No One Left Behind Employability Strategic Plan 2024-2027

6. Priorities for employability services

Through the National Discussion Events and the No One Left Behind and the Young Person’s Guarantee: implementation evaluation, published in August 2023, Four themes have been identified as central to improving Scotland’s devolved employability system:

1. Communication - People in Scotland know how and where to get support and training to help them find a job.

2. Service User Engagement - Local people and communities are involved in shaping services to ensure they provide the right support towards and into jobs.

3. Partnership - Local and National organisations share their resources and work together to improve job opportunities for people living in Scotland.

4. Data and Reporting - Employability services use data trends and local knowledge to understand what support is needed locally to help people and communities thrive.

These themes, alongside broader and shared policy ambitions, including those set out in the National Strategy for Economic Transformation, Fair Work Action Plan, Best Start, Bright Futures, the Verity House Agreement, and those in the COSLA Plan 2022-27, have been used to shape the areas of priority for employability services, and the actions we will take to deliver on them over the lifetime of this plan.

Priorities:

• Continuing to improve the employability system
• Increasing awareness and uptake of employability support
• Tackling child poverty by increasing parental income from employment
• Supporting disabled people and those with a long term health condition
• Delivering jointly with wider public services

Emerging Priorities:

• Working with employers to improve outcomes
• Supporting a just transition and net zero

Underpinned by the No One Left Behind Principles:

• Provide flexible and person-centred support
• Integrated and aligned with other services
• Driven by evidence, including data and the experience of users
• Straightforward for people to navigate
• Provide pathways into sustainable and fair work
• Support more people to move into the right job, at the right time

It is important to note that some of these priorities will overlap with each other, either due to intersectionality between priority groups, or because activity cuts across several aspects of our delivery model. This overlap is something we must embrace to effectively deliver in a complex landscape.

These priorities will also be underpinned by the principles of No One Left Behind. In everything we take forward, we must ensure we are driving towards creating an employability system which reflects these.

Finally, a shared element across each of these priorities is the need to be bold and innovative in how we approach the activity set out in this plan. This is true even where that means re-assessing aspects of current practice, or taking steps to do something different with the aim of achieving better outcomes for people accessing support.

We have set out actions to take under each priority area and set their anticipated timescales for delivery; short, medium, and long-term. We will begin the implementation of some of the longer-term actions within the next one to three years but acknowledge they will take longer to fully deliver.

Short Term – delivery within one year

Medium Term – delivery within one to three years

Long Term – delivery within three years or more

Priority 1 – Continuing to improve the employability system

Continuous Improvement has been a value of devolved employability services since 2015, and as we move forward, we remain committed to ensuring that we are driving improvements across the employability system.

Feedback from the national discussion events highlighted that partners would like to see more best practice shared across LEPs and it would be helpful to share information on the role of the LEP within the wider employability sector. We have sought to deliver clearer communication of how LEPs fit into the employability delivery model above and we will work with partners to refresh the LEP framework. We will also set out case studies of innovative practice below, and consider how to utilise wider communication channels to support this on an ongoing basis.

We have heard that improving the employability system requires a stable foundation. Through both the national discussion events and the implementation evaluation, the point was made that certainty of funding is required if partners are to deliver effectively on policy intent, retain dedicated and talented staff, and ultimately deliver innovatively to support more people achieve positive outcomes.

There is a key role for public sector funding to address this, both national funding from Scottish Government, and further investment through the supply chain at a local level. The 2024/25 budget sets out a commitment to deliver future multi-year funding for the employability sector: we will continue to prioritise activity to progress this. Furthermore, we will ensure greater transparency by publishing budget allocation breakdowns as a matter of course from this financial year onwards.

Finally, improving the employability system requires strong input from the people who access our support – whether in shaping future policy at a national level, or designing services at a local level. User voice has formed a strong part of the co-produced guidance issued for No One Left Behind to date, and we remain committed to ensuring that this is central to our entire approach at both a national and local level.

Over the lifetime of this plan, we will take forward the following actions to support this priority:

Actions

Short Term

• We will continue to explore future multi-year funding options for employability.
• We will work collectively to review the Local Employability Partnership (LEP) Framework to ensure clarity of roles and responsibilities, supporting further capacity building and strengthening of representation across communities and sectors.

Medium Term

• Scottish Government, Local Government and COSLA will work together with partners to ensure that local commissioning frameworks and funding models are open and inclusive supporting a mixed economy of provision
• We will work collectively to further refine the Shared Measurement Framework to improve ease of use and ensure a clearer focus on the wider impact of our support.
• We will work together to develop a national evaluation plan and effective ways to ensure the voice of lived experience informs continuous improvement at national and local levels.

Priority 2 - Increasing awareness and uptake of employability support

The No One Left Behind and the Young Person’s Guarantee: implementation evaluation recommended that more should be done to raise awareness of employability support, and consideration should be given to local and national communication approaches.

In striving to become a leading Fair Work nation, we are seeking to realise fundamental rights for all, consistent with the United Nation’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Integral to this, is taking action to improve labour market outcomes for those groups who experience the most disadvantage and inequality – especially disabled people, women, unpaid carers and people from racialised minorities.

With the implementation of the local delivery model, we have seen positive trends around reach of employability services to groups we know face broader structural barriers to entering the labour market.

Source: Scotland’s Devolved Employment Services: Statistical Summary July 2024

1 The data collection approach for disability data changed in October 2022, however, both approaches were based on the definition of disability in the Equality Act 2010.

2 Data on parents was first collected in year 2 (2020/21). Small changes to parental data have occurred across the collection period.

For more details, see Background and Methodology Paper: https://www.gov.scot/publications/scotlands-devolved-employment-services-statistical-summary-july-2024/documents

However, there is more to do to ensure people who could benefit from employability support are aware of the offer and able to access services, and this remains a critical focus of our activity.

We know that to reach people who stand to benefit the most from the support on offer, we need to be creative. Building on the recommendation made in the implementation evaluation, we want to see more effective alignment between services to increase awareness of employability for those accessing wider public services. We also want to see better use of key partners in increasing awareness and uptake, particularly third sector organisations who are already embedded in communities. This outreach activity must take place prior to services being designed to ensure that that consideration is given to the experience of communities and groups who most require our support.

Case Study

Parents Engagement programme

The Falkirk Local Employability Partnership (LEP) identified the need to increase community engagement resources to reach more isolated, low-income parents. Falkirk Council’s Employment and Training Unit (ETU) worked with local organisations, Aberlour, Barnardos, One Parent Families Scotland and Home Start, to develop a Parents Engagement Programme targeting the four priority areas across Falkirk.

“This collaboration has been hugely successful, with many of our attendees progressing to the ETU to explore their development opportunities.

100% of those who completed feedback questionnaires said that they would recommend our services. A testimony to the success of this programme, and the importance of building connected and trusting relationships within local communities.”

Aberlour Family Support Worker

Over the lifetime of this plan, we will collectively take forward the following actions to support this priority:

Actions

Short Term

• We will lead a collective approach including the development of a communication plan to ensure information on employment support is communicated in a clear, consistent and accessible way, so that people are fully aware how to access the range of support and advice available.
• We will raise awareness of No One Left Behind tools and products amongst strategic, funding and delivery partners by developing a handbook to ensure that standards are upheld and a consistent approach to planning, data and reporting.

Medium Term

• We will work with partners across our communities to ensure provision is diverse, inclusive and responsive to community need and to raise awareness of employability services and improve access for those who are currently not engaged, including those who are economically inactive.
• We will work in partnership to review, improve and if necessary, develop communication tools and platforms to ensure a consistent and effective approach to sharing information and good practice.
• We will work with partners to ensure that services are co-designed with people with lived experience to maximise impact and uptake.

Priority 3 - Tackling child poverty by increasing parental income from employment

Employability support is a central aspect of our approach across Scottish and Local Government to eradicating child poverty. If services are to contribute effectively, they must be set up to enable parents to increase their income by supporting them to enter or progress in work, and ensure that wider systems and services are aligned to provide holistic support.

We know that parents can face significant structural barriers to entering the labour market^[16], and even when parents are in work, statistics show that there is still a very real risk of experiencing poverty. At present, 7 in 10 children in poverty in Scotland live in a working household^[17].

We are clear that employability services should contribute to reducing poverty, by focusing on enabling people to access fair work opportunities with the conditions, and support, required for sustained employment.

Since April 2020, specific funding has been available for the delivery of Parental Employability Support across Scotland, focusing on parents who are unemployed or facing in-work poverty. Furthermore, since April 2023, the role of the Employability Child Poverty Coordinator was introduced at a local level to drive alignment and integration between employability support and the wrap-around services required to support parents to increase their income from employment.

All parents on low incomes are eligible to receive support. However, there is a focus on the six priority family groups identified as being at highest risk of experiencing poverty: Lone parent families, the large majority of which are headed by women; Families which include a disabled adult or child; Families with three or more children; racialised minority families; Families with a child under one year old; and Families where the mother is under 25 years of age.

Recognising the financial barriers faced by parents to access employment, the Scottish Child Payment is seen as a key driver to lift families out of poverty^[18]. Reliability and affordability of transport and childcare is also seen as a barrier for parents to access and sustain work within the labour market^[19], which is why we will continue to work to enhance the delivery of a ‘no-wrong-door’ approach for parents accessing our support. For example, by providing ‘better-off in work’ calculations and benefit entitlement checks to parents, employability services can support parents to maximise income in the short term, demonstrate the benefit of work in cash terms to them, and identify wider services that may support their journey towards employment.^[20]

Employability statistics show that progress has been made since April 2020 with the reach of our services to parents broadly increasing over time. They also show that this reach is translating into outcomes, with 25% of parents supported having entered employment as reported in July 2024.^[21]

7 in 10 children in poverty live in a working household.

Although this is encouraging, we recognise that more needs to be done to enhance the impact of our support for parents. For example, recent research carried out by One Parent Families Scotland highlights the significance of peer-to-peer approaches for building confidence, and enabling parents to see support is out there that will work for them.^[22] This will be true for many user groups, but it is an example of an approach that could be scaled in current structures and has the potential to have positive impacts for individuals quickly. We are also of the view that more could be done to make certain that we are effectively utilising existing public service touchpoints with parents to ensure that people who could benefit from employability support are aware of it.

We also want to see greater impact of employability services for parents who are in low-income employment. We know that time constraints and the pressure of childcare responsibilities will be even more challenging for those who are currently employed, and our approaches moving forward must reflect this more directly.

Access to affordable, good quality childcare is vital to supporting parents and carers who wish to move into work, and is a critical element of an integrated employment offer to parents. Scotland is the only part of the UK to offer 1,140 hours a year of funded ELC to all 3 and 4-year-olds and eligible 2-year-olds regardless of their parents’ working status – putting children first. This offer has been in place since 2021 and, if families paid for this themselves, it would cost them more than £5,500 per eligible child per year^[23].

However, in 2023/24 18%, of those accessing No One Left Behind identified childcare as a barrier to employment^[24]. Employability services, then, must play a role in signposting parents to different sources of help available around childcare costs, and support awareness of childcare provision available locally as part of the employability offer.

Case Study

Supporting flexible working opportunities for parents in North Ayrshire

The North Ayrshire Health and Social Care Partnership’s Care at Home team supports people to continue to live in their communities and employ over 800 Care at Home Assistants. This dedicated team works tirelessly, offering round-the-clock care services and new entrants are required to work shifts and varied hours, making this career choice a challenge for parents. Following a focus group with Parents and the Care at Home team, a pilot initiative was designed introducing flexible working hours, enabling parents to secure employment from 10am to 2pm.

Stephanie was referred to Your Next Move, Working North Ayrshire by her Health Visitor and working with her keyworker, she was successful in securing one of these positions. Stephanie describes her new job as ‘life-changing,’ as well as improving her household income, her confidence increased, she feels less isolated, has met new people and is working flexible hours during the school day.

Over the lifetime of this plan, collectively we will take forward the following actions to support this priority:

Actions

Short Term

• We will work together with partners including the public and third sector to take a targeted approach to engaging parents, exploring peer to peer approaches and utilising existing touch-points.

Medium Term

• We will work with partners and employer engagement colleagues to enhance the offer to parents who are in-work, to effectively support them to increase income from employment.

Long Term

• We will work with partners to lever employability resources to address workforce challenges in sectors which impact on parents’ ability to enter employment, such as childcare.

Priority 4 – Supporting disabled people and those with a long term health condition

No One Left Behind has a key role to play in meeting the Scottish Government’s commitment to halving the Disability Employment Gap by 2038, and supporting those who are economically inactive into employment.

The Scottish Government has committed to halving the disability employment gap by 2038 (from the 2016 baseline of 37.4%). Although there has been steady progress reducing the gap (to 30.2% in 2023), data around labour market participation clearly shows the need for continued collective action to meet this commitment. We know that economic inactivity remains a concern, largely due to long-term ill-health or disability, and that disabled people are less likely to be employed than non-disabled people. On top of this, disabled people who are employed are more likely to be in part time work, more likely to be underemployed, and less likely to be in contractually secure work than non-disabled people.

Economic Inactivity for those aged 16-64 by reason, Scotland, April 2023-March 2024^[28]

We are committed to addressing the inequalities experienced by disabled people, and an approach that respects the individual and offers support to progress into sustainable and fair work of the person’s choosing, at a pace which reflects their needs and capabilities. We have heard from service users and disabled people’s organisations that this support must be flexible and integrated. This vision reflects the approach and principles of No One Left Behind, and our work to ensure employability provision delivers for disabled people will continue to be informed by this.

Case Study

Reducing the Disability Employment Gap

Dumfries and Galloway LEP (DGLEP) recognised the significance of the Disability Employment Gap in the region and in 2023 took decisive action to address the issue using the influence and resource they had at their disposal.

Building on work undertaken by partners, an independent expert reviewed how the DGLEP No One Left Behind funding might be more effectively invested to enhance employability support for disabled people. The second phase was to develop a more strategic approach considering partners including education, employers and the NHS and using various funding sources available including No One Left Behind to commission a wide range of support in the region.

This includes:

• The opening of a second Project Search site in Stranraer
• Region-wide early engagement and barrier removal support for 180 individuals
• Supported Employment for 120 Individuals
• 15 paid placement opportunities ringfenced within Dumfries and Galloway Council
• Whole family support for those with a disabled family member
• Family support for young people with disabilities at risk of not progressing to a post school destination
• Dedicated Employer Recruitment Incentives for those with disabilities
• Condition Management help for individuals to progress to and sustain employment

Employability services in Scotland currently require person-centred support to be in place for disabled people across the country, and statistics show positive trends since we implemented the local delivery model in April 2022, with a continued increase in disabled people accessing services. Statistics show that 2023/24 saw the highest total number (5,280), and highest proportion of overall starts (25%), of disabled people accessing No One Left Behind support to date^[30]. Compared to previous devolved delivery, No One Left Behind support has also seen an increased number (and proportion) of people with Learning Disabilities and Developmental Disorders being reached by services.^[31] Improved data collection now allows us to follow the progress of those with conditions such as Autism Spectrum Disorder which was not possible for previous devolved support.

However, there is more to do and we recognise that for some disabled people and those managing health conditions, more specialist delivery models may better meet their needs. As such, our focus over the lifetime of this plan will be two-fold:

• Ensuring local services are reaching and supporting disabled people effectively; and
• Ensuring a specialist employability offer is in place across Scotland which is all age and pan-disability for those who require it.

As we move forward and build on the positive trends seen to date, learning from previous delivery under Fair Start Scotland will continue to be important. This is why the reviews of Individual Placement and Support^[32] and Supported Employment^[33] have been used to inform our approach to responding to this priority under the No One Left Behind approach. We are also committed to working with partners, people with lived experience, stakeholders, and employers to support further progress, particularly around service delivery, national guidance, and data reporting in relation to disabled people and those with a long-term health condition.

Whilst this plan is focused on devolved employability services, it is important to reflect a range of other activity related to labour market participation, including support in place to prevent people from falling out of the labour market in the first place, such as Healthy Working Lives and Mentally Flourishing Workplaces, led by Public Health Scotland. Priority 5 below explores our intention to work across organisational and policy boundaries to deliver on our priorities in more detail.

Over the lifetime of this plan, collectively we will take forward the following actions to support this priority:

Actions

Short Term

• We will work collectively to deliver specialist employability support across all Local Authority areas for disabled people in line with our commitment to at least halve the Disability Employment Gap by 2038.

Long Term

• We will work collectively to reduce economic inactivity by strengthening connections with disabled people’s organisations, third sector and health services as well as those who are using services to ensure we effectively respond to the employability needs and aspirations of disabled people and those with health conditions.
• We will continue to work with internal and external stakeholders to contribute to the actions from the review of Scottish Government’s Health and Work Strategy.

Priority 5 – Delivering jointly with wider public services

People’s journey towards work will rarely be linear and often support will be required from a range of public services. We view a no-wrong-door approach to be central to delivering more effectively for participants, and have established expectations that Employability services be viewed as part of a wider public service landscape.

Through the move to a local delivery model, we have taken steps to support joint delivery across public services by embedding a key role for related public services in the planning and delivery of employability support through Local Employability Partnerships. Through the Employability Service Standards, we have also jointly agreed that our services must have partnership at their heart, which requires working across boundaries.

There are already examples of good practice, such as employability and health working closely to align NHS workforce activity with employability structures locally, and referrals from DWP continuing into devolved services. That said, more can be done in terms of alignment across services and policy with a view to improving outcomes for people.

We will have three principal areas of focus:

• Building stronger referral pathways between public services with the aim of delivering a no-wrong door approach;
• Recognising the enabling role of other public services and working with them to support people into work; and
• Leveraging investment in employability to support workforce challenges across other public services.

For many public services, there are mutual benefits for enabling those they support to access employability services, and national policy often already recognises the importance of joining up. However, delivering a no-wrong-door approach will require concerted efforts if we are to ensure people are supported to access wider services they may need, regardless of which touchpoints they are currently engaging with.

We want to engage constructively across a range of areas to identify and establish referral processes between employability and other public services, with the aim of supporting delivery of other priorities in this plan – for example, improved referral processes with Health has the potential to increase the number of people with a disability and those with long-term health conditions accessing employability support at a time that is right for them. We also want to make links where we think impact may be able to be achieved quickly.

Furthermore, Social Security Scotland already engages with several groups who could benefit from employability services (including parents, disabled people, and unpaid carers) and could quickly increase reach to people experiencing structural barriers to accessing the labour market in a way that reflects our joint desire to ensure people do not feel mandated to take the offer up.

We also have to recognise the enabling roles that other public services play in supporting people to access and sustain employment, such as Transport, Childcare and Social Care. Whilst this is not an exhaustive list, continuing to work across areas to identify and address barriers is a critical aspect of our strategy.

Case Study

Employability, Skills and CLD working together to support Young People in Orkney

A partnership initiative to support young people to gain confidence, skills and knowledge was held in Orkney at The Hub for Skills, Work and Employability over the summer.

Delivered jointly by Orkney Islands Council’s Community Learning, Development and Employability team (CLDE); Skills Development Scotland (SDS) and Developing the Young Workforce (DYW) Orkney, the programme was introduced to help young people develop the skills they would need as they move on from mainstream education into further education, training or work.

CLDE’s activities focused on development of life skills, personal finance, money management and online safety. Participants were supported to gain accredited qualifications through Dynamic Youth Awards and the Digital College.

SDS and DYW Orkney’s sessions focused on employability skills, with participants supported to identify their skills, learn more about searching and applying for a job, preparing a CV and getting ready for a job or college interview.

Participants were also given the opportunity to explore their options with visits to UHI Orkney’s Hospitality Department and the Balfour Hospital to learn more about careers in Hospitality and work-based learning opportunities offered by NHS Orkney.

The programme concluded with a mock interview session where local employers attended the group to ask participants the types of questions they could expect at an interview.

“The Hub group was a great example of collaborative working from members of Orkney’s Local Employability Partnership. Youth Workers from the CLDE team worked with Kirkwall Grammar School to identify young people who would benefit from this summer programme, and developed activities to help them gain soft skills such as teamwork, timekeeping and communication skills.”

CLDE Team Manager

“It was fantastic to work with CLDE and SDS to deliver this programme, and we definitely saw the young people gaining confidence as the programme progressed. The workplace visit and mock interview session were great opportunities for them to meet employers in a more relaxed setting and we hope it will make the prospect of a real interview much less daunting for them in the future.”

DYW Project Manager

We are also aware of activity underway to review skills, careers and community learning and development provision. This presents opportunities to ensure that alignment between services supports more learners to achieve positive outcomes, with employability services playing their part for those who require more intensive support, for example those who require support with literacy and numeracy. Working in a more joined-up manner may also support more people to access opportunities across the post-school training and education landscape to progress their career aspirations.

Employability services are also uniquely positioned to support workforce challenges across the wider public sector, particularly where anchor institutions are working to consider how they can more positively impact on their local area through widening access to quality work. Through promoting inclusive recruitment and employment practices (such as committing to paying the real living wage, offering flexible working, and supporting progression routes for employees), these anchor institutions can have a profoundly positive effect on the employment prospects and incomes of local people.

There are already examples of emerging practice here. For example, in the health sector, Public Health Scotland have recently established a pilot to demonstrate how health boards can leverage their position as anchor institutions to create flexible, family friendly work that supports parents to enter the workforce and develop skills that will support them in the future.

Furthermore, in the childcare sector, we are funding the Scottish Childminding Association to deliver the Programme for Scotland’s Childminding Future over three years, building on their earlier pilots to support more people to establish new childminding businesses, with support from LEPs locally. Not only will this create job opportunities, but it will help increase the capacity of the childcare sector locally which in turn can enable more parents to enter or sustain work.

Over the lifetime of this plan, we will take forward the following actions to support this priority:

Actions

Medium Term

• Scottish Government, Local Government, COSLA, Public Health Scotland and sponsored bodies will work together to align public policy priorities.
• We will explore training, development and qualification requirements for key workers and other frontline employability staff to ensure core standards of knowledge and skills for those supporting individuals.
• We will work in partnership to support and influence the role of Community Wealth Building Anchor Institutions in providing greater access to employment opportunities for those who are out of work.
• We will work with partners to improve reporting on progress and the wider support provided to individuals on their journey towards positive outcomes, particularly for those further from the labour market.
• We will work in partnership at a national and local level to deliver a no-wrong-door approach to individuals both within and beyond No One Left Behind funded employability services.

Emerging priority 1 – Working with Employers to improve outcomes

To date, No One Left Behind policy has focused largely on the needs of people seeking support on their journey to work and transforming our delivery model. But it is important to recognise that employers are not passive recipients of people who have “come through” employability services. They are key partners, both as users of services i.e. working with providers to employ people, and in setting requirements for employability services i.e. articulating skills needs for their business that employability services and support should be responsive to.

Yet, recent UK-wide research has highlighted that employers can view support as inconsistent, with low awareness of what is available,^[34] and less than positive perceptions of what employability services can offer them.^[35] Whilst the perception of business support has been found to be more positive in Scotland (such as that provided through Scottish Enterprise), support for recruitment has been noted as limited through these structures. There is an opportunity here. If we can engage employers actively in the process of supporting people to gain employment, then we will be better placed to deliver more positive outcomes for everyone.

Our employability services engage with motivated individuals that can offer a lot to employers every day, and are able to support employers across Scotland with the recruitment and retention of workers. There has been extensive work with employers at a local level to date. For instance, the creation of employer forums as LEP sub-groups to drive constructive working between businesses and services locally. We also know that LEPs have worked hard to provide support to employers to fill vacancies, including exploring how different shift patterns can meet employer and service user needs.

Case Study

Invest in Renfrewshire

The Employability Service at Invest in Renfrewshire has a specific employer engagement team of 5 staff, working with local businesses and employers to support recruitment, fill vacancies and, in turn, get more employability clients into work. The remit of the team varies from job brokerage and recruitment to more general advice and support to employers on living wage accreditation and supporting hard to fill roles.

One recent example was a local firm with real recruitment challenges to fill multiple 9-5pm roles. The team suggested a more flexible approach, knowing the number of unemployed parents looking for 10-2pm opportunities (to fit around school hours) and students looking for early evening work. The nature of the current labour market is such that employers do have to consider different options for recruitment and the employer engagement team is there to help.

We wish to see this local activity continue. But we are also keen that it is supplemented by national level action to support awareness of what is on offer for employers and ensuring future policy work reflects the views of employers. In doing so, we will seek to align with existing Scottish Government activity, such as the New Deal for Business.

Whilst employability support can assist employers, there is a requirement of employers to offer fair and inclusive work environments. The Scottish Government’s vision is for Scotland to be a leading Fair Work Nation by 2025, one which drives success, wellbeing and prosperity for individuals, businesses, organisations and society.

While employment law remains reserved to the UK Parliament, we will use our policy to promote fair working practices across the labour market in Scotland. Through our Fair Work First approach we are leveraging employers’ commitment by applying these principles to public sector grants, other funding, and contracts where it is relevant and proportionate to do so.

The Scottish Government’s Fair Work First Guidance explains our approach, provides good practice examples to guide employers’ practice and, importantly, explains the benefits of fair work for workers and organisations. The guidance has been developed with the input of the STUC, the Fair Work Convention, Flexibility Works, CIPD Scotland, and business, public and third sector partners.

The Fair Work Employer Support Tool offers tailored advice and resources on Fair Work. We recognise the challenges being faced by employers at this time and would encourage them to use the tool to help identify fair work priorities and inform future plans.

Over the lifetime of this plan, we will take forward the following actions to support this priority:

Actions

Short Term

• We will work in partnership with employers and representative organisations to influence both the design and delivery of our services, ensuring they align with labour market needs, support flexible and inclusive working practices, supporting sustainable employment progression and Fair Work principles.

Medium Term

• We will work across national, regional and local structures to identify levers which can be used to encourage employers to recruit people accessing employability support services into fair work.

Emerging priority 2 – Just transition to net zero

We are clear that employability services have an important role to play in achieving a Just Transition to a Net Zero carbon economy, given most people accessing our support will face an element of structural inequality, particularly around socio-economic disadvantage.

There are two broad routeways from employability services into green jobs which should be further considered and developed; either direct support to access entry level green job opportunities, or support to enter higher or further education related to green jobs.

Analysis of the Green Workforce Academy highlights the importance of academic routes, or even volunteering, to accessing work in priority green industries^[37]. The recognition of wider positive outcomes as part of our progression measures through No One Left Behind, such as entering higher or further education, enables our services to contribute effectively here.

Whether direct entry to a green job or support to access higher or further education, the appropriateness of each routeway for the individual would have to be considered jointly between them and their employability key worker.

We will work collectively across Scottish Government, Local Government and wider partners to develop our position, and better understand our impact here.

Over the lifetime of this plan, we will take forward the following actions to support this priority:

Actions

Medium Term

• Recognising the role of green skills in future job roles, we will ensure employability training is aligned where relevant/possible.

Long Term

• We will work collectively to understand how employability support can be leveraged to provide opportunity and entry into green jobs for those on our services. This will recognise that broader positive destinations, such as entering higher and further education, will be critical to achieving this.

7. Measuring and evaluating progress

Data and evidence, including the experience of people accessing our services, is central to understanding whether we are achieving the ambitions of No One Left Behind. It drives our assurance processes and supports decisions on necessary actions for employability services to deliver better outcomes.

The current approach is based on the national products developed to support No One Left Behind. The Service Standards and the Customer Charter sit at the centre as the basis of our definition of a “good” service. The Shared Measurement Framework wraps around this, providing us with a shared understanding of how we measure the impact of employability services. Evaluation activity helps us understand the experiences of people accessing services, how these align with the ”good” service set out in the standards and charter, and provides evidence of the impact and value of employability services.

Whilst we have already seen positive developments, which are resulting in more detailed public statistics being available each quarter, we know there is more to do. The Implementation evaluation highlighted that further work is needed to embed and develop the Shared Measurement Framework and address challenges faced by some local authorities and providers around data collection and reporting.

It is also important to build a holistic evidence base on the wider outcomes being achieved through No One Left Behind, including around improvements in participants’ skills, income, and wellbeing. As set out in the actions above, we will work with partners to explore these areas and develop our understanding of the support provided.

In the next phase of evaluation, we will work in partnership to:

• Continue to enhance our understanding and approach to demonstrating impact, working with partners to develop an approach to assessing value for money in line with the Shared Measurement Framework theme.
• Inform ongoing performance improvement through understanding people’s experiences of employability support and building on the findings of the implementation evaluation.
• Focus on national priorities, such as reducing child poverty and reducing economic inactivity.
• Continue to focus on the voices of participants as an indication of how well employability services are delivering on the principles of No One Left Behind.