Scotland's Devolved Employment Services: statistical summary August 2019

Health and 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 42 to 51 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 1,480 referrals to the pilot in the year since its launch, to the end of June 2019. Of these, 1,353 were enrolled in to case management within the same period. 823 (61%) of these enrolments were in Dundee and 530 (39%) were in Fife.

In the most recent quarter (April to June 2019), 461 people were referred and 421 subsequently enrolled. This is a 5% increase in referrals and a 9% increase in enrolments from the previous quarter. This number may increase as people who are referred during the last quarter may still enrol in to the service after the end of June.

Figure 9: Health & Work Support referrals, to end of June 2019^[8]

Figure 10: Health & Work Support enrolments, to end of June 2019^[8]

• An additional 40 people were offered light touch support between January and June 2019, of which 12 were in Dundee and 28 in Fife. This is an increase from 26 between  June to December 2018. Light touch support is offered when people are referred but fall outside of the enrolment criteria. This information is reported every six months as the numbers are small.
• Most people enrolled into the case management services were employed (88%), with 12% being recently unemployed (up to 6 months). 
• More females (54%) than males (45%) joined the service. There was a higher proportion of females in all age groups apart from 65+. (Figure 11)
• Most users (57%) heard about the service from a GP, 10% from other health professionals, 11% from Jobcentre Plus, 13% from their employer, and 10% from other sources including advertising and word of mouth.
• Less than half of users (40%) reported a long-term health condition. Of these, 80% were either ‘limited a lot’ or ‘limited a little’ in their ability to carry out day-to-day activities. This means 32% of participants (436 out of 1353) reported having a disability. (Figure 12)
• The most common long-term health conditions reported are musculoskeletal conditions (e.g. back pain; 60%), followed by mental health conditions (27%). 9% reported other types of health conditions, and for 4% of participants health condition is unknown.

Figure 11: Age and gender of Health and Work Support enrolments, to end of June 2019

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