Guidance

Interventions list for Scotland

Published 13 April 2022

We have worked with the Scottish Government and the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities to inform the most appropriate mix of interventions for Scotland. This engagement has informed the interventions list for each of the three investment priorities of the UKSPF, which are set out below.

Places are encouraged to review the interventions and identify activities that would support UKSPF objectives in their area, including any interventions that are best delivered at a larger scale in collaboration with other places, or more locally. We strongly encourage that wherever possible interventions that are best delivered at a larger regional scale.

Our engagement with partners in Scotland has also made clear that local areas should also consider their UKSPF investment plans with due regard to Scotland’s National Strategy for Economic Transformation (NSET). Areas should also develop their plans to maximise alignment and complementarity with their own existing local and regional economic strategies, as well as other relevant Scottish strategies, such as the Scottish National Transport Strategy (NTS2), and funding sources provided by the Scottish Government.

1. Communities and place

When selecting interventions, areas should also be mindful of how their funding and planning for Communities and Place interventions align with the existing funding streams that they receive from the Scottish Government and key Scottish Government strategies, including but not limited to:

• Vacant and Derelict Land Investment Programme
• Place Based Investment Programme
• Investing in Communities Fund
• Strengthening Communities Programme
• Various Schemes delivered by Sustrans, Cycling Scotland, Paths for All, Energy Saving Trust
• EV Infrastructure Fund
• Switched on Towns and Cities

Objectives:

• Strengthening our social fabric and fostering a sense of local pride and belonging, through investment in activities that enhance physical, cultural and social ties and access to amenities, such as community infrastructure and local green space, and community-led projects.
• Building resilient, healthy and safe neighbourhoods, through investment in quality places that people want to live, work, play and learn in, through targeted improvements to the built and natural environment and innovative approaches to crime prevention.

Alignment with NSET:

• New market opportunities
• A fairer and more equal society
• Productive businesses and regions

Interventions

• S1: Place based investments for regeneration and town centre improvements, which could include better accessibility for disabled people, including capital spend and running costs.
• S2: Support and improvement of community assets and infrastructure projects, including those that increase communities’ resilience to natural hazards, and support for decarbonisation of facilities, energy efficiency audits, and installation of energy efficiency and renewable measures in community buildings (including capital spend and running costs).
• S3: Improvements to the natural environment and green and open space which could include community gardens, watercourses and embankments, along with incorporating natural features into wider public spaces.
• S4: Design and management of the built and landscaped environment.
• S5: Support for sport, arts, cultural, heritage and creative activities, projects and facilities and institutions.
• S6: Funding for active travel enhancements and other small scale strategic transport projects.
• S7: Funding for the development and promotion of wider campaigns which encourage people to visit and explore the local area.
• S8: Funding for impactful volunteering and/or social action projects to develop social and human capital in local places.
• S9: Investment in capacity building, resilience (including climate change resilience) and infrastructure support for local civil society and community groups.
• S10: Community measures to reduce the cost of living, including through measures to improve energy efficiency, and combat fuel poverty and climate change
• S11: Funding to support relevant feasibility studies.
• S12: Investment and support for digital infrastructure for local community facilities
• S13: Support for linking communities together and with employment opportunities with a focus on decarbonisation.

2. Supporting local business

When selecting interventions, areas should also consider segmenting their business population, focusing on specific interventions that will best meet local business need. This can be informed by early engagement with local business representatives.

Areas in Scotland should also be mindful of how their funding and planning for the investment interventions that support local business aligns with the existing funding streams they receive from the Scottish Government:

• Rural Tourism Infrastructure Fund
• Townscape Heritage Scheme
• Digital Boost
• Various Schemes delivered by Sustrans, Cycling Scotland, Paths for All, Energy Saving Trust
• Switched on Fleets
• EV Infrastructure Fund
• Switched on Towns and Cities

and the work of other organisations including but not limited to:

• Scottish Enterprise
• South of Scotland Enterprise
• Highlands and Islands Enterprise
• Scottish Development International
• Skills Development Scotland
• Business Gateway
• City and Growth Deals

Objectives:

• Creating jobs and boosting community cohesion, through investments that build on existing industries and institutions, and range from support for starting businesses to visible improvements to local retail, hospitality and leisure sector facilities.
• Promoting networking and collaboration, through interventions that bring together businesses and partners within and across sectors to share knowledge, expertise and resources, and stimulate innovation and growth.
• Increasing private sector investment in growth-enhancing activities, through targeted support for small and medium-sized businesses to undertake new-to-firm innovation, adopt productivity-enhancing, energy efficient and low carbon technologies and techniques, and start or grow their exports.

Alignment with NSET:

• New market opportunities
• A fairer and more equal society
• Productive businesses and regions
• Culture of delivery

Interventions

• S14: Funding for the development and promotion (both trade and consumer) of the visitor economy, such as local attractions, trails, tours and tourism products more generally.
• S15: SME development grants and support, aligned with local and regional sectoral priorities and growth potential. This could include, providing tailored expert advice, matched grants and leadership training to enable manufacturing SMEs to adopt industrial digital technology solutions including artificial intelligence; robotics and autonomous systems; additive manufacturing; industrial internet of things; virtual reality; data analytics. The support is proven to leverage high levels of private investment into technologies that drive growth, productivity, efficiency and resilience in manufacturing.
• S16: Research and development grants supporting the development of innovative products and services, with a particular focus on low carbon goods and environmental services, and climate resilience. This could include Investment to support the diffusion of innovation knowledge and activities. Support the commercialisation of ideas, encouraging collaboration and accelerating the path to market so that more ideas translate into industrial and commercial practices.
• S17: Funding for the development and support of appropriate innovation infrastructure at the local level.
• S18: Investing in enterprise infrastructure and employment/innovation site development projects.
• S19: Strengthening local entrepreneurial ecosystems and supporting businesses at all stages of their development to start, sustain, grow and innovate, including through local networks.
• S20: Support for expert business advice and support programmes at the local and regional level, including support for decarbonisation, climate adaptation and circular economy advice. This could include funding for new and improvements to existing training hubs, business support offers, ‘incubators’, ‘accelerators’ and other forms of developmental environments for local enterprise (including social enterprise) which can support entrepreneurs and start-ups/high growth potential firms through the early stages of development and growth by offering a combination of services including: e.g. account management, advice, resources, training, mentorship, coaching and access to workspace.
• S21: Grants to help places bid for and host international business events and conferences that support wider local growth sectors.
• S22: Support for growing the local social economy, including community businesses, cooperatives and social enterprises.
• S23: Funding to develop angel investor networks nationwide.
• S24: Export Grants to support businesses to grow their overseas trading, supporting local employment and investment, having regard to Scotland’s export plan (‘Scotland: a trading nation’).
• S25: Developing existing or emerging local strengths in low carbon and climate adaptation technologies.
• S26: Business support measures to drive employment growth, particularly in areas of higher unemployment.
• S27: Funding to support relevant feasibility studies.
• S28: Support for business resilience and COVID-19 recovery.
• S29: Support for new and existing businesses and start-ups aligned with local, regional and Scottish policy.
• S30: Investment in resilience infrastructure and nature based solutions that protect local businesses and community areas from natural hazards including flooding and coastal erosion.

3. People and skills

In Scotland, Multiply will be delivered as part of the single UKSPF investment plan developed by areas. This prospectus has set out the total allocation for each Region/Local Authority linked to Multiply and we will expect areas to set out how they intend to deliver Multiply interventions in line with that level of funding in their UKSPF investment plans. They should take account of the aims, objectives and priorities of Multiply when developing local plans for people and skills interventions.

Areas should also be mindful of how their funding and planning for the investment interventions that under the People and Skills pillar aligns with the existing funding streams they receive from the Scottish Government, including but not limited to:

• No One Left Behind
• Parental Employability Support Fund
• Young Persons Guarantee

Objectives:

• Boosting core skills and support adults to progress in work, by targeting adults with no or low level qualifications and skills in maths, and upskill the working population, yielding personal and societal economic impact, and by encouraging innovative approaches to reducing adult learning barriers
• Reducing levels of economic inactivity^{[footnote 1]} through investment in bespoke intensive life and employment support tailored to local need. Investment should facilitate the join-up of mainstream provision and local services within an area for participants, through the use of one-to-one keyworker support, improving employment outcomes for specific cohorts who face labour market barriers.
  • Expected cohorts include, but are not limited to people aged over 50, people with a disability and health condition, women, people from an ethnic minority, young people not in education, employment or training and people with multiple complex needs (homeless, care leavers, ex/ offenders, people with substance abuse problems and victims of domestic violence).
• Supporting people furthest from the labour market to overcome barriers to work by providing cohesive, locally tailored support including access to basic skills.
• Supporting local areas to fund gaps in local skills provision to support people to progress in work, and supplement local adult skills provision e.g. by providing additional volumes; delivering provision through wider range of routes or enabling more intensive/innovative provision, both qualification based and non-qualification based. This should be supplementary to provision available through national employment and skills programmes.

Alignment with NSET:

• Skilled workforce
• Entrepreneurial people and culture
• A fairer and more equal society
• New market opportunities
• Productive businesses and regions

Interventions

Supporting economically inactive people to overcome barriers to work by providing cohesive, locally tailored support including access to basic skills 

• S31: Employment support for economically inactive people: Intensive and wrap-around one-to-one support to move people closer towards mainstream provision and employment, supplemented by additional and/or specialist life and basic skills (digital, English, maths* and ESOL) support where there are local provision gaps.

This provision can include projects promoting the importance of work to help people to live healthier and more independent lives, alongside building future financial resilience and wellbeing.

Expected cohorts include, but are not limited to people aged over 50, people with a disability and health condition, women, people from an ethnic minority, young people not in education, employment or training and people with multiple complex needs (homeless, care leavers, ex/offenders, people with substance abuse problems and victims of domestic violence).

*via Multiply

Supporting People further from the Labour Market through access to basic skills

• S32: Courses including basic skills (digital, English, maths (via Multiply) and ESOL), and life skills and career skills** provision for people who are not economically inactive and who are unable to access other training or wrap around support detailed above. This could be supplemented by financial support for learners to enrol onto courses and complete qualifications.

Beyond that, this intervention will also contribute to building community cohesion and facilitate greater shared civil pride, leading to better integration for those benefitting from ESOL support.

**where not being met through Department of Work and Pensions.

• S33: Activities such as enrichment and volunteering to improve opportunities and promote wellbeing.
• S34: Intervention to increase levels of digital inclusion, with a focus on essential digital skills, communicating the benefits of getting (safely) online, and in-community support to provide users with the confidence and trust to stay online.

Skills to progress in work and to fund local skills needs.

• S35: Support for employability programmes and advice places should have regards for the No One Left Behind agenda, the Young Person’s Guarantee, Fair Start Scotland and Scottish employability pipeline. This could include tailored support to help people in employment, who are not supported by mainstream provision to address barriers to accessing education and training courses. This includes supporting the retention of groups who are likely to leave the labour market early.
• S36: Support for local areas to fund local skills needs. This includes technical and vocational qualifications and courses up to level 2 and training for vocational licences relevant to local area needs and high-value qualifications where there is a need for additional skills capacity that is not being met through other provision.
• S37: Green skills courses to ensure we have the skilled workforce to support the Just Transition to a net zero economy and climate resilience, with a particular focus on vulnerable or low-income groups who will be disproportionately affected by climate change. Retraining support for those in high carbon sectors, providing career guidance and supporting people to seek employment in other sectors.
• S38: Funding to support local digital skills.
• S39: Support for education and skills targeting vulnerable young people leaving school, places should have regard for the Young Person’s Guarantee, modern apprenticeships and related policy.
• S40: Support for community learning and development
• S41: Funding to support new partnership and project-based entrepreneurial learning between business and education to develop a culture that celebrates entrepreneurship.

Multiply interventions

• S42: Courses designed to increase confidence with numbers for those needing the first steps towards formal qualifications.
• S43: Courses for parents wanting to increase their numeracy skills in order to help their children and help with their own progression.
• S44: Courses aimed at prisoners, those recently released from prison or on temporary licence.
• S45: Courses aimed at people who can’t apply for certain jobs because of lack of numeracy skills and/or to encourage people to upskill in order to access a certain job/career.
• S46: Additional relevant maths modules embedded into other vocational courses.
• S47: Innovative programmes delivered together with employers – including courses designed to cover specific numeracy skills required in the workplace.
• S48: New intensive and flexible courses targeted at people without Level 5 maths in Scotland, leading to an equivalent qualification (for more information on equivalent qualifications, please see Qualifications can cross boundaries (PDF, 974KB)).
• S49: Courses designed to help people use numeracy to manage their money.
• S50: Courses aimed at those 19 or over that are leaving, or have just left, the care system
• S51: Activities, courses or provision developed in partnership with community organisations and other partners aimed at engaging the hardest to reach learners – for example, those not in the labour market or other groups identified locally as in need.

1. Economic inactivity refers to those without a job who have not sought work in the last four weeks and/or are not available to start work in the next two weeks although in practice many people who are inactive will have been so for a long time. For UKSPF, people and skills investments the term includes people not in work who are on and off benefits, with the exception of Universal Credit, Jobseekers Allowance or Employment and Support Allowance claimants who are in the all work related requirements legal conditionality groups (i.e. Light Touch and Intensive Work Search). ↩