Workforce Plus

This strategy provides a framework for developing employability with a particular focus on those who face barriers to obtaining and sustaining employment.

The strategy specifically targets seven local authority areas in Scotland but it also provides and overall framework for employability services in Scotland. It aims to create a flexible and joined up services that support individuals during their progression towards work and helps them sustain employment.

The strategy is focused around six key themes:

• early interventions
• client focused interventions
• employer engagement
• sustaining and progressing employment
• joined up planning and delivery of services
• better outcomes

There is an expectation that at a local level the voluntary, private and public sectors will come together form a partnership to develop and deliver local services. The core membership of these partnerships should be funders of local employability services as they will be able to identify outcomes and drive forward changes in the way services are delivered. The action of the partnerships is to be determined by the following questions.

• What is the size and nature of the local workless client group and what barriers do they face?
• What is the nature of the local labour market and how can the link be made with the employment opportunities currently and likely to be available, including those in the public sector?
• What are we trying to achieve for jobless people – particularly those further from the labour market – over the long term?
• What kind of delivery infrastructure to we need to achieve this – raising the employability of jobless people and helping meet the demands of employers in local labour markets?
• How does the current delivery infrastructure need to change to match this requirement, e.g. in the design of health and mainstream social services to support employability?
• What do we, as funders, need to do in the short and the long term to create such a delivery infrastructureω
• What information do we need to manage effectively and describe performance?

The strategy will also impact on how funding is allocated both at a local and national level. The emphasis will be on establishing sustainable outcomes which link to the number of people placed in sustainable employment. There will also be more emphasis on the pooling of resources amongst local partners to create a joined up service.