How is Scotland Performing?

Reading Time: 5 minutes

Scotland has a National Performance Framework (NPF), and you can find out more about it in this key issues briefing from SPICe.

It includes 11 outcomes , and the performance of those outcomes is measured by a total of 81 National Indicators. This blog provides a snapshot of the current performance of the National Indicators, and we plan to update it on the first Monday of the month.

SPICe recently published the blog Review of the National Outcomes 2023 – Back to the future? which looks to provide some background on the NPF, discuss Parliament’s role in scrutinising the National Outcomes and the NPF, and analyse some of the key issues around the NPF that the Scottish Government may look to address.

For example one outcome is all about Children and Young People, and the outcome is that “We grow up loved, safe and respected so that we realise our full potential”.  So, how is that outcome measured?  The NPF actually has seven different indicators related to this outcome, and one of these is titled “child social and physical development”, and specifically measures the “the percentage of children with a concern at their 27-30 month review (as a % of children reviewed)”.  The indicator relates to Health Visitors’ assessment of children’s development and the ‘Number of children eligible for review’ is defined as the number of children who turned 27 months old during the financial year of interest (April to March) and who were active on the Scottish Immunisation & Recall System (SIRS).

How do we know if things are getting better, worse or staying the same?

To help simplify a complex array of statistical measures and get a sense of the overall direction of the NPF, each one of the 81 National Indicators is assessed as to whether its performance is improving, maintaining or worsening based on the change between the last two data points.

That decision, for each indicator, is based on its own “Criteria for Change”

For example, If we look at the Criteria for Change for the Economic Growth indicator, we can get an idea of how this works. This indicator measures how well the Scottish economy is growing compared to recent history. It compares Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth in the most recent year against the average annual GDP growth across the three previous years. The Criteria for Change for this Indicator are:   Performance Improving means: 0.1 percentage points or more higher than the average annual growth rates for the preceding 3 years Performance Maintaining means: within +/- 0.1 percentage points of the average annual growth rates for the preceding 3 years Performance Worsening means: 0.1 percentage points or more lower than the average annual growth rates for the preceding 3 years

So, are things getting better, worse or staying the same?

Updated at 4 September 2023

This section outlines how each of the 81 Indicators is performing.  

The NPF was last refreshed and reviewed in 2018 and indicators are updated as and when new data becomes available. However, it should be noted that, as at 4 September 2023, of the 81 National indicators there is now no data for 19. That leaves us with 62 indicators on which performance has been assessed.

It was not possible to report performance for 19 indicators. This is due to changes in data collection methodology during Covid-19 which is only now becoming apparent in the NPF data. These changes in methodology mean that the current data is not comparable to previous years, thus no performance assessment can be made. We are working with the lead analysts and the Chief Statistician to keep users informed of these reasons on the NPF website and to look ahead to reporting performance again for these indicators as soon as possible. There are also six National Indicators out of 81 that are still in development from 2018.

For surveys like the Scottish Household Survey, the pandemic has had a major impact on how that data has been collected  (details available in this report).  In summary, as set out here, in March 2020, to help prevent the spread of Covid-19, fieldwork for the Scottish Household Survey was suspended. A revised approach was piloted and adopted for the remainder of the 2020 sample. This involved no interviewer travel, and surveys conducted remotely, either by telephone or by video.

As a result, the government says that it has not been possible to determine the extent to which any differences between 2020 and previous years represent genuine changes in people’s views and experiences, as opposed to being due to changes in how the survey was carried out.  This has meant that reporting on these National Indicators has had to change to capture this.

More information can be found on the NPF website.

The big picture

The following chart gives an overview of what is happening with each indicator grouped by its relevant outcomes.

In most cases (30) performance is maintaining, whilst improvement is seen for 18 Indicators, and for 14 Indicators the position is worsening.

Current gaps in data are notable in Education (no performance data for 4 out of 9 Indicators), Human rights (no performance data for 3 out of 4 indicators), Communities (no data for 3 out of 8 indicators) and for International (no performance data for 3 out of 6 Indicators).

A breakdown by all the National Indicators

The following table provides an overview of what is happening with each indicator grouped by the relevant outcomes.

Children and Young People

Indicator	Performance
Child social and physical development	Performance Worsening
Child wellbeing and happiness	Performance Maintaining
Children’s voices	Performance Improving
Healthy start	Performance Maintaining
Quality of children’s services	Performance Worsening
Children have positive relationships	Performance Maintaining
Child material deprivation	Performance to be confirmed

Communities

Indicator	Performance
Perceptions of local area	Performance Maintaining
Loneliness	Performance to be confirmed
Perceptions of local crime rate	Performance Maintaining
Community ownership	Performance Improving
Crime victimisation	Performance Maintaining
Places to interact	Performance to be confirmed
Access to green and blue space	Performance to be confirmed
Social capital	Performance Worsening

Culture

Indicator	Performance
Attendance at cultural events or places of culture	Performance to be confirmed
Participation in a cultural activity	Performance to be confirmed
Growth in the Arts, Culture and Creative Economy	Performance Maintaining
People Working in Arts, Culture and Creative Industries	Performance Maintaining

Economy

Indicator	Performance
Productivity	Performance Maintaining
International exporting	Performance Improving
Economic growth	Performance Improving
Carbon footprint	Performance Maintaining
Natural Capital	Performance Maintaining
Greenhouse gas emissions	Performance Worsening
Access to superfast broadband	Performance Improving
Spend on research and development	Performance Maintaining
Income inequality	Performance Improving
Entrepreneurial activity	Performance Improving

Education

Indicator	Performance
Educational attainment	Performance to be confirmed
Confidence of children and young people	Indicator in development
Resilience of children and young people	Indicator in development
Work place learning	Performance Worsening
Engagement in extra-curricular activities	Indicator in development
Young people’s participation	Performance Maintaining
Skill profile of the population	Performance Improving
Skill shortage vacancies	Performance Improving
Skills underutilisation	Performance Improving

Environment

Indicator	Performance
Visits to the outdoors	Performance to be confirmed
State of historic sites	Performance Maintaining
Condition of Protected Nature Sites	Performance Worsening
Energy from renewable sources	Performance Improving
Waste generated	Performance Worsening
Sustainability of Fish Stocks	Performance Improving
Biodiversity	Performance Maintaining
Clean seas	Performance Maintaining

Fair Work & Business

Indicator	Performance
Number of businesses	Performance Worsening
High growth businesses	Performance Worsening
Innovative businesses	Performance Improving
Economic participation	Performance Maintaining
Employees on the living wage	Performance Maintaining
Pay gap	Performance Maintaining
Contractually secure work	Performance Maintaining
Employee voice	Performance Worsening
Gender balance in organisations	Performance Improving

Health

Indicator	Performance
Healthy Life Expectancy	Performance Maintaining
Mental wellbeing	Performance Worsening
Healthy weight	Performance Maintaining
Health Risk Behaviours	Performance Maintaining
Physical activity	Performance Improving
Journeys by active travel	Performance Improving
Quality of care experience	Performance Worsening
Work related ill health	Performance Maintaining
Premature Mortality	Performance Worsening

Human Rights

Indicator	Performance
Public services treat people with dignity and respect	Indicator in development
Quality of public services	Performance to be confirmed
Influence over local decisions	Performance to be confirmed
Access to justice	Performance Maintaining

International

Indicator	Performance
A positive experience for people coming to Scotland	Performance Maintaining
Scotland’s reputation	Performance Improving
Scotland’s Population	Performance Improving
Trust in public organisations	Indicator in development
International networks	Indicator in development
Contribution of development support to other nations	Performance to be confirmed

Poverty

Indicator	Performance
Relative poverty after housing costs	Performance Maintaining
Wealth inequality	Performance Worsening
Cost of living	Performance Maintaining
Unmanageable debt	Performance Maintaining
Persistent poverty	Performance Maintaining
Satisfaction with housing	Performance to be confirmed
Food insecurity	Performance to be confirmed

Finally, it is worth noting that the Scottish Government has recently been asking users what they think of the National Performance Framework, and a review of the National Outcomes is currently underway. People and organisations from across Scotland told us whether our National Outcomes continue to reflect the kind of Scotland we want to see in our consultation and call for evidence which closed on 12 June. The Scottish Government are currently analysing that data. For more information visit the NPF website.

There’s an NPF newsletter for those who want to keep up to date.

Andrew Aiton, Data Visualisation Manager