Scottish Government

NATIONAL PERFORMANCE FRAMEWORK (NPF)

• Government is committed to the outcomes based approach as set out in 2007 in the NPF's 10 year vision.
• The NPF refresh re-affirms the approach to transparent Government; to the Government's Purpose and continues to reflect national wellbeing and success.
• The refresh reflects lessons learned since 2007; provides a better measure of progress towards the National Outcomes and reflects current priorities as outlined in Manifesto Commitments, the Government Economic Strategy, Programme for Government and Spending Review documents.
• The Scottish Government's Business Strategy sets out how we will deliver the NPF. It reaffirms the commitment to 'an outcomes focus' and places a greater emphasis on a partnership approach - key elements of the NPF. Sitting underneath the Business Strategy is the Improvement Framework for improving the Scottish Government and wider public services which is to be rolled out across the Scottish Government in 2012.
• At a local level, we will continue to use Single Outcome Agreements between the Scottish Government and Community Planning Partnerships to drive the achievement of improved local outcomes.
• In Mr Swinney's opening remarks to the Public Services Improvement Conference on 24th November, he raised the importance of the NPF and how it provided the opportunity to engender shared ownership of outcomes and helped focus us all towards improvement.

What's different?

The main changes are to the National Indicator set which has been updated as follows:

7 National Indicators have been removed from the original 45. These indicators either relate to targets that have been delivered or have been replaced by more suitable measures of progress towards the National Outcomes.

There is a new National Outcome related to older people reflecting the demographic significance of the ageing population and the Government's commitment to independent living, enablement and health and social care integration.

SCOTLAND PERFORMS

• The delivery of the Purpose and National Outcomes is monitored through tracking progress on the Purpose Targets and National Indicators on the Scotland Performs website.
• Scotland Performs has been updated to reflect the refresh of the NPF and will continue to provide transparency and accountability based on the national priorities.
• Scotland Performs allows everyone to judge for themselves how Scotland is progressing through 'direction of travel' arrows which indicate whether performance is improving, worsening or maintaining.
• Since its introduction in 2008, the evidence is building and Scotland Performs provides a powerful tool on which to see how Scotland is progressing towards the Purpose and National Outcomes.
• The refreshed NPF and updated Scotland Performs was launched on 14 December 2011.

LINKS TO PUBLIC SERVICE REFORM

• The Government's clear direction on public service reform is an unrelenting focus on improving outcomes for people and communities across Scotland.
• The refreshed NPF is a key support for focusing and tracking progress against the Government's public service reform programme, in particular:
• A decisive shift towards prevention
• Greater integration of public services at a local level driven by better partnership, collaboration and effective local delivery
• A sharp focus on improving performance, through greater transparency, innovation and use of digital technology

• Outcomes working encourages all public services to direct attention towards the key long-term challenges for Scotland. Shared National Outcomes act as a magnet for collaboration; they support effective partnership working and the closer alignment of local service provision
• The NPF forms the platform for ongoing, wider engagement with our delivery partners including Local Government, other public bodies, Third Sector and private sector organisations
• The basis of Single Outcome Agreements (SOAs) is that they set out for each Community Planning Partnership (CPPs) area desired local outcomes that will contribute to achievement of the National Outcomes. That continues to be the case. CPPs are already expected to keep their SOAs under review and refresh them as necessary. The Scottish Government will make CPPs aware of the refreshed NPF, and ensure that CPPs are given appropriate advice to enable them to consider what changes might need to be made to their SOAs to reflect the refreshed NPF
• Public Bodies will demonstrate their alignment to the NPF in their Corporate Plans and annual Business Plans

FUTURE WORK (not part of the refresh)

Contributory Outcomes

• Work is underway to develop Contributory Outcomes. These are more focused outcomes on which progress can be measured in the short to medium term and help us understand the key steps that need to be achieved to realise the very broad National Outcomes
• Scottish Ministers have agreed that these should be further developed with delivery partners which will help improve alignment, partnership and collaboration and identify actions which move towards delivery of the National Outcomes and, ultimately, the Purpose

Public Sector Equality Duty

• The National Indicators encompass a wide coverage of society in line with the Government's Purpose for all of Scotland to flourish. Further work is being taken forward to develop performance reporting for specific equalities groups which will support identifying where, for example, national delivery may require concerted effort in deprived areas, or where there is a difference in outcome across different equality characteristics (such as age, gender, ethnicity and disability)