Scotland's Devolved Employment Services: statistical summary February 2019

Fair Start Scotland (FSS)

The Scottish Government launched Fair Start Scotland on 3 April 2018. The service is primarily designed to meet the needs of those who face a range of challenges in obtaining work. It is a voluntary service that aims to deliver support to 38,000 people over a 3 year referral period. More information about the service can be found here.

Information on how we measure each stage of the participant journey through FSS can be found in the Background Information section of this publication. Tables 1 to 8 in the accompanying Excel tables refer to FSS data.

How many people joined?

Since its launch, FSS received 12,969 referrals, and 55%^[1] of these referrals went on to join the service. From launch to 31 December 2018, 7,031 people joined the service.

Figure 1: Participant journeys on Fair Start Scotland, up to 31 December 2018

* Since participants can receive pre-employment support for up to 12 months (or even longer in some cases) we don't have enough information yet to accurately calculate outcome rates. We will however publish job start and outcome figures in the next publication.

Figure 2 shows an influx of referrals in the first three months (Q1) following service launch, amounting to almost half of all referrals received up to 31 December 2018.

Figure 2: Employment support referrals and starts, Fair Start Scotland, up to 31 December 2018

This is the first time we have published referrals and starts by Local Authority area. The number of referrals varies across the country, and generally reflects the differences in the size of the population in each area. FSS is delivered across nine geographic areas, made up of Local Authority areas. We will be considering what further information can be published at Local Authority area level for future publications.

Table 1: Fair Start Scotland referrals and starts by Local Authority area, up to 31 December 2018

From the information we gathered about individuals who joined Fair Start Scotland, we know:

Figure 3: Age and gender profile of FSS participants, up to 31 December 2018

• More males (65%) than females (35%) joined the service. Most females were aged 35 to 49; whereas most males were aged 50+. 15% of all participants were aged 16 to 24.

Figure 4: Long-term health conditions and extent of limitation, FSS participants, up to 31 December 2018

• Over two thirds (70%) reported a long-term health condition. Of those, 77% had one long-term health condition, with almost 24% reporting two or more health conditions.
• Of those reporting a condition, 82% were either 'limited a lot' or 'limited a little' in their ability to carry out day-to-day activities. This means 57% of all FSS participants (4,004 of 7,031) reported having a disability.

Figure 5: Long-term health conditions, FSS participants, up to 31 December 2018

• Almost a third (33%) of long-term health conditions reported were mental health conditions. Almost a fifth (19%) were long-term illnesses, diseases or conditions and 16% were physical disabilities.
• 84% reported being from white ethnic groups, while 3% reported being from minority ethnic groups. For 13% of participants, ethnicity is unknown.