Scotland's Devolved Employment Services: statistical summary May 2019

Work First Scotland (WFS)

Work First Scotland (WFS) is a devolved disability employment support service. It is one of two voluntary transitional services put in place before FSS was launched and aimed to deliver support for up to 3,300 disabled people. Referrals to WFS were made between 3 April 2017 and 9 March 2018. WFS participants could receive up to a maximum of 12 months support in total. 

Information on how we measure each stage of the participant journey through WFS can be found in the Background Information section of this publication. Tables 80 to 89 in the accompanying Excel tables refer to WFS data. The first evaluation report regarding WFS and Work Able Scotland was published in April 2018 and can be found here.

How many people joined?

6,939 people were referred into WFS between 3 April 2017 and 9 March 2018. As a result 4,432 people (64%) joined the service. 1,788 of these people left the service early. By 29 March 2019, 1,182 people had sustained employment for at least 13 weeks and 991 had sustained employment for at least 26 weeks. 

Figure 8: Participant journeys on Work First Scotland, up to 29 March 2019^[3]

From the information we gathered about individuals achieving short and sustained job outcomes on Work First Scotland, we know:

• More males than females achieved job outcomes. 62% of short and 61% of sustained job outcomes were for males. This reflects the fact that more males (64% of participants) than females (36%) joined the service. 
• The highest proportion of people joining the service were aged 35 to 49 (31%). This age group also has the highest proportion of people achieving short (33%) and sustained (34%) job outcomes. 
• The highest proportion of job outcomes were achieved by people reporting long-term mental health conditions. 38% of both short and sustained job outcomes were achieved by those with a mental health condition. 33% of people joining the service reported a mental health condition. 
• The distribution of types of long-term health condition for those achieving short and sustained job outcomes, and for those joining the service, were broadly similar.
• The highest proportion of job outcomes (77% short and 78% sustained) were achieved by people only reporting one long-term health condition. 73% of people joining the service reported one long-term health condition. 
• 4% of participants achieving short and sustained job outcomes reported being from minority ethnic groups. This is the same proportion as those joining the service.