A new action plan to help people into work has been published ahead of the start of Scotland's first devolved service for employment support.

Fair Start Scotland will provide tailored support for at least 38,000 people with £96m of government funding to public, private and third sector organisations in nine areas across Scotland.

Ahead of its start next week, the government has published No One Left Behind - Next Steps for the Integration and Alignment of Employability Support in Scotland.

Employability Minister Jamie Hepburn said the new action plan includes a project working with the Scottish Prison Service helping people released from custody to find work.

Further actions include setting up pilot projects in Fife and Dundee providing a single point of contact for health and work, aimed at people with mental or physical health conditions at risk of leaving work or who have recently left.

Speaking at Holyrood, he said: "No One Left Behind sets out how we will start to join up wider employability within Scotland.

"It has a specific focus on integrating employability support with health, justice and housing services, areas that are critical to enable better support for people furthest removed from employment."

He said transitional projects in the year since powers were devolved were a "success" and he is confident Fair Start Scotland will be too.

Conservative Dean Lockhart raised concerns that third sector contractors to Fair Start Scotland were "walking away", which the minister denied.

Mr Lockhart highlighted criticism from the Scottish Council of Voluntary Organisations that the Scottish Government's approach is not "sufficiently flexible or responsive to individual needs".

Labour's Iain Gray challenged Mr Hepburn to provide evidence of the success so far, saying that when the powers were devolved a year ago the government rolled on contracts to provide a transitional year.

Mr Hepburn said 4472 people had been helped up to December 29 and the government would exceed its yearly target to help up to 4800 people with disability and health conditions towards and into work.

He said he believed a flexible process had been created.