Chamber and committees

Employability hubs are generally a local arrangement between The Department for Work and Pensions and local authorities. The Scottish Government does not hold the data you have requested however, local authorities and the Department for Work and Pensions may be able to provide you with this information.

Since the devolution of employability services to the Scottish Government, support is being delivered through a combination of locally designed services, No One Left Behind, and our national employment support service, Fair Start Scotland.

No One Left Behind, which commenced in 2019, is the Scottish Governments approach to transforming employment support in Scotland. It aims to deliver a system that is more tailored and responsive to the needs of people of all ages who want help and support on their journey towards and into work, particularly people with health conditions, disabled people and others who are disadvantaged in the labour market.

The No One Left Behind approach moves away from funding and delivering several separate and distinct employability programmes, to a more flexible approach. Scottish and Local Government are working with third and private sector to deliver support which aims to be more joined-up and responsive to the needs of individuals of all ages and tailored to local labour market conditions.

Fair Start Scotland, our devolved employability support service, launched in April 2018 and offers 12 to 18 months of tailored, flexible and person-centred pre-employment support to people who want help to find and remain in work. Up to 12 months in-work support is also available for the participant as well as the employer, helping to ensure fair and sustainable employment.

Fair Start Scotland is delivered by a mixed economy of public, private and third sector providers across nine geographical areas throughout Scotland. A breakdown of the providers in each local authority area can be found at the following website.

https://www.employabilityinscotland.com/employability-services/fair-start-scotland/individual/

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring everyone has access to person centred employability support that meets the needs of individuals, helping them towards, and into sustainable employment.

Maintenance of its estate and the allocation of its capital budget is a matter for the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service. The safety of its staff is paramount and SFRS are continuing to monitor the measures put in place to rectify the defects and support staff to deliver its service safely.

In 2019 an urgent issue was identified in relation to an obsolete method of roof construction (Reinforced Aerated Autoclaved Concrete (RAAC). As soon as the defects were discovered (from May 2019 to 2020) action was immediately taken with temporary support (acrow props) to reinforce identified weak points and scaffolded out crash decks to catch roof collapses and minimise the risk of injury to occupants. All roofs are subject to quarterly inspections by building surveyors to monitor the condition/identify any deterioration. There has been no negative impact on SFRS operations from these sites.

Skills Development Scotland published quarterly statistics on the Employability Fund. The information you have requested can be found at the following website. Employability Fund | Skills Development Scotland

The Scottish Government has considered the impact of the actions of the Employment Action Plan on all disabled people, including people with learning disabilities, and noted these in the 2020 and 2021 annual Progress Reports which are published on the Scottish Government website.

On 22 February 2023 the Scottish Government published a statistical summary of the devolved employment services, which includes employability figures for learning disabilities within Fair Start Scotland. There is currently no data published for employment for learning disabilities within No One Left Behind.

We have undertaken a review of Individual Placement and Support (IPS) and of Supported Employment to identify areas of improvement and make recommendations on future delivery of these two forms of specialist employability support in Scotland. Findings of the Supported Employment review and Scottish Government’s response were published in September 2022. The Individual Placement and Support review report was published January 2023, alongside the Scottish Government’s response statement.

Recognising that there is still work to do to improve outcomes for disabled people, in December 2022 the Scottish Government published the refreshed Fair Work Action Plan: becoming a leading Fair Work nation by 2025 , setting out actions to promote fair and inclusive workplaces across Scotland. The plan takes forward the current work on the disability employment gap, to support more disabled people, including those with Learning Disabilities, into employment and to sustain fair work.

The Action Plan will be supported by an evidence plan to be published late 2023, along with an accompanying measurement framework. It will monitor the fair work context and progress we are making over time to ensure our actions respond to change and measure the impact of our current actions, including drawing lessons from actions we will deliver as part of this plan.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-14876 on 28 February 2023. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

The Scottish Government committed up to £20M in funding to the Social Security Independent Advocacy Service over four years from September 2021.

After extensive engagement with advocacy stakeholders, it was concluded that this service should be delivered under contract by a single national provider or consortium of providers. The Invitation to Tender was open to all third sector bodies that deliver advocacy services – and a Contract Notice was published on 12 May 2021 in the usual way via Public Contracts Scotland. Following the conclusion of the regulated procurement exercise VoiceAbility were appointed the first national provider of the service in September 2021. This initial contract runs until August 2023 with the opportunity to extend by a further two one-year periods.

The number of employers supported was especially high in 2020-21 as this was when employers submitted HR1 notifications as they thought they would have to make large numbers of employees redundant as a result of the pandemic.

Full details are as follows.

The Scottish Government has always worked in partnership with Local Government to enable local authorities to provide services which deliver positive outcomes for the people and communities we jointly serve.

There have been a range of laws passed since 1999 which have provided more powers and responsibilities for local authorities and have impacted on the services they deliver. For example, the Islands Act 2018 handed more powers to our island communities and introduced measures to support and help meet the unique needs of our islands. We will also shortly be devolving Empty Property Relief to local authorities from 1 April 2023 with a concurrent transfer of £105m to local government, which is significantly more than the estimated cost of maintaining the national relief in light of the decision to freeze the poundage. However, it is not possible to provide a comprehensive list of all those policy and legislative changes within the timeframe being asked.

It is important to note that any new legislative change that results in additional expenditure by local authorities is expected to be fully funded by the relevant policy area.

To maximise the benefits of the Agri-Environment Climate Scheme (AECS) in mitigating climate change, the 2023 round will target support for agri-environment, organics and slurry storage applications. This approach will focus on enabling options within the scheme, offering support to as wide a number of beneficiaries as possible.

Significant budget cuts arising from the UK Government reneging on public commitments that farmers and crofters would not be worse off as a result of the EU Exit, has led to the difficult decision to suspend some elements of the 2023 round, including public funding for the mechanised and chemical control of bracken.

The suspension of mechanical and chemical bracken control applies to applications for AECS funding in 2023 and there are no plans to offer alternative funding in 2023.

Manual bracken control continues to be offered, and this is often the preferred treatment method on species rich grassland and other habitats offering high biodiversity value.

Those with existing AECS contracts or new contracts, following the 2022 AECS awards announced on 19 January 2023, which contain bracken control through chemical and mechanical means will continue to be supported.

Decisions on future rounds of AECS will be taken once detail is confirmed on the budgetary position for 2024 onwards.

Support for heather restoration through the Agri-Environment Climate Scheme (AECS) has been suspended since 2020 following advice from NatureScot that the commonly used chemical treatment was not tested for use in rough grazing and upland areas. This treatment had negative implications for biodiversity and carbon sequestration.

As there is no suitable alternative, this option was suspended. If in future, a chemical treatment is approved by the Chemicals Regulation Division (CRD) for use in upland areas this decision will be reviewed. Existing commitments at the time of suspension were removed without penalty.