Scotland's Devolved Employment Services: statistical summary February 2022

Fair Start Scotland (FSS)

Introduction

Fair Start Scotland is the Scottish Government’s devolved employability support service, and aims to help those further from the labour market to move into and sustain fair work. FSS launched on 3 April 2018 with funding to support up to 38,000 people into work over an initial three year referral period to end March 2021. In response to the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, referral into the service has been extended to March 2023.

FSS provides individualised one-to-one support to unemployed people who face the greatest challenges to obtaining work, including people with a disability or health condition, people with convictions, care-experienced young people, single parents, refugees, ethnic minorities, and people who live in some of the most deprived areas in Scotland. More information about the service can be found here.

Fair Start Scotland is delivered by a mixed economy of public, private and third sector providers across nine geographical areas throughout Scotland. Potential participants can engage with Fair Start Scotland in a variety of ways. A referral can be made by an individual’s Jobcentre Plus (JCP) Work Coach. Alternatively, participants can be signposted to Fair Start Scotland through third party organisations or they can self-refer to their local provider if they meet specific criteria. Third-party referrals relate to referrals from outwith JCP.

After a referral is made, the participant is matched with a provider in their local area. The provider makes contact and offers an introduction in which the service is fully explained. The participant is then given the necessary information to engage with Fair Start Scotland.

How many people have joined FSS?

There were 62,821 referrals to FSS between its launch in April 2018 and the end of December 2021. Of the total referrals to FSS, 41,844 went on to start receiving employability support. This includes 1,863 people who have already been supported by Fair Start Scotland^[6].

Referrals and starts have decreased from a high point observed in April – June 2021, but remain high compared to the lower numbers of referrals and starts seen in the quarters after the first lockdown (April – June 2020 onwards, see Background Information section on the impact of COVID-19). Referrals have fallen by 17% to 4,010 this quarter and starts have decreased by 16% to 2,695, this fall may be at least partly due to the seasonal dip as seen in previous years. Compared to the equivalent quarter in 2020, referrals have risen by 24% and starts have increased by 13%.

The Scottish Government’s evaluation of the third year of the service was published in October 2021^[7] - with accompanying statistics tables published at the same time^[8]. It showed that compared to the unemployed population of Scotland there were some groups that were under-represented in FSS in year 3: women, people from minority ethnic backgrounds, people from the youngest (16-24) and oldest (50-64) age bands, while a higher proportion of disabled people and people aged 25-34 used the service. For gender, ethnic group and disability, this pattern was also true for year 1^[9] and year 2^[10]. For age there was a change – all younger age groups (16-34, rather than just 16-24) were under represented and older groups were over represented before year 3.

Further description on the changes to proportions of these groups using the service follows below. The breakdown of equalities groups for FSS is shown in Figure 3.

Overall, 38% of people who have joined FSS were women and 62% were men. The proportion of women in FSS increased from years 1 to 3: from 35% in year 1, to 37% in year 2 and 40% in year 3. In the most recent quarter of year 4 (October – December 2021), 38% of participants were women.

The most common age group of people joining FSS was 35-49 years (28% of people), followed by 50 years old and over (26%), 25-34 years (25%), and 16-24 years (19%). Over the course of years 1 to 3, there was an increase in the proportion of participants from the younger age bands (16-34), and a decrease in the older age bands (35+). Participants aged 35 and over made up 60% of all starts in year 1, 52% in year 2 and 47% in year 3. There was an increase in the proportion of older (35+) participants in the first three quarters of year 4, to 58%, mainly due to an increase in participants aged 50+, from 21% in January – March 2021 (year 3) to 30% in October – December 2021. Participants aged 16-34 made up 38% of all starts in year 1, 44% in year 2, and 53% in year 3. In the first three quarters of year 4, 41% of participants were 16-34. This drop is primarily due to a decrease in 16-24 year old participants, from 23% in January – March 2021 (year 3) to 12% in October – December 2021.

Overall, 5% of people who have joined FSS were from minority ethnic backgrounds and 71% were white, with ethnicity unknown for the remaining 24% of participants. In the most recent quarter, 6% of participants were from a minority ethnic group and 86% of participants were white. Monitoring changes to the proportion of minority ethnic participants over time is difficult due to the percentage being low and the high proportion of unknowns, and there is ongoing work to improve data quality and collection^[11]. In year 1, 4% of participants were minority ethnic, 6% in year 2, 4% in year 3, and 6% so far in year 4.

44% of people joining FSS reported a disability. The proportion of disabled participants decreased between years 1 and 3: from 55% in year 1, to 44% in year 2, and 32% in year 3^[12]. In year 4 it increased once more to levels similar to year 2: 45% in April – June 2021, 43% in July – September and 49% in the most recent quarter.

Overall, 63% of people joining FSS reported having a long-term health condition, 30% reported no long-term health condition, with the rest (7%) unknown. In the most recent quarter of year 4, 64% of people reported a long-term health condition, 33% did not, and for 3% this was unknown.

Figure 4 shows that the most common type of long-term health condition reported was mental health (34%). Between year 1 and 2 there was a 5 percentage point increase in people reporting a mental health condition among those joining FSS, from 31% to 36%. This remained at 36% in year 3, but decreased to 31% in the first three quarters of year 4.

The second most commonly reported type of health condition was a long-term illness, disease or condition, which affected 17% of people joining FSS and has remained close to this level over time. In the most recent quarter (October – December 2021), the proportion was also 17%.

A physical disability was the third most common type of long-term health condition reported at 10%. The number of people reporting a physical disability has varied over time from 14% in year 1, to 10% in year 2, 6% in year 3, and 12% in the most recent quarter.

How many people left FSS early?

Someone is defined as having left FSS early (an ‘early leaver’) if they leave FSS before the end of the pre-employment support period and without having sustained employment for at least 3 months. The pre-employment support period usually lasts for up to 1 year. In some cases, it can last up to 18 months, but this has only applied to a small number of people so far.

Overall, 18,543 people have left FSS early. As with job outcomes, as time goes on we get a more complete picture of the numbers of people staying on FSS or leaving early. Where we have a complete picture¹⁵ 49% of people left the service early. There was a reduction in those leaving early between years 1 and 2, with 53% of participants who joined in year 1 leaving early compared to 46% in year 2. In the first three quarters of year 3 (April – December 2020), there was an increase in those leaving FSS early to 50%.

Figure 5 shows that the percentage of people leaving early does not have large differences for most of the equalities groups. However, the percentage was higher for those reporting a disability, particularly for those who have a long-term health condition that limits daily activities a lot (54% left early); compared with those with a long-term health condition that did not limit daily activities at all (45%). Younger participants also had higher rates of leaving early: 53% of those 16-24, compared with 47% of those 50+.

How many people entered and sustained employment?

A total of 14,349 people who joined FSS have started a job.

COVID-19 has had an impact on the operation of FSS as well as the labour market context^[17] (See background notes for more information). This has had an impact on job starts within FSS, though there is not a simple explanation for changes.

Figure 6 shows changes in FSS job starts since October 2019. Since COVID-19 restrictions began in March 2020 this has shown a lot of variation. December decreases are likely to have a seasonal component and are seen in each year.

There was a reduction in job starts from April 2020 after the first lockdown in Scotland followed by a large increase up until November 2020 (peaking in August 2020). Levels of job starts rose in March 2021 after the seasonal decrease reaching a peak of 521 jobs in May 2021 before falling again afterwards. In the last quarter job starts rose to 452 in November before sharply falling to 174 in December. However, figures for recent months are likely to increase in future publications as there can be a delay between a participant starting a job and it being recorded by service providers.

Of the 14,349 people who started work, so far 9,067 had sustained employment for at least 3 months (13 weeks), 6,468 sustained employment for at least 6 months (26 weeks), and 3,943 sustained employment for at least 12 months (52 weeks), as of December 2021.

Job outcome rates can only be reported for start cohorts where enough time has passed in pre-employment support and for outcomes to be achieved. These show:

• most people who started FSS did not enter work or go on to sustain employment: 37% started a job, 26% sustained employment for 3 months, 20% sustained employment for 6 months, and 14% sustained employment for 12 months^[18]
• however, high levels of those starting jobs sustain them: 71% of people starting jobs went on to sustain employment for 3 months, 79% of the people who sustained employment for 3 months went on to reach 6 months, and 77% of those who sustained employment for 6 months went on to reach at least 12 months

Figures 7, 8, 9 and 10 show how the rates of job starts and outcomes compare between different equality groups.

The rates of job starts do not show a difference by gender, though slightly higher rates of outcomes were achieved by women. For both men and women, 37% started a job. 3 month job outcomes were achieved by 27% of women and 25% of men, 6 month job outcomes were achieved by 21% of women and 19% of men, and 12 month outcomes were achieved by 16% of women and 13% of men.

The biggest differences in job start and outcomes rates were observed in age and long-term health conditions, which are often related. 40% of both 16-24 year olds and 25-34 year olds started work after joining FSS, compared with 33% of those aged 50 plus – a difference of 7 percentage points. Differences are also seen in the proportions of people sustaining employment at 3 months (27% for 16-24 and 28% for 25-34; versus 24% for 50+), 6 months (20% for 16-24 and 21% for 25-34; versus 18% for 50+) and 12 months (15% for 16-24 and 16% for 25-34; versus 13% for 50+).

24% of those with a long-term health condition that limited daily activities a lot went on to start work, compared to 45% of those with a health condition that did not limit daily activities. The difference between these two groups was also observed in the proportions of people sustaining employment at 3 months (18% for those limited a lot, and 30% for those not limited at all), 6 months (14% and 23%) and 12 months (11% and 17%).

38% of minority ethnic participants went on to start work, compared to 36% of white participants. Small differences are also seen for 3 month outcomes (26% for minority ethnic participants; 25% for white participants), 6 month outcomes (20% and 19%), and 12 month outcomes (17% and 15%).