The Concordat with the Scottish Government and the outcomes of the Crerar review require a much stronger focus on outcomes from councils in their governance, planning, performance management and resourcing processes and increased rigour and clarity in self-assessment.

Support for outcomes is at the heart of the Improvement Service's work with councils. As part of the supporting framework for improvement and efficiency in local government, the IS is focusing efforts on helping councils face the challenges and issues around ensuring that the governance, organisational and partnership capacity of local government is capable of delivering improved outcomes for individuals and communities.

The Improving Outcomes programme focuses on six main areas of work:

• Single Outcome Agreements - supporting COSLA, SOLACE, councils and their partners to develop, implement and monitor SOAs.
• Elected Member Development - supporting the needs of elected members and delivering programmes to help meet those needs.
• Performance management and improvement - promoting self-assessment and performance improvement through the Public Service Improvement Framework (PSIF), peer review and promoting and sharing good practice in performance management.
• Collaborative gain - supporting councils and their partners in developing, improving and gaining real benefit from collaborative approaches to working.
• Promoting equalities - supporting councils and their local partners to promote equalities.
• Promoting sustainability - supporting councils and their partners in promoting sustainable methods of delivering services and in reducing their carbon footprint.