Published today but not making it into any of the media operating in Scotland:

Ipsos were appointed by the Scottish Government to undertake an implementation evaluation of the development and early delivery of No One Left Behind and the Young Person’s Guarantee. The evaluation explored how effectively No One Left Behind and the Young Person’s Guarantee had been implemented, the experiences of service providers and service users, and lessons from early delivery.

https://www.gov.scot/publications/implementation-evaluation-no-one-left-behind-young-persons-guarantee/pages/2/

The initiatives were launched in September 2020 with these words:

We are committed to supporting young people transition successfully into the labour market and recognise the challenges that they will face a result of the COVID-19 crisis. This ambitious plan sets out our commitment to ensuring that no young person is left behind. The recommendations in this paper are a call for action, a call for Government, public sector, private sector including employer groups, employment agencies and 3rd sector organisations to step up and do what they can for the young people of Scotland. The crisis is real and immediate.

https://www.gov.scot/publications/youth-guarantee-no-one-left-behind-initial-report/pages/2/

Some of the key findings:

• No One Left Behind was said to have facilitated better partnership working between employability stakeholders at the local level, including bringing greater focus and purpose to existing partnerships structures.
• Whilst there was some variation between areas in the extent to which No One Left Behind was considered to represent a ‘new’ approach, most local stakeholders agreed that it had contributed to further development and enhancement of services.
• Some local stakeholders thought more could be done to engage and support people who were furthest from the labour market, including those with protected characteristics.
• Most stakeholders thought the Young Person’s Guarantee had been implemented well locally and was an appropriate response to mitigating the impact of the pandemic on young people’s progression in learning and work.

Full report at: https://www.gov.scot/publications/implementation-evaluation-no-one-left-behind-young-persons-guarantee/documents/

BBC Leeds were onto this in January 2023 and BBC Technology in June 2023.