Welcome to the December 2016 edition of the Employability in Scotland e-bulletin.
November was a busy month with the Ministerial Summit on Employability and 2018 service Supplier Information Events in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Inverness taking place. Thanks to all of those who attended these events. At the Ministerial Summit the Minister for Employability and Training, Jamie Hepburn MSP, announced the award of 1 year contracts to Remploy, Shaw Trust and Momentum Skills to deliver part of our transitional year employment support, Work First Scotland, from April 2017. The Minister also outlined more detail on the full Scottish programme of employment support we will introduce in 2018. Further detail of the Summit, text of the Minister’s speech and slides from presentations given by Inclusion Scotland Chief Executive Sally Witcher MBE and the First Minister’s Independent Advisor on Poverty and Inequality, Naomi Eisenstadt, can be found on the Employability in Scotland website, where we will also continue to post analysis from the round table discussions held on the day. You can access material related to the Summit here.
Further information on Work First Scotland, including Operational Guidance, can also be found on the Employability in Scotland website under the heading Employment Support 2017.
A series of initial Supplier Information Events completed on 9th December, with a second event in held in Glasgow in response to the significant demand. More than 150 organisations attended one of the four events scheduled.
These events sought views from potential service providers around the policy intent and programme design for the 2018 service. This included the procurement process and the potential funding model and geographical lot sizes. These events were really useful in helping to inform our thinking. We are seeking further feedback from people that attended through a short questionnaire. Thank you to those of you who have responded and we’d encourage those of you who haven’t yet to please do so.
We are still considering hosting further events in Aberdeen and South of Scotland, however demand has been quite modest so far. We’ll have further information to share in 2017, so please watch this space on Employment Support 2018.
Finally, from all of us here at the Employability Programme team, thank you for your support and for sharing your knowledge and expertise during 2016. We look forward to continuing to work in partnership next year as we move towards delivering transitional employment support services from April 2017 and the full Scottish programme from 2018. May you all have a very merry Christmas and a happy new year!
Best wishes
Joanne