Fair Start Scotland, Work First Scotland and Work Able Scotland: statistical summary November 2018

Fair Start Scotland Statistics

Fair Start Scotland is a devolved employment support service which launched on 3 April 2018. It builds on the transitional services Work First Scotland and Work Able Scotland and is a voluntary service that aims to deliver support to a minimum of 38,000 people over a 3 year referral period. The service is primarily designed to meet the needs of those who may face a range of challenges in obtaining work.

Fair Start Scotland Referrals and Starts

A total of 4,978 people joined Fair Start Scotland during the period 3 April to 28 September 2018.

Of the 9,789 people who were referred to the service during the same period, 5,140 (53%) subsequently chose to participate.^[1]

Figure 1: Fair Start Scotland referrals and starts during the period 3 April to 28 September 2018, by quarter

Table 1: Fair Start Scotland referrals and starts during the period 3 April to 28 September 2018, by quarter

Table 1: FSS referrals and starts during the period 3 April to 28 September 2018, by quarter
Quarter	Referrals	Starts
1 (3 Apr – 29 Jun 2018)	6,151	2,815
2 (2 Jul – 28 Sept 2018)	3,638	2,163
Total Q1 and Q2	9,789	4,978

Fair Start Scotland Participants

Information on Fair Start Scotland participants is presented for people who started on the service during the period 3 April to 28 September 2018. This information is derived directly from data collected by FSS service providers. Please see the Technical Annex for details.

The statistics on age, gender, type of long-term health condition and disability are derived from information collected by service providers for service delivery purposes, whilst those on ethnic group are derived from information collected for equalities monitoring purposes. All information is self-reported.

Figure 2: Fair Start Scotland participants by age and gender, 3 April to 28 September 2018

Table 2: Fair Start Scotland participants by age and gender, 3 April to 28 September 2018

Table 2: FSS participants, by age and gender, 3 April to 28 September 2018
Age Group	Female	Male	Unknown	% by age group	Total
16-24	264	469	5	14.8	738
25-34	342	725	7	21.6	1,074
35-49	544	938	11	30	1,493
50-65+	527	988	12	30.7	1,527
Unknown	51	87	8	2.9	146
% by gender	34.7	64.4	0.9	100
Total	1,728	3,207	43		4,978

Figure 2, alongside Table 2, shows that almost two thirds (61%) of those joining the service were aged 35 or over, and the distribution of age groups is very similar for both males and females. 15% of participants overall were aged between 16 and 24. Females accounted for over a third (35%) of all those joining the service.

Figure 3: Reporting of disability by Fair Start Scotland participants, 3 April to 28 September 2018

Table 3A & 3B: Reporting of disability by Fair Start Scotland participants, 3 April to 28 September 2018

Table 3A: Long-term health condition (Y/N) reported by FSS participants, 3 April to 28 September 2018
	Number of FSS participants	% of FSS participants
Yes	3,413	68.6
No	1,496	30.1
Unknown	69	1.4
Total	4,978	100[6]

 

Table 3B: Reduced ability to carry out day-to-day activities due to long term health condition reported by FSS participants, 3 April to 28 September 2018
	Number of FSS participants	% of FSS participants
Yes, a lot	1,017	29.8
Yes, a little	1,870	54.8
Not at all	502	14.7
Unknown	24	0.7
Total	3,413	100

Figure 3 and Table 3A show that over two thirds (69%) of people joining the service reported having a long term health condition. Of those, 85% reported that their ability to carry out day-to-day activities was either ‘limited a lot’ or ‘limited a little’ as a result (Table 3B). This means 58% of all FSS participants (2,887 of 4,978) reported having a disability.

Figure 4: Types of long-term health condition reported by Fair Start Scotland participants, 3 April to 28 September 2018

Table 4: Types of long-term health condition reported by Fair Start Scotland participants, 3 April to 28 September 2018

Table 4: Types of long-term health condition reported by FSS participants, 3 April to 28 Sept 2018
Type of long-term health condition	Number of all types of condition reported	% of all types of condition reported
Mental health condition	1,486	33.1
Long-term illness, disease or condition	841	18.7
Physical disability	728	16.2
Learning difficulty (for example, dyslexia)	436	9.7
Other condition	399	8.9
Developmental disorder (for example, Autism Spectrum Disorder or Asperger's Syndrome)	209	4.7
Deafness or partial hearing loss	179	4
Learning disability (for example, Down’s Syndrome)	109	2.4
Blindness or partial sight loss	107	2.4
Total	4,494[7]	100[6]

Figure 4, alongside Table 4, shows that almost a third (33%) of all types of condition reported by those joining FSS were mental health conditions. Long-term illnesses, diseases or conditions accounted for around 19% of all types of condition reported, whilst just over 16% were physical disabilities. A learning difficulty accounted for almost 10% of all types of conditions reported by participants.

Figure 5: Number of types of long-term health condition reported by Fair Start Scotland participants, 3 April to 28 September 2018

Table 5: Number of types of long-term health condition reported by Fair Start Scotland participants, 3 April to 28 September 2018

Table 5: Number of types of long-term health condition reported by FSS participants, 3 April to 28 September 2018
Number of types of long-term health condition	Number of FSS participants	% of FSS participants
0	1,551	31.2
1	2,509	50.4
2	604	12.1
3 or more	235	4.7
Unknown	79	1.6
Total	4,978	100

Figure 5, together with Table 5, shows that whilst around half (50%) of participants reported having one long-term health condition, almost 17% of people reported having 2 or more. Nearly a third (31%) of participants did not report any long-term health conditions.

Table 6: Fair Start Scotland participants by ethnic group, 3 April to 28 September 2018

Table 6: FSS participants, by ethnic group, 3 April to 28 September 2018
Ethnic group	Number of FSS participants	% of FSS participants
White	4,009	80.5
Minority ethnic[8]	114	2.3
Unknown	855	17.2
Total	4,978	100

Table 6 shows that around 2% of participants joining FSS reported being from minority ethnic groups. Information is collected on a voluntary basis for monitoring purposes, and this is reflected in the relatively high level of unknowns for this characteristic.