Young Person's Guarantee: business and regulatory impact assessment

Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment

Title of Proposal: Young Person's Guarantee

Purpose and intended effect

Background

Due to the economic impacts of Covid-19, the Scottish Government had to quickly adapt and respond to the changing circumstances and put in place a set of measures to deal with the impact of a projected increase in youth unemployment.

The proposal to create a Young Person's Guarantee developed around the recommendations of the industry led Advisory Group on Economic Recovery (AGER) and Enterprise and Skills Strategic Board. Those recommendations set out the potential impact of increased levels of youth unemployment and set out the need for prioritising the design and rapid implementation of specific interventions to support young people. In response to these reports, the Scottish Government asked Sandy Begbie to lead on how a young person's Guarantee could be delivered on a national basis. Following the publication of the report, Sandy has lead on the implementation group and is prepared to deal with the immediacy of the challenge.

The AGER recommendations identified that there are already a wide range of programmes designed to offer individuals opportunities including apprenticeships, and further education delivered by Colleges and higher education. In addition, a number of organisations provide direct support to young people to prepare them for work including industry led Developing the Young Workforce groups, Scottish Government employability provision, Department for Work and Pensions, Local Authorities and third sector organisations.

Objective

The Young Person's Guarantee is a commitment that, within two years, every person aged between 16 and 24 will have the opportunity, depending on their circumstances, to study; take up an apprenticeship, job or work experience; or participate in formal volunteering.

The Young Person's Guarantee will advance a number of our National Performance Framework national outcomes but is particularly relevant to:

• We will have a globally competitive, entrepreneurial, inclusive and sustainable economy.
• We grow up loved, safe and respected so that we realise our full potential.
• We are well educated, skilled and able to contribute to society.
• We have thriving and innovative businesses, with quality jobs and fair work for everyone.

Additionally, the UK Government introduced the Kickstart Scheme that provides funding for employers to create job placements for 16 to 24 year olds on Universal Credit. The Scottish Government has been working with the Department for Work and Pensions to influence the implementation of Kickstart.

The Young Person's Guarantee tackles many of the same issues with many Scottish partners, particularly Local Authorities and third sector organisations, using additional funding provided by the Guarantee to add value to Kickstart placements.

Rationale for Government intervention

The negative impacts that can result from periods of unemployment on young people early in their careers is well evidenced and understood from previous analysis of the last economic crisis of 2008. In learning from that approach, the recommendations from AGER and ESSB reports were prioritised and actioned quickly to meet the scale of the potential challenge.

In taking forward recommendations a cross government approach was adopted, involving joint working with local government to tackle the challenges presented by the pandemic and providing equal opportunities to all young people regardless of their circumstances. The Guarantee builds on existing infrastructure and policy formation developed through the No One Left Behind employability approach to delivering services.

The Guarantee is not a new programme but will seek to bring together existing policies and programmes that deliver the overall ambition to support young people to be able to access all available opportunities. These policies and programmes are funded and delivered by a range of partners, whose knowledge and expertise is essential to providing the best possible person centred support.

The Young Person's Guarantee is intended to act as a conduit for existing offers and will seek to simplify and align our existing strategies, and focuses on important issues laid out in a range of education, economy and labour market action plans.

Consultation

The Scottish Government has consulted with stakeholders from public, private and third sector on the development and implementation of the Young Person's Guarantee, to ensure the critical assessment of the policies and solutions required to deliver the Guarantee. In developing the approach, the Scottish Government commissioned Sandy Begbie, who was involved in the delivery of the Edinburgh Guarantee, to take forward a review of the current system. In doing so, a range of partners gave views formally and informally to feed into the recommendations presented in the outline report.

In developing the employer engagement approach of the Guarantee, a number of organisations were consulted. This included Scottish Water, Scottish Power, Arnold Clark, Federation of Small Business, and Fair Work colleagues as well as those represented on the Implementation Group responsible for shaping and supporting the preliminary findings.

Education

As well as prioritising the short term economic needs, the Guarantee also recognises the need to align education provision to the future economic opportunities. The consultation involved discussions with partners across the Education sectors including Universities, Colleges, SDS, SFC and other such education and training providers. Engagement with these bodies took place throughout the development stage to identify new areas for collaboration and how the Guarantee could be a catalyst for change to tackle longstanding issues.

Third Sector

The third sector play a crucial role in engaging with, and providing employability opportunities for, a range of our young people, particularly some of our most disadvantaged young people to offer opportunities that are tailored to the individual's circumstances. Third sector partners were a key focus for the engagement process of the Guarantee, and consultation involved partners including SCVO, Princes Trust, Action for Children, Enable, and Barnardo's. The Guarantee recognises the role the third sector will play in supporting those young people with barriers to the labour market.

Young People

The development of the Guarantee has engaged with young people from the start. The national young person's representative organisation, Young Scot, hosted an event with young people and young people partner organisations in August 2020.

Subsequently, Young Scot took forward a programme of work to support the early delivery of the Guarantee including establishing a cross country Leadership Panel of young people. The Scottish Government also worked closely with Intercultural Youth Scotland to hear directly from a cohort of young people who have traditionally had barriers accessing opportunities.

Reports from both Young Scot and Intercultural Youth Scotland were produced as part of the Guarantee's launch arrangements.

Government and Local Government

Early engagement was sought with DWP, COSLA, ESSB, and Local Authorities to align the principles which underpin the delivery of the Guarantee with existing activities. Reflecting their role as key delivery partners, Local Authorities have been engaged with through the formulation of the policy development stages and implementation, looking to ensure a consistency of approach with services already being delivered.

Engagement continues to ensure there is no overlap between existing provision but that the Young Person's Guarantee enhances the offering to young people.

Enterprise and Skills Agencies

The early policy development of the Guarantee set out the need for a 'no wrong door' approach to be taken to young people and employers. The agencies involved in delivering the interventions that make up the Guarantee have been heavily involved in discussions on how the system might align to better effect through discussions with Sandy Begbie and also through the Implementation Group. All have committed to supporting the principles and ambitions of the Guarantee.

Employers and Employer Groups

The recommendation to have an employer led approach to the Guarantee came from the Advisory Group on Economic Recovery. The Group was chaired by Benny Higgins and focussed on recommendations that the Scottish Government could take forward to deliver a sustainable economic recovery.

In order to maintain that employer led approach, Scottish Ministers asked Sandy Begbie to lead on how a Guarantee could be taken forward. As part of the process, employers and employer groups were included within the extensive stakeholder engagement during the development and early implementation of the Guarantee, including, but not limited to, Developing the Young Workforce, CapGemini, Standard Life Aberdeen, EY, NHS Lothian, Scottish Financial Enterprise and SSE. In addition, others were engaged specifically on the development of the 5 Asks of employers.

Employer led groups who were engaged include; Federation of Small Business; Scottish Chamber of Commerce; various sector representative groups including Scotch Whisky Association, Scottish Food and Drink Federation, Lantra, and Scottish Forestry Commission.

The employers consulted shared the commitment to young people and articulated the need to create a whole system approach that prepares and skills young people to be ready for the current and transforming labour market. The system must be simplified to allow employers of all sizes to interact with and benefit from it.

Public Consultation

With young people being at the centre of the Guarantee, it was crucial to engage with learners and workers to understand the pathways and types of training that can support their participation and progression in the labour market. As a first step to simplify the current employability landscape, we will aim to clearly map out the journey to help young people and employers to navigate the system. It was recommended that the young person's journey was co-designed with young people using third sector organisation Young Scot, with initial sessions commencing in October. In addition, engagement has taken place with Intercultural Youth Scotland to ensure that the voices of minority ethnic young people are properly represented and any barriers to accessing the Guarantee understood.

Parliament

The Young Person's Guarantee was launched in Parliament on 5^th November 2020 by Cabinet Secretary for Economy, Fair Work and Culture:

'The pandemic is having a disproportionate economic effect on our young people, reducing job opportunities just as they are starting out on their careers. I am delighted to be launching the Young Person's Guarantee today to help ensure their prospects are not permanently damaged.'

Both Cabinet Secretary for Economy, Fair Work and Culture and Sandy Begbie have engaged regularly with opposition parties to discuss the proposals within the initial report with a view to building cross party consensus. All parties have signalled their support for the ambitions of the Guarantee. Information on the Guarantee has also been sent to all MSPs.

Ahead of the Parliamentary statement, The Guarantee was also discussed and agreed by the Scottish Cabinet. Ministerial Statement: Young Persons' Guarantee | Scottish Parliament TV

Industry Leadership

Industry leadership will be integral to the design and delivery of an effective Guarantee. The strategy itself was developed by Sandy Begbie, CEO of Scottish Financial Enterprise. Sandy has committed to lead the work and ensure that the industry input is effective, valued and acted upon.

Work is underway to align the wider governance which includes the regional employer leadership developed through Developing the Young Workforce. An employer advisory group has also been set up to shape the employer engagement work of the Guarantee. This group is to be chaired by Melanie Hill from Scottish Power. This appointment means that there are three industry leaders working across the various groups and sub groups overseeing the Guarantee.

Options

Prior to development of the Guarantee, 2 options were considered by the Scottish Government.

1. Continue with Developing the Young Workforce youth employment strategy without alteration

2. Continue with Developing the Young Workforce as the employer/education element of the Young Person's Guarantee

Sectors and groups affected

Option 1 - Continue with Developing the Young Workforce youth employment strategy

Scottish Government

Benefits

• Existing programme can continue to run and support young people using an established network that has the support of business.

Risks

• DYW Programme is scheduled to end in 2021.
• Existing focus of DYW brings a risk that we fail to drive simplification, alignment and integration, and failure to deliver our ambition to increase in-work learning and upskilling in response to the economic circumstances.
• Labour market information shows the gap between employment rates of disabled and non-disabled people, and white people and people from minority ethnic backgrounds. Whilst the delivery of DYW had supported the previous economic recovery, many policy initiatives and the addition of new powers have moved on from when DYW was developed.

Costs

• There would be significant costs to the economy if we do not have a future workforce that is skilled and job ready as well as the societal impacts that would come from a sustained period of youth unemployment.

Education

Benefits

• No change to DYW would provide a more consistent approach to policy development in terms of no changes within schools so business as usual.

Risks

• Existing DYW provision is not resourced enough to support increased levels of employment opportunities, potentially leading to increased risk of negative destinations if we can't support all young people.

Costs

• DYW in isolation will lead to a requirement for increased funding for senior years in high school and further or higher education because young people are more likely to stay in education without additional guidance from other options. There will be additional costs as young people begin to leave education because they are not ready to enter employment.

Third Sector

Benefits

• Continuity of approach. DYW already established and working in partnership with third sector. However, link needs to be strengthened.

Risks

• A risk of under-representation for groups currently being supported by third sector organisations if there is not wider collaboration across partners. Current DYW provision does not support a dedicated policy intervention and the third sector may struggle to support the young participants they deliver services to.

Costs

• The costs to the third sector of having to initiate engagement across Scotland will be substantial, especially for smaller charities and programmes that don't have as wide reach as bigger organisations. The costs incurred in taking a person centred approach to needs is also substantial and cannot be supported through existing DYW budgets.

Local Authority

Benefits

• DYW works in partnership with Local Authorities tackle specific local problems how they see fit and according to local need.

Risks

• Without change to existing DYW there will be a lack of specific support to adapt to the challenges brought on by Covid-19 and reduce the ability to support young people appropriately.

Costs

• No initial additional costs to the Scottish Government but lack of extra funding likely to result in inconsistent offers to young people across the country.

Business

Benefits

• DYW will continue to be employer lead and will allow employers to continue as they were, ensuring a consistency of approach.

Risks

• Lack of provision in the DYW Network may result in the future generation becoming an under skilled workforce and unable to progress into their positive destination. With opportunities being diminished there could be blockages for young people moving towards employment. There is a reduction in job-related training which reduces productivity and investment in human capital.

Costs

• Lack of additional interventions from DYW will result in an increased cost in upskilling new employees, dealing with a potentially high turnover due to young people not being fully prepared for work.

Option 2 - Continue with Developing the Young Workforce as the employer/education element of the Young Person's Guarantee

Scottish Government

Benefits

• DYW as part of the wider Guarantee will more likely contribute to the National Performance Outcomes by creating a sustainable economy and a skilled workforce.
• The Guarantee encapsulates all the established and available interventions for young people through the one commitment. This will support alignment with the future economy particularly across economic policy, education at all levels and employer requirements to support future jobs, focussed through employer engagement with DYW. It also supports the ambition to become a net zero economy.
• By having a strategy that sits across existing interventions, it allows a seamless set of interventions that complement each other in line with the Scotland Act 2016.

Risks

• By focussing on existing interventions, there is little room to develop new support initiatives specific to the current situation.
• The timeline is a risk because the interventions needed to support young people need to be delivered in a short time. The effects and timescales of economic recovery from Covid are also unknown so there are potentially unknown risks that are not yet clear.

Costs

• Scottish Government has committed £60 million in 2020/21 and £70 million in 2021/22 to deliver the Young Person's Guarantee. This funding includes the £10m allocated to DYW School Coordinators and specialist partner relationships.

Education

Benefits

• Through the Young Person's Guarantee, schools have increased engagement with a wider range of specialist partners than DYW alone, to engage further with young people with additional barriers.
• The addition of DYW School Coordinators will also increase engagement between schools and employers to create more opportunities and work placements for all young people. Schools find it easier to provide support from within, and the introduction of DYW School Coordinators will provide additional support and collaboration between employers and young people.
• As part of the recommendations, a Careers Review will look at the current system to provide recommendations for the implementation of all age career services across Scotland in line with the existing strategy.

Risks

• Risk of new approach is seen as a dilution of the DYW offer. Also risk of confusion if roles in schools (i.e teachers, SDS careers advisors and DYW School Coordinators) are not set out clearly. There is a potential risk of push back and lack of willingness to engage with a new programme from those who deliver services.

Costs

• Increased costs are met by increased funding through grant relationships and should not include a significant direct cost to schools.

Third Sector

Benefits

• With a join up of existing interventions, including current DYW provision, young people are likely to be better supported by specialist organisations to navigate the system and create a clearer pathway to opportunities.
• The third sector is likely to benefit from more exposure and sharing their message so they can become more involved in supporting protected groups of young people. Given the focus on ensuring that all young people benefit from the Guarantee third sector organisations are likely to benefit from better access to the additional funding being delivered as part of the Guarantee.

Risks

• There are multiple partners providing similar opportunities under the Guarantee and not in line with the principles set out in No One Left Behind. However, this can be mitigated by encouraging collaborative approaches to delivery to support each other and the young people involved.

Costs

• The Third Sector can benefit from the funding put in place to support the delivery of the Guarantee as well as benefitting from the wide network of employers and young people it reaches.

Local Authority

Benefits

• The 'no wrong door' approach being adopted allows delivery partners to work collectively to connect young people to opportunities. The local delivery model also builds on the approach taken through No One Left Behind.
• Ensuring funding is given to local needs helps to ensure the right support for young people that is better aligned to the needs of the economy and embraces blended learning. There is a unique and important role LAs play in supporting and coordinating provision at a local level.

Risks

• There is a challenge at a local level to help drive demand and create new jobs and opportunities to be able to respond to the local labour market needs.

Costs

• Builds on existing provision and delivery of No One Left Behind although some additional resources needed to deliver the Guarantee.

Business

Benefits

• The Young Person's Guarantee aims to position work as a social and economic stabiliser with the whole system aligned to secure positive employment outcomes for every young person.
• Employers can help shape the skills landscape to ensure that young people enter the labour market better prepared for work. This will enhance the existing school employer relationships through DYW by extending the resources to School Coordinators and other partners.
• This provides simplification of the delivery landscape for both the young person and the employers by creating one umbrella of provision. It also helps stimulate the demand side of the labour market by creating opportunities for young people.
• By furthering the current e-DYW materials, we can expand this resource so businesses can also publicise their offers and their opportunities to young people using the digital platform. We will continue to work with the DYW employer groups and others to review their the priorities and ensure that they can contribute to achieving the Scottish Government's vision.

Risks

• Some employers are likely to lack sufficient capacity to engage. This might impact most on small employers.

Costs

• We set out a clear business based rationale for businesses to engage; based on what young people bring to employers and set out clearly the support that is available.

Scottish Firms Impact Test

Early consultation was sought with businesses of various sectors and sizes, including, but not limited to, Scotland Food and Drink, Federation of Small Businesses, Institute of Directors, Scottish Tourism Alliance and Association of British Insurers.

The key principles of the Guarantee were outlined explaining the overarching ambition to guarantee every young person aged between 16 and 24 in Scotland, the opportunity to go to university or college, an apprenticeship programme, training, fair employment including work experience or participating in a formal volunteering programme.

The following points were raised during these consultations:

1. How will the Job Guarantee complement the Kick-Start scheme

2. The potential complexities of a local approach and the need for a balance with a national approach.

3. Keen to make connections between young people and small businesses

1. How will the Job Guarantee complement the Kick-Start scheme

We will continue to work with the UK Government, Local Authorities, third sector organisations and businesses to ensure alignment between the Kickstart programme and the Young Person's Guarantee. We are committed to ensuring the Guarantee adds value and enhances the offering to young people. The funding for the Guarantee already provides support at a local level with many local partnerships utilising Kickstart and funding from the Young Person's Guarantee to provide wrap round activities for young people.

We are also working closely to ensure there is no additional complexity at a local level between differing employability programmes. The Guarantee will aim to align all the investments we have to help deliver a seamless journey for our young people and employers.

2. The potential complexities of a local approach and the need for a balance

The Guarantee is a national initiative that is in part delivered at a local level. It builds on the principles outlined in No One Left Behind that solutions at a local level are best found working with local partners on the ground. The Guarantee seeks to complement the approach taken at a local level whilst looking to maintain a consistency and quality of approach.

The Young Person's Guarantee Leadership Group will bring political and senior official representation from Scottish and local Government. It will bring together enterprise and skills agencies, employers/employer groups, DWP, third sector and education providers behind the principles of the Young Person's Guarantee. The aim will be to align the system to deliver the Guarantee and to remove blockages. The delivery of the Guarantee will be flexible to meet the specific needs of different geographic regions and ensure alignment with local governance.

3. Keen to make connections between young people and small businesses

The SME sector comprises of approximately 350,000 companies that employ 1.2m people and will therefore play a vital role in creating opportunities for young people in Scotland. To illustrate this, if 10% of SMEs can be supported to provide one opportunity, this equates to 35,000 jobs. We will work in partnership with Local Authorities to review and build on existing recruitment incentives that will support SMEs to create job opportunities for young people. The approach to employer engagement is built on accessibility for organisations of all sizes. The involvement of the DYW Regional Groups in supporting the wider engagement will create opportunities for a smaller employers to engage.

Competition Assessment

The Scottish Government considered if any other proposals of a similar nature already existed.

The Guarantee builds on previous local iterations of a Guarantee including the Edinburgh and Glasgow Guarantees. By enlisting the support of Sandy Begbie, who helped deliver the Edinburgh Guarantee, it is built on that experience but brought out a wider national focus to the delivery of the Young Person's Guarantee.

The Guarantee is designed to be a vehicle that aligns provision to deliver positive outcomes for every young person. Partners will be encouraged to remove duplication and to declutter the youth employability landscape. The Young Person's Guarantee brings together elements of support for young people to create a wider package of opportunity so it adds value to existing provision.

The Scottish Government considered the four Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) competition assessment questions below as an initial assessment of competition. In doing so, it was clear that the Young Person's Guarantee would not limit the number or range of suppliers that could work in this environment as it is encouraging a range of existing opportunities, nor would it limit the ability of suppliers to compete. The Young Person's Guarantee will also not limit the choices and information available to young people, but rather it would create more possibilities by collaborating with an extensive list of specialists.

Consumer Assessment

The Young Person's Guarantee will provide young people with opportunities and support needed to ensure they have access to the meaningful support they need to help them progress. This commitment is made through the overarching ambition of the Guarantee: Within 2 years every 16-24 year old in Scotland will either be in paid employment for a period between 12 and 24 months, enrolled in education, actively involved on an apprenticeship or training programme, or engaged on a formal volunteering programme.

The Young Person's Guarantee will aim to further improve the alignment of education provision at all levels with the future economic strategy for Scotland whilst also supporting the needs of employers.

The Guarantee acts as an 'umbrella' that brings together skills and employability initiatives. Our guiding principles will be simplification, alignment and integration of the employability landscape for both young people and employers.

Test run of business forms

This proposal is not designed to develop new forms of business but to strengthen existing labour market opportunities.

Digital Impact Test

Establishing a streamlined digital presence is central to the Guarantee. The digital presence will be supported by clear guidance to those organisations where young people and employers would normally seek advice to ensure we develop a "No wrong door" approach to give advice to young people on accessing opportunities. We have worked with SDS and partners to ensure a consistency of approach with the existing My World of Work site. A website has been developed and tested with a range of EQIA groups to ensure it is appropriate to a wide group of young people.

Legal Aid Impact Test

The legislation is considered to have minimal implications in terms of legal aid.

Enforcement, sanctions and monitoring

The Young Person's Guarantee carries no sanction or enforcement around participation; participation from young people and commitment from businesses is voluntary.

We will measure the success of the Guarantee. The Young Person's Guarantee Implementation Group will need to be supplemented by a national, strategic governance structure. We do not wish to add to the existing governance landscape and are considering whether this should be done by repurposing the existing national DYW infrastructure.

Implementation and delivery plan

The Young Person's Guarantee will be monitored using a detailed implementation plan, monitored by an implementation group. This will track the recommendations and actions to ensure consistent outputs. It is recognised that not all of the recommendations can be progressed immediately so they have been grouped into recommendations that will start now, and those that will start in 3-6 months but never deferred indefinitely.

The implementation plan will also record measurements, risks and deadlines to keep everything on track. The plan monitors recommendations for Scottish Government, private and public sector, economy, city deals, apprenticeships and many more areas of importance. It also tracks the governance of the Guarantee and sets out to reconsider the structure, funding allocation and the measures of success.

The Scottish Parliament approved these plans on 5 November.

Post-implementation review

The Guarantee is not a standalone programme; it works across a number of policy areas. As such, there is no single source of management information which records the participation in education, training, employment or formal volunteering for every individual aged between 16-24 in Scotland. In order to assess the performance of the Guarantee at a national and local level, evidence and data will be drawn from a range of existing and new sources.

A set of overarching KPIs have been developed as well as a supporting suite of interim measures. This combination will allow for a high-level understanding of the impact of the Guarantee across a range of economic, education and equalities outcomes. Work is also ongoing to complete a detailed evaluative plan that aims to generate evidence regarding the experiences of young people, delivery partners and businesses engaging with the Guarantee.

A range of additional data sources have been developed to help better understand how the Guarantee is working in practice. This includes the Youth Labour Market Dashboard, Local Authority Youth Labour Market Dashboard and Skills Development Scotland's (SDS) monthly Snapshot Participation Measure.

Complimenting these data sources, an evaluative plan will set out the activities that will be undertaken to better understand the experiences of young people and employers accessing the Guarantee. This evaluation will be aligned to broader work across the education, skills and employability landscape to assess the impact of policy on outcomes including the No One Left Behind Evaluation and Shared Measurement Framework.

Summary and recommendation

Following careful consideration of the options available, the Scottish Government decided to implement option 2 – to establish the Young Person's Guarantee. This is recommended because the plan aims to meet all the targets, and is cost effective with regards to gain of the end result. There are huge benefits to be achieved if we can provide effective and vital support to young people in Scotland, and set them up for the workplace.

Summary costs and benefits

Option 1 - Continue with Developing the Young Workforce youth employment strategy

Total benefit per annum: - economic, environmental, social

• Existing programme can continue to run and support young people using an established network that has the support of business.
• DYW will continue to be employer lead and will allow employers to continue as they were, ensuring a consistency of approach.
  DYW works in partnership with third sector and Local Authorities to tackle specific local problems how they see fit and according to local need.

Total cost per annum: - economic, environmental, social - policy and administrative

• Economic impact of not supporting and creating a skilled young workforce. Not adapting to economic and social changes created by the Covid-19 pandemic - unable to provide appropriate support to young people.
• No additional investment required from Scottish Government or employers.

Option 2 - Continue with Developing the Young Workforce as the employer/education element of the Young Person's Guarantee

Total benefit per annum: - economic, environmental, social

• Will contribute to our overall purpose of creating sustainable and inclusive economic growth, and support national outcomes.
• This will support alignment with the future economy particularly across economic policy, education at all levels and employer requirements to support future jobs.
• The 'no wrong door' approach allows delivery partners to work collectively to connect young people to opportunities.
• Simplifies the current employability landscape for employers and young people.

Total cost per annum: - economic, environmental, social - policy and administrative

• The Guarantee is ambitious and there may be challenges around the pace at which this needs to be implemented / delivered.
• Significant investment involved in the development and delivery.
• Potential resistance to change from partners and challenges around alignment with training providers / other employability services.
• Employers impacted by Covid-19 and are unable to commit to the Guarantee.

Sign-off for Final BRIAs:

I have read the Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment and I am satisfied that (a) it represents a fair and reasonable view of the expected costs, benefits and impact of the policy, and (b) that the benefits justify the costs. I am satisfied that business impact has been assessed with the support of businesses in Scotland.

Signed:

Date: 15/09/21

Minister's name: Jamie Hepburn

Minister's title: Minister for Higher Education and Further Education, Youth Employment and Training

Scottish Government Contact point: youngpersonguar@gov.scot