How a strengthened National Performance Framework can drive effective government in Scotland

This report demonstrates that Scotland’s National Performance Framework is being underused and failing to shape government policy as it could and should. Dr Max French homes in on the Scottish picture and sets out six steps that the Scottish Government could take to allow the National Performance Framework to achieve its potential.

This report sets out six steps that the Scottish Government could take to allow the National Performance Framework to achieve its potential:

Complete the journey from a National Performance Framework to Scotland’s Wellbeing Framework
Make the NPF the lynchpin of a renewed Scottish Public Service Reform Programme
Reframe accountability and scrutiny relationships around the revised NPF
Introduce new duties for public bodies – in return for new powers
Use the revised NPF as a tool for direct democracy
Review the NPF’s integration, not just its content
This report builds on research conducted by Dr Max French and Jennifer Wallace that systematically compares the integration of wellbeing frameworks used in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland into decision making. The research demonstrates that, despite Scotland’s wellbeing framework being in operation twice as long, it is failing to have the intended impact.

The National Performance Framework (NPF) is Scotland’s wellbeing framework. It sets out an overall vision for Scotland and “aims to create a more successful country, with opportunities for all to flourish through increased wellbeing and sustainable and inclusive economic growth.” It is intended to promote “partnership working by making organisations jointly responsible for planning and spending to achieve shared National Outcomes” contained within the NPF.

However, this report and the research that informs it demonstrate that the NPF is being underused and failing to shape government policy as it could and should. Here, Dr French focusses on the Scottish picture and sets out actions that the Scottish Government could take to allow the National Performance Framework to achieve its potential.

We believe that enacting these six steps has the potential to be transformative. This research has been shared with Scottish Government Ministers and with the Finance and Publication Administration Committee of the Scottish Parliament as part of their ongoing National Outcomes inquiry.