Scotland's Devolved Employment Services: statistical summary May 2019

Health & Work Support Pilot 

The Health & Work Support Pilot streamlines existing health and employability services by providing a single point of contact for those at risk of falling out of work or who have recently left work due to ill health. The service offers NHS delivered case-management support to those at risk of falling out of work or recently unemployed (up to 6 months) due to ill health, as well as offering specialist advice to individuals and employers. This 2-year pilot was launched on 26 June 2018. Tables 100 to 109 in the accompanying Excel tables refer to the Pilot data.

How many people joined and what do we know about the people joining?

There have been 1,018 referrals and 930 enrolments in to case management from the start of the pilot to 29 March 2019. Of enrolments, 598 (64%) were in Dundee and 332 (36%) were in Fife.

Of these, 436 were referred and 386 were enrolled during the third quarter of the pilot (1 January 2019 to 29 March 2019). This is a 29% increase in referrals and 21% increase in enrolments from the previous quarter.

Figure 10: Health & Work Support referrals and enrolments, up to 29 March 2019

• Most people enrolled into the case management services were employed (86%), with 14% being recently unemployed (up to 6 months). 
• An additional 26 people were offered light touch support between 26 June 2018 and 31 December 2018, of which 10 were in Dundee and 16 in Fife. This is offered when people are referred but fall outside of the enrolment criteria. This information will be reported every six months due to the numbers being small.
• Most users (56%) heard about the service from a GP, 11% from other health professionals, 13% from Jobcentre Plus, 11% from their employer, and 9% from other sources including advertising and word of mouth.

• More females (55%) than males (45%) joined the service. There was a higher proportion of females in each age group up until age 45 to 54. 
• The most common health conditions reported are musculoskeletal conditions (e.g. back pain; 62%), followed by mental health conditions (26%). 9% reported other types of health conditions, and for 3% of participants health condition is unknown.
• Less than half of users (39%) reported a long-term health condition. Of these, 78% were either ‘limited a lot’ or ‘limited a little’ in their ability to carry out day-to-day activities. This means 31% of participants (288 out of 930) reported having a disability.

Figure 11: Age and gender profile of Health & Work Support enrolments, up to 29 March 2019

Figure 12: Long-term health conditions and extent of limitation, Health & Work Support enrolments, up to 29 March 2019