Scotland's Devolved Employment Services: statistical summary November 2022

Fair Start Scotland (FSS)

Introduction

FSS is the Scottish Government's devolved employability support service, and aims to help those further from the labour market 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 on mygov.scot - get help to find a job.

FSS is delivered by a mixed economy of public, private and third sector providers across nine geographical areas throughout Scotland. Potential participants can engage with FSS 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 FSS 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 FSS.

How many FSS referrals and starts have there been?

There were 76,576 referrals to FSS between its launch in April 2018 and the end of September 2022. Of the total referrals to FSS, 51,076 went on to start receiving employability support. This includes 3,463 re-joins to the service from participants that have previously been supported by FSS.^[2]

Referrals and starts peaked in April – June 2021 following the lows observed during lockdown. While there has been a decrease from this high point, referrals and starts are at similar levels observed pre-pandemic (See Background Information section on the impact of COVID-19). Referrals have fallen by 7% to 4,316 this quarter and starts by 11% to 2,850. Compared to the equivalent quarter in 2021, referrals have decreased by 11% and starts by 12%.

Who are the people that have joined FSS?

Of the 51,076 FSS starts, 47,613 people have started on the service, with the difference reflecting people re-joining the service. The following breakdown of equality groups are based on the characteristics of those 47,613 people when they first joined FSS.

Gender

Overall, 38% of people who have joined FSS were female and 62% were male. The proportion of females in FSS increased from years 1 to 4: from 35% in year 1, to 40% in year 4. In the most recent quarter of year 5 (July – September 2022), 39% of participants were female.

Age

Overall, the most common age group of people joining FSS is 35-49 years (29% of people), followed by 50 years old & over and 25-34 years (both at 25%), and 16-24 years (20%).

Over the course of years 1 to 3, there was an increase in the proportion of participants from the youngest age band (16-24), from 16% to 25%. In year 4 however there was a reversal, with the proportion falling to 16% and then increasing to 21% in the most recent quarter.

For participants aged 50 years old & over the proportion of people in this age group decreased across years 1 to 3, from 30% to 20%. In year 4 the proportion increased to 27% and in the most recent quarter the proportion was 23%.

Ethnicity

Overall, 6% of people who have joined FSS were from minority ethnic backgrounds and 73% were white, with ethnicity unknown for the remaining 21% of participants.

In the most recent quarter 11% of participants were from a minority ethnic group and 80% of participants were white. Monitoring changes to the proportion of minority ethnic participants over time is difficult due to the high proportion of unknowns, and there is ongoing work to improve data quality and collection.^[3] The proportion of unknowns has fallen to 9% in the most recent quarter and 13% across year 4, compared to higher proportions in the earlier years of the service (year 1: 17%, year 2: 31%, year 3: 29%).

Disability^[4]

Overall, a similar proportion of FSS participants have reported a disability (45%) as reported not having a disability (46%), while this was unknown for the remaining 9%. The proportion of disabled participants has varied across years with the highest proportion (55%) in year 1 and the lowest (32%) in year 3, though see footnote on year 3 data.^[5] In year 4, the proportion of disabled participants increased (47%) and remains at the same level for year 5 so far.

Long-Term Health Conditions^[6]

Overall, 63% of people joining FSS reported having a long-term health condition (LTHC), 31% reported no LTHC, with 6% being unknown. In the most recent quarter, 56% of people reported a LTHC, 37% did not, and for 7% this was unknown.

There are many LTHC that may impact on a person's ability to gain and maintain employment without additional support. The most commonly reported LTHC by participants joining FSS was a mental health condition (34%). The proportion of people reporting a mental health condition has fluctuated across years from 31% in year 1 to 36% in years 2 and 3 though as remained the most widely reported condition. See figure 2 for a breakdown of the most commonly reported LTHC by FSS participants.

Evaluation Reports

The Scottish Government's Evaluation of the third year of the service (opens in new window) was published in October 2021 - with the Accompanying statistical table (opens in new window) published at the same time. It showed that compared to the unemployed population of Scotland there were some groups that were under-represented in FSS starts 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 found in the FSS Year One Evaluation Report (opens in new window) and the FSS Year Two Evaluation Report (opens in a new window). 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 prior to year 3. The Scottish Government's evaluation of the fourth year of FSS will be published in due course.

How many FSS early leavers have there been?

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 but can last up to 18 months in some cases. However this has only applied to a small number of people to date.

There have been 24,283 early leavers from the 51,076 FSS starts (includes 3,463 re-joins). As time goes on we get a more complete picture of the proportion of starts on the service that stay on FSS or leave early.

Where we have a complete picture^[9] 52% of starts left early. There was a reduction in starts leaving early between years 1 and 2, from 53% of starts in year 1 to 47% in year 2. In year 3 there was an increase to 52% and in the first half of year 4, 58% of participants left FSS early.

Figure 4 shows the percentage of starts leaving early across each of the equalities groups. The percentage of early leavers was higher for those reporting a disability, particularly for those who have a long-term health condition that limits daily activities a lot (56%); compared with those with a long-term health condition that did not limit daily activities at all (47%). Younger participants also had higher rates of leaving early: 54% of those 16-24, compared with 49% of those aged 50 & over.

How many FSS starts entered and sustained employment?

There has been a total of 17,669 job starts from the 51,076 FSS starts, including the 3,463 re-joins to the service, since the launch of FSS.

While there can be significant variation in the number of job starts by month, the number of jobs starts is currently higher than pre-pandemic levels. Figure 5 shows both the impact of Covid-19 restrictions beginning in March 2020 and the regular seasonal decline observed each Christmas with subsequent increases in the new year. The highest number of job starts in any one month was 513 in May 2021, the only time monthly job starts have surpassed 500. There was a dip in jobs starts in June (348) and July (345) this year, followed by a marked increase in August (433). The most recent month shows 356 job starts, however, it is important to be cautious when interpreting data for the most recent months as there can be delays between a participant starting a job and it being recorded by service providers.

Of the 17,669 job starts, so far 11,789 had sustained employment for at least 3 months (13 weeks), 8,884 sustained employment for at least 6 months (26 weeks), and 5,933 sustained employment for at least 12 months (52 weeks), as of September 2022.

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 FSS starts did not enter work or go on to sustain employment:^[11] 37% started a job, 27% sustained employment for 3 months, 22% sustained employment for 6 months, and 17% sustained employment for 12 months however,
• a high percentage of job starts are sustained: 73% of FSS starts that entered employment went on to sustain employment for 3 months, 81% of those 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 6, 7, 8 and 9 show how the rates of job starts and outcomes compare between different equality groups.

Whilst the job start rate is slightly higher for males at 38% compared to 37% for females, slightly higher rates of outcomes were achieved by female starts on the service. 29% of female starts and 27% of male starts achieved a 3 month job outcome, 24% of female starts and 21% of male starts achieved a 6 month job outcome and 19% of female starts and 15% of male starts achieved a 12 month job outcome.

The biggest differences in job start and outcomes rates were observed in age and long-term health conditions, which can often be related. Of the FSS starts in the youngest age band (16-24), 42% started work after joining FSS compared to FSS starts in the oldest age band (50+), where 33% started work - a difference of 9 percentage points. Differences were also seen in proportions of starts from these age groups that sustained employment at 3 months (29% for 16-24; versus 25% for 50+) and 6 months (22% for 16-24; versus 21% for 50+) however there were no differences in the proportions sustaining employment at 12 months (16% for both age groups).

Of the FSS starts that were from minority ethnic backgrounds, 39% went on to start work, compared to 37% of white participants. Small differences were also seen for 3 month outcomes (29% for minority ethnic participants; 27% for white participants), 6 month outcomes (24% and 22%), and 12 month outcomes (17% and 16%).

Of the FSS starts with a long-term health condition that limited daily activities a lot, 25% went on to start work, compared to 45% starts that had a health condition that did not limit daily activities. The difference between these two groups was also observed in the proportions sustaining employment at 3 months (19% for those limited a lot, and 33% for those not limited at all), 6 months (15% and 26%) and 12 months (12% and 19%).

How many parents have joined FSS?

Annual data on FSS participants that are parents was first published in May 2021. From the August 2022 statistical publication quarterly parent data for FSS participants is published, covering year 5 onwards.

As with overall participants, the numbers of parent starts on the service in years 1 to 3 is the same as the number of people who received support. With the extension of FSS beyond the initial three year period, people who have previously received support may re-join the service. Therefore the total number of parent starts on FSS from the start of year 4 onwards and thus parent starts overall is not the same as the number of people that were parents receiving support.

Of people joining FSS for the first time 9,669 are parents, while there has been 10,432 total parent starts on the service since its launch in April 2018, including re-joins.

Cumulative totals should be interpreted with caution and comparison of data between years is not possible due to the way the collection has developed over time.^[17] In the latest quarter, of the 740 parent starts on FSS there were 639 people who were parents accessing FSS support for the first time. These 639 parents represented 27% of all 2,404 people accessing FSS support for the first time. Of these 639 parents, the following breakdowns were observed in terms of parents and those from families at highest risk of being affected by child poverty:^[18] 37% were disabled, 40% were lone parents, 3% were mothers aged under 25, 22% were parents with three or more children, 33% had a child aged under 12 months and 18% were from a minority ethnic background.

How many parent starts on FSS entered and sustained employment?

For the 10,432 FSS starts that were parents, 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 parent FSS starts did not enter work or go on to sustain employment: 38% started a job, 28% sustained employment for 3 months, 24% sustained employment for 6 months, and 18% sustained employment for 12 months.

38% of parents started a job after joining the service, similar to the proportion of FSS participants overall at 37%. 32% of both disabled parents and disabled participants who were not reported to be parents started work, compared to 42% of FSS starts who were not disabled and not reported to be parents. A job start was achieved by 32% of lone parent starts, 36% of FSS starts that were mothers under 25, 38% of parent starts with three or more children, 38% of parent starts that had a child aged under 12 months and 38% of FSS starts that were minority ethnic parents. These figures should be used with caution as some percentages are based on very small numbers.^[19]

28% of parents achieved a 3 month job outcome, similar to the proportion of FSS participants overall at 27%. 24% of disabled parents sustained employment for 3 months, compared to 23% of disabled participants who were not reported to be parents, whilst 30% of FSS starts who were not disabled and not reported to be parents sustained employment for 3 months. Three months sustained employment was achieved by 24% of lone parent starts, 23% of FSS starts that were mothers under 25, 28% of parent starts with three or more children, 29% of parent starts that had a child aged under 12 months and 29% of FSS starts that were minority ethnic parents. These figures should be used with caution as some percentages are based on very small numbers.^[20]

24% of parents achieved a 6 month job outcome which was also similar to the proportion of FSS participants overall at 22%. 19% of both disabled parents and disabled participants who were not reported to be parents sustained employment for 6 months, compared to 24% of participants that were not disabled and not reported to be parents. Six months sustained employment was achieved by 19% of lone parent starts, 16% of FSS starts that were mothers under 25, 25% of parent starts with three or more children, 25% of parent starts that had a child aged under 12 months and 22% of FSS starts that were minority ethnic parents. These figures should be used with caution as some percentages are based on very small numbers.^[21]

18% of parents achieved a 12 month job outcome after starting on the service, similar to the proportion of FSS participants overall at 17%. 15% of disabled parents sustained employment for 12 months, compared to 14% of disabled participants who were not reported to be parents and for participants that were not disabled and not reported to be parents the proportion was higher at 18%. Twelve months sustained employment was achieved by 15% of lone parent starts, 12% of FSS starts that were mothers under 25, 19% of parent starts with three or more children, 19% of parent starts that had a child aged under 12 months and 15% of FSS starts that were minority ethnic parents. These figures should be used with caution as some percentages are based on very small numbers.^[22]