Scotland's Devolved Employment Services: statistical summary February 2020

Health & Work Support Pilot

The Health & Work Support pilot operates in Dundee and Fife. It streamlines existing health and employability services, offering support to those in work by providing a single point of contact for those at risk of falling out of work or who are recently unemployed (up to 6 months) due to ill health. The service offers NHS delivered case management support, as well as offering specialist advice to individuals and employers. This 2-year pilot was launched on 26 June 2018. Tables 36 to 45 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 2,303 referrals to the pilot from its launch to the end of December 2019. Of these, 2,124 were enrolled into case management within the same period. 1,198 (56%) of these enrolments were in Dundee and 926 (44%) were in Fife.

In the most recent quarter (October to December 2019), 367 people were referred and 345 of these subsequently enrolled. This is an 18% decrease in referrals and an 18% decrease in enrolments from the previous quarter. Some of this reduction is due to lower numbers of people enrolling in December during the festive period. The number of enrolments may increase as people who are referred during the last quarter may still enrol in the service after the end of December.

Figure 11: Health & Work Support referrals, to end of December 2019^[13]

Figure 12: Health & Work Support enrolments, to end of December 201913

An additional 41 people were offered light touch support between July and December 2019, of which 14 were in Dundee and 27 in Fife. 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 13).

Figure 13: Age and gender of Health & Work Support enrolments, to end of December 2019

Most people (56%) heard about the service from a GP, 10% from other health professionals, 12% from Jobcentre Plus, 11% from their employer, and 11% from other sources including advertising and word of mouth.

Less than half of people (41%) reported a long-term health condition. Of these, 82% were either ‘limited a lot’ or ‘limited a little’ in their ability to carry out day-to-day activities (Figure 14). This means 34% of people (724 out of 2,124) reported being disabled. Many people using this service have a health condition which is not long term.

The most common health conditions reported are musculoskeletal conditions (e.g. back pain; 58%), followed by mental health conditions (30%). 9% reported other types of health conditions, and for 4% of people health condition is unknown.

Figure 14: Long-term health conditions and extent of limitation, Health & Work Support enrolments, to end of December 2019

Notes:

1. Less than 1% are unknown and therefore are too small to be showing in this chart