Scotland's Devolved Employment Services: statistical summary February 2022

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.

Since April 2019, a range of Scottish Government funding has been made available to Local Government partners as the scope of delivery under No One Left Behind expands over time. This includes funding for the initial phase of No One Left Behind, from April 2019 (we have reported on people supported by this in previous publications), the Parental Employability Support Fund, from February 2020, and the Young Person’s Guarantee, from November 2020. The experimental statistics in this publication now report on more people, who are supported by the totality of these funds. The funding aims to provide support for people of all ages, with a range of differing characteristics and circumstances, including parents, who need help on their journey towards work.

Note that the experimental statistics in this publication relate only to Scottish Government funded activity and do not report on the entirety of employability related activity in each local authority area.

The support provided may vary from short, focused interventions or longer term support, dependent upon 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.

Reach of services: How many people accessed employability support delivered under No One Left Behind?

A total of 14,238 people started receiving support in the two and a half year period from April 2019 to September 2021. 3,824^[24] people started in year 1 (April 2019 – March 2020), 4,627 in year 2 (April 2020 – March 2021) and 5,787 in the first half of year 3 (April 2021 – September 2021). The number of people starting to receive support has steadily increased over time; the numbers supported in year 3 so far were more than the total numbers supported in year 2 and also greater than the number of people supported in year 1.

Of the 14,238 people who started to receive support during the first two and a half years (April 2019 – September 2021), 44% were women and 56% were men. The proportion of women who started receiving support increased from 40% in year 1 to 47% in year 2 before falling to 44% over the first half of year 3^[25]. Conversely, the proportion of men who started receiving support decreased from 60% in year 1 to 52% in year 2 before rising to 55% over the first half of year 3. Over three quarters (76%) of all participants were aged under 25. Of these, 77% were aged 15-19 and 23% were aged 20-24. Just under a quarter (24%) of all participants were aged 25 or over. Of these, 77% were aged 25-49^[26] and 23% aged 50 or over. Age was unknown for 1% of participants.

A breakdown by local authority of all participants receiving support between April 2019 and September 2021 is available in Table 10 of the accompanying Excel tables.

People receiving support from April 2020 to September 2021 (year 2 and the first half of year 3)

Data for year 1 (April 2019 – March 2020) was reported as aggregate totals by local authorities. Individual level data collection was put in place from April 2020 and so greater disaggregation for the period April 2020 to September 2021 is available. 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.

10,414 people started to receive support from year 2 onwards (April 2020 - September 2021). During this period, it is clear that the number of people accessing support increased across all age groups (Figure 11). The doubling of numbers seen in the under 25 age group in the last quarter of year 2 (from 689 in October – December 2020 to 1,414 in January – March 2021) corresponds with the introduction of additional funding to support young people in late 2020. After another relatively large increase to 2,102 in the first quarter of year 3 (April – June 2021), numbers have levelled off (n=2,140) in the latest quarter (June - September 2021).

For the 10,414 participants that started receiving support between April 2020 and September 2021 (Figure 12), the gender split was fairly even, with slightly fewer females (45%) than males (54%). Gender was unknown for 1% of participants. There was a lower proportion of women in both the younger (15-19, 38% and 20-24, 42%) and older (50+, 41%) age groups. However, there was a greater proportion of women in the mid age groups (25-34, 67% and 35-49, 68%).^[28]

The overall proportion of participants across the period April 2020 to September 2021 that were from minority ethnic groups was 5%. However there were differences in this proportion in younger and older age groups; being higher in those aged 25 and over (9%) compared with those under 25 (3%). Overall, the proportion of minority ethnic participants increased slightly over time, from 3% in April to June 2020 to 5% in the latest quarter, July to September 2021. This increase was largely driven by the 25 and over age group, where the proportion of minority ethnic participants increased from 6% in April to June 2020 to 11% in July to September 2021, albeit with some fluctuation over quarters.^[29]

14% of all participants accessing support over the period April 2020 to September 2021 reported having a disability. This is broadly similar for those aged under 25 (15%) and those aged 25 and over (13%). The proportion of all participants reporting a disability increased from 11% in the July to September 2020 period to 16% in the April to June 2021 period (also 16% in the latest quarter, July – September 2021). The proportion of under 25s reporting a disability initially decreased from 17% in April to June 2020, to 10% in October to December 2020 but has since steadily increased to 17% again in the most recent quarter. The proportion of those aged 25 and over reporting a disability has increased from 8% in April to June 2020 to 15% in April to June 2021 where it remains stable.^[30]

Parents

Please note that parents are a subgroup of participants supported during the period April 2020 to September 2021 (year 2 and the first half of year 3^[31]) and so the number of parents is not additional to the number of under 25s and those aged 25 and over; rather they are distributed across age groups, with 19% being aged under 25 and 81% aged 25 and above.

Of the 10,414 people who started to receive support during this period (April 2020 – September 2021), 2,160 (21%) were parents. The number of parents have steadily increased across the period (Figure 13) and despite a slight dip in the most recent quarter (from 575 in April - June 2021 to 540 in July - September), more parents were supported in the first 2 quarters of year 3 (n=1,115) than over the whole of year 2 (n=1,045).

Parents as a proportion of all people starting to receive support has fluctuated somewhat over the period; decreasing steadily from 28% in October to December 2020 to 19% in July to September 2021. This decrease in more recent quarters might partly be explained by the increasing number of young people being supported; only 19% of parents supported under No One Left Behind are aged under 25.

The breakdown of equalities groups for parents is shown in Figure 14. The majority of parents are aged 35-49 years (40%) and this has generally been true over time, apart from in the April to June 2021 period when the proportion of 25-34 year olds peaked and was slightly higher than 35-49 year olds (38% and 37% respectively). The proportion of parents was lowest for the youngest (16-19 year olds, 4%) and oldest (over 50 years, 6%) age groups.

The gender difference is more pronounced in the parent subgroup than all participants, where 80% were female. Females outweigh males considerably in the parent subgroup across the period; however the proportion of male parents accessing support has generally increased over time, from 15% in April to June 2020 to 25% in the current quarter, leaving aside a slight dip during April to June 2021.

10% of parents accessing support were from minority ethnic groups. The proportion initially peaked at 12% during July to September 2020. After dipping to 8% in the following quarter (October – December 2020), it has steadily increased to 12% in the latest quarter (July – September 2021).

13% of parents reported having a disability and this proportion has remained fairly stable over time, dipping slightly at 11% in the January to March 2021 period before increasing to 15% in the latest quarter (July to September 2021).

Overall, around two thirds (63%) of parents supported were single parents and this is the same for both the year 2 average and year 3 so far. 14% of parents were mothers under 25.

39% of all parents had one child, 28% had two children, 22% had three or more children, with number of children unknown in 11% of cases. Whilst there has been some variation in proportions across the period, the pattern is similar throughout. The proportion of parents with 3 or more children has fallen slightly in year 3 so far (20%) compared to the year 2 average (23%).

10% of all parents had a youngest child aged under 12 months. This proportion has increased from 9% in year 2 to 11% over the first two quarters of year 3. The latest quarter (July – September 2021) saw the highest proportion, at 13%.

10% of all parents had a disabled child within their family, with status unknown in 18% of cases. Similarly, the proportion of parents with a disabled child within the family has increased between year 2 (8%; 12% unknown) and year 3 so far (11%; 23% unknown).

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 this publication we have expanded the scope of our data to include more people who are receiving employability support delivered under the No One Left Behind 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.