Scotland's Devolved Employment Services: statistical summary August 2019

Key findings

To end of June 2019:

• 21,943 people were referred to Fair Start Scotland (FSS) and 60% (13,061) joined. The proportion of those joining FSS after being referred is increasing over time – from 48% in the first quarter of FSS to 65%^[1] in the most recent quarter (April to June 2019). 
• 3,004 participants had started a job. 1,328 of these had sustained employment for at least 13 weeks and 649 had sustained employment for at least 26 weeks. 
• Two-thirds (66%) of FSS participants reported a long-term health condition – mental health conditions were most common and accounted for 37% of all conditions reported. 
• 4% of people joining FSS reported being from minority ethnic groups. Of all minority ethnic participants, 44% were women and 54% were men, compared to 34% and 64% respectively of white participants.

Work First Scotland closed in July 2019, and Work Able Scotland will close in November 2019. As the services near conclusion, there is minimal change in the data on job outcomes and so statistics and commentary on the services are no longer included in the publication. Statistics on both services are still available in the Excel tables (tables 22 to 41) which accompany the publication.

Experimental Statistics: we want your views

Tell Us What You Think

The scope of this statistical series has expanded since the first publication in December 2017, as new devolved services have launched and more data becomes available to publish as the services mature. 

To ensure the publication is developing in a way which is useful to people, we are asking for users’ views on a range of topics. You can take part here