Wellbeing economy toolkit: supporting place based economic strategy and policy development

Annex C - The National Performance Framework – Scotland’s Wellbeing Framework

Scotland was one of the first countries to sign up to achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030. This demonstrates Scotland’s commitment to playing our part in achieving these Goals, both here in Scotland and globally.

By signing up, the Scottish Government is required to demonstrate how we will work to achieve these targets by 2030. Many of the goals align with what we are already doing to tackle climate change, poverty and inequality, both domestically and internationally.

Scotland’s internationally recognised National Performance Framework (NPF) includes a set of National Outcomes for Scotland – our main vehicle to deliver and localise the SDGs.

There is a statutory requirement to review them every five years. These National Outcomes and the 81 national indicators that underpin them form the basis of the Wellbeing Economy Monitor, both at the national and local levels.

Resources on how to interpret and use the NPF, National Outcomes and indicators, and how to translate it into strategy and action at the local level, are available on the NPF website, including a guide to outcomes focused policy making.

Policy makers may wish to conduct deeper dives into specific National Outcomes as part of the evidence gathering process (stages one and two of the toolkit). The Further Resources annex of this toolkit (Annex E) highlights examples of outcomes-focused analyses conducted by the Scottish Government.

The National Performance Framework website Resources page details other examples from around Scotland showing how organisations are aligning their strategies and plans to the National Outcomes.