Scotland's Devolved Employment Services: statistical summary November 2021

No One Left Behind (Experimental Statistics)

Introduction

No One Left Behind is a strategy for placing people at the centre of the design and delivery of employability services. The transition to this new approach, delivered through a partnership agreement between Scottish and Local Government, commenced on 1 April 2019.

The No One Left Behind approach moves away from funding and delivering a number of separate and distinct employability programmes, to a more flexible approach. Scottish and Local Government are working with third and private sector to deliver support which aims to be more joined-up and responsive to the needs of individuals of all ages and to local labour market conditions.

The support provided may vary from short, focused interventions or longer term support, dependent on individual circumstances. Participants can access the support they require on an ongoing basis and can engage and disengage at times that best suit their needs.

Individuals can self-refer to No One Left Behind support, or be referred through a variety of channels, including educational providers, local authorities, third sector organisations, Jobcentre Plus, and other local services.

How many people received support?

A total of 8,380 people were supported over the period April 2019 to June 2021, with 3,824^[20] people starting in year 1 (April 2019 - March 2020), 3,566 in year 2 (April 2020 – March 2021) and 990 in the first quarter of year 3 (April 2021 – June 2021).

The national lockdown in Scotland took effect on 23 March 2020, at the end of year 1, and so any effects of the COVID-19 pandemic are likely to only be seen from year 2 onwards. Data for year 1 was reported as aggregate totals by local authorities. Individual level data collection was put in place from April 2020 and so more breakdowns for the period April 2020 to June 2021 are available.

Overall, 39% of people who received support were women and 60% were men. The proportion of women who started receiving support decreased slightly from 40% in year 1, to 39% in year 2 before increasing to 41% in the first quarter of year 3. Meanwhile the proportion of men who started receiving support increased from 60% in year 1, to 61% in year 2 before decreasing to 58% in the first quarter of year 3.

During the period April 2020 – June 2021 (year 2 and the first quarter of year 3^[21]), the proportion of women across the different age groups was mostly similar to the overall proportion of women (39%), but slightly lower (37%) in the 20-24 age group and slightly higher (43%) in the 35-49 age group. However, overall numbers in the different age groups vary and numbers are small, so differences at this stage should be interpreted with caution.

The proportion of participants in younger age groups (15-24) has decreased over time, from 87% (year 1) to 77% (year 2), and finally to 66% (first quarter of year 3). Meanwhile, proportions in older age groups (25 years and older) have increased, from 13% in year 1, to 23% in year 2, and to 33% in the first quarter of year 3.

In the first quarter of year 3, 5% of participants were from minority ethnic groups, 91% of participants were white, with ethnicity unknown for the remaining 5%. For year 2, 3% of participants were from minority ethnic groups, 92% of participants were white, with ethnicity unknown for the remaining 5%. These statistics are not currently available for year 1 participants.

In the first quarter of year 3, 18% of participants were disabled (with 77% recorded as not disabled and 6% unknown) whilst in year 2, 11% of participants were disabled (with 86% recorded as not disabled and 3% unknown). This compares to 17% of participants who were disabled in year 1.^[22]

Employment outcome figures for year 1 participants were last reported in February 2021.

Developing these statistics

We have begun publishing data on people receiving employability support delivered under the No One Left Behind strategic approach. Publishing these statistics will contribute to understanding the impact of the approach, by providing information over time about participant journeys and achievements.

As part of our plans to develop these statistics, in future publications we will expand the scope of our data to include more people who are receiving employability support delivered under the NOLB approach from a wider range of SG funding than we have reported on to date. We are also doing work to develop the limited data we have for year 1 participants (April 2019 to March 2020) and combine it with data currently being collected. This will allow us to, for example, provide more information on outcomes achieved by participants who started over the course of year 1 (April 2019 to March 2020) in future publications.

The flexible, person-centred support No One Left Behind seeks to put in place means that participants may experience support differently, based on their individual circumstances and needs – for example, being able to disengage and reengage in support as required. As a result, participant journeys will differ in nature and pace, and progression and achievements will vary based on what a positive outcome for the individual would be. This means broadening our understanding of success from a focus on job outcomes to understanding the steps taken and progress made towards work.

As delivery under No One Left Behind is expanded over time (see the Delivery Plan) and we learn more about which data are important to report on to describe the journeys of the people who receive support, we will develop a range of statistics that are appropriate. Whilst we expect to produce some statistics that are similar to those for FSS, the range of data that we use and how we present them is likely to change and evolve over time, building a picture of the whole user journey. A key product to help us realise that ambition will be the Shared Measurement Framework.

The Employability Shared Measurement Framework

A key finding presented in the No One Left Behind: review of employability services was the requirement to align and streamline data collected across services, to enable a consistent approach to measurement and greater transparency of data across the system. The Shared Measurement Framework will initially set out key questions we need to answer to understand how well services are reaching and working for people, and then develop recommendations on which data we need to collect and report on to answer them.

We will gradually align our statistics reporting, where appropriate, to these recommendations over time. They will be particularly important to help us understand the journeys of those who are furthest away from the labour market and to develop the range of data that we publish.

Feedback

To ensure the statistics are developed in a way which is useful to users, we will be asking for views on a range of topics as the development work described above is taken forward. If you have comments or questions in the meantime please contact: employabilitydata@gov.scot.