Explainers

Employability Services

Fair Start Scotland is the Scottish Government’s devolved employability support service. It aims to help people further from the labour market to move into and sustain employment.

Participation is voluntary and the Scottish Government has contracted specialist employability providers to deliver the service. Payments to providers are performance related and depend on how successful they are at supporting participants to find sustained employment. Fair Start Scotland closes to new participants at the end of 2023-24 and will finish in 2026-27.

The Scottish Government will provide continue providing employability services through the No-One Left Behind programme. The No-One Left Behind budget is distributed to Local Authorities to deliver employment support services in partnership with third and private sector partners.

Our forecast reflects the specific elements of No-One Left Behind programme that are under our forecasting remit, assisting disabled people or those receiving reserved benefits with barriers into long‑term employment.