeships for all underrepresented groups. This will require us to effect systemic change with a major cultural shift in the career pathways that people choose, as well as the recruitment and employment practices of businesses. We will continue to work in partnership with SDS and SFC colleagues to continue to develop our future policy direction and approach, building on the latest evidence.

To support the cultural shift required, the Scottish Apprenticeship Advisory Board (SAAB) created the Gender Commission to develop recommendations that offer practical solutions to help address the gender imbalance across the whole Apprenticeship family, and to advise the Scottish Government how it can better support all businesses in this area. The Gender Commission published their report and recommendations in October 2022 which can be accessed at gender-commission-report-andrecommendations.pdf (skillsdevelopmentscotland.co.uk). We have committed to working in partnership with SDS and SFC to achieve the outcomes of the Gender Commission Report as noted in the Gender Pay Gap Action Plan.

3b. Differences between Modern Apprenticeship resourcing and types of roles offered in urban/semi-urban (central belt) and remote/rural (including islands)

Skills Development Scotland work closely with key partners and stakeholders to develop Regional Skills Assessments (RSAs) and Sectoral Skills Assessments (SSAs) across Scotland.

RSAs and SSAs provide a coherent evidence base to inform future investment in skills, built up from existing datasets and forecasts, which look at current and future skills demand across Scotland to help plan future skills investment in Scotland’s people and businesses. Further detail on RSAs can be accessed on Regional Skills Assessments | Skills Development Scotland and further detail on SSAs can be found at Sectoral Skills Assessments | Skills Development Scotland.

In Scotland, Apprenticeships support key sectors while providing employment and take account of demographic change and employer demand.

The Modern Apprenticeship demand assessment comprises three phases. The first, establishes a robust evidence baseline, sourcing and collating strategic and contextual data. The second, draws on the baseline to support consultation with industry and verify demand. In the final phase, the evidence baseline and consultation insight are analysed and a final assessment produced to inform the Modern Apprenticeship contracting strategy.

As such, the number of starts in each occupational grouping attempts to reflect employer demand and be managed in line with Scottish Government priorities.

Official statistics published by Skills Development Scotland (SDS) on 23 May 2023 report 25,447 Modern Apprenticeship (MA) starts by the end of Q4 2022/23. The full list of Modern Apprenticeship starts for 2022-23 broken down by Local Authority can be found on the SDS corporate website at Modern Apprenticeships | Skills Development Scotland

3c Differences between resources directed towards No One Left Behind in urban/semi-urban (central belt) and remote/rural (including islands)

Regarding the localised information you request, this is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not hold the information on:

a) the differences between resources directed towards No One Left Behind in urban/semi-urban (central belt) and remote/rural (including islands)

b) papers that consider the geographical coverage and actual/intended local impact of posts supported under No One Left Behind

c) conversion rate of No One Left Behind posts into permanent employment by location 

d) target recruitment (including location and type of role) of the No One Left Behind Policy 2023-24.

No One Left Behind has seen us move away from funding national programmes of employability support with fixed eligibility criteria and programme rules to a flexible funding pot managed at local level. The 32 Scottish local authorities act as lead accountable bodies in the distribution of No One Left Behind funding, with local decision-making taking place at Local Employability Partnership level. This allows Local Government work with local public, private and third sector bodies to work together to address the locally evidenced need that best meets both individual and employer aspirations.

Therefore we would recommend contacting the Employability Team Lead for each of the local authorities for this information, the contacts of which are listed below.

Local Authority	Employability Lead	Email
Aberdeen	Angela Taylor	angtaylor@aberdeencity.gov.uk
Aberdeenshire	Ewen Allardyce	employmentsupportteam@aberdeenshire.gov.uk
Angus	Fiona O'Connor	O'ConnorF@angus.gov.uk
Argyll & Bute	Ishabel Bremner	ishabel.bremner@argyll-bute.gov.uk
Clackmannanshire	Jane Adamson	jadamson@clacks.gov.uk
Dumfries & Galloway	Lynne Burgess	lynne.burgess2@dumgal.gov.uk
Dundee City	John Davidson	john.davidson@dundeecity.gov.uk
East Ayrshire	Catherine Hester	catherine.hester@east-ayrshire.gov.uk
East Dunbartonshire	Drummond Stewart	drummond.stewart@eastdunbarton.gov.uk
East Lothian	Alex Mackay	amackay2@eastlothian.gov.uk
East Renfrewshire	Michael McKernan	michael.mckernan@eastrenfrewshire.gov.uk
Edinburgh	Philip Ritchie	philip.ritchie@edinburgh.gov.uk
Eilean Siar	Dolina Smith	dolina-smith@cne-siar.gov.uk
Falkirk	Sarah McCulley	Sarah.McCulley@falkirk.gov.uk
Fife	Mike Crosbie	mike.crosbie@fife.gov.uk
Glasgow	Frankie Barrett	frankie.barrett@glasgow.gov.uk
Highland	Jane Gair	Jane.Gair@highland.gov.uk
Inverclyde	Elizabeth Baird	Elizabeth.Baird@inverclyde.gov.uk
Midlothian	Annette Lang	Annette.lang@midlothian.gov.uk
Moray	Amy Cruickshank	amy.cruickshank@moray.gov.uk
North Ayrshire	Laura Neill	laura.neill@north-ayrshire.gov.uk
North Lanarkshire	Paul Kane	kanepaul@northlan.gov.uk
Orkney Islands	Kerry Spence	kerry.spence@orkney.gov.uk
Perth & Kinross	Alison Seggie	ALSeggie@pkc.gov.uk
Renfrewshire	Ruth Cooper	ruth.cooper@renfrewshire.gov.uk
Scottish Borders	Lesley Forsyth	ljforsyth@scotborders.gov.uk
Shetland Islands	Martin Summers	martin.summers@shetland.gov.uk
South Ayrshire	Heather Anderson	heather.anderson@south-ayrshire.gov.uk
South Lanarkshire	Douglas Hashagen	Douglas.Hashagen@southlanarkshire.gov.uk
Stirling	Ed Gibbon	gibbone@stirling.gov.uk
West Dunbartonshire	Stephen Brooks	Stephen.Brooks@west-dunbarton.gov.uk
West Lothian	Alice Mitchell	Alice.mitchell@westlothian.gov.uk

4. Papers that consider the geographical coverage and actual/intended local impact of Modern Apprenticeships and posts supported under No One Left Behind

4a Geographical coverage and actual/intended local impact of Modern Apprenticeships Modern Apprenticeships

The SDS Modern Apprenticeship Programme Specification sets our clearly the key SG and SDS priorities for MAs which include:

• encouraging greater participation from small and micro businesses
• encouraging delivery in island and rural communities to support inclusive growth
• promoting Fair Work Practices
• increasing the participation of people from under-represented groups or groups who are known to have additional barriers to employment

In addition, the MA Programme Specification also provides further detail on our MA rural uplift initiative (section 2.7 of Programme Specification) which highlights how we encourage provision in island and rural areas and as such, rural funding will apply to Apprentices whose main employment and normal working hours are based in Argyll and Bute; the Isle of Arran; and the Orkney, Shetland, and Western Isles. The MA rural uplift supplement is additional to the MA contribution rates provided.

4b Papers that consider the geographical coverage and actual/intended local impact of posts supported under No One Left Behind

This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not hold the information on papers that consider the geographical coverage and actual/intended local impact of posts supported under No One Left Behind. Please see section 3c for more details.

5. Conversion rate (type and location) of No One Left Behind posts into permanent employment (by year) to date

This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not hold the information on conversion rate of No One Left Behind posts into permanent employment by location. Please see section 3c for more details.

6. Target recruitment (including location and type of role) of the No One Left Behind Policy 2023-24

This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not hold the information on d) target recruitment (including location and type of role) of the No One Left Behind Policy 2023-24. Please see section 3c for more details.

7. Number of Modern Apprenticeships (and location/type) offered by Scottish Government departments

Similar to other employers, Scottish Government utilises Modern Apprenticeships (MAs) throughout Scotland across both Core Scottish Government and its agencies. As apprenticeships are based on demand, the number of MAs offered will vary from year to year. There are currently 82 MAs in training within the Scottish Government and its agencies.

Information on the MA frameworks undertaken by the apprentices is not available. The breakdown of Scottish Government MAs by local authority can be found below:

Local Authority	Number of MAs
Aberdeen City	1
Dundee City	9
Glasgow City	38
City of Edinburgh	19
Moray	1
Na h-Eileanan Siar	1
North Ayrshire	12
Scottish Borders	1

About FOI

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