Health Improvement - Single Outcome Agreements

Single Outcome Agreements

As part of the 2007 spending review, a Concordat was established between the Scottish Government and local government. This agreement sets out to support the Scottish Government in delivering its purpose, strategic objectives and national outcomes and empower local government and its partners to deliver on local priorities. It is developed through a relationship based on trust where the Scottish Government will lead on over-arching outcomes, and stand back from micro-managing service delivery. Local government and its partners will be free to meet local needs and priorities and will be subject to less bureaucracy.

This new relationship will mean a huge culture change for all and councils are now developing Single Outcome Agreements. These are based on the common framework of 15 national outcomes agreed in the Concordat, and are intended to streamline reporting arrangements for local authorities. By allowing councils flexibility in how they reach the national outcomes, the Single Outcome Agreement will ensure that each area is able to focus its resources based on its local priority areas. A menu of local indicators has been developed for the councils to use and add to as they believe appropriate.

The commitment to the Community Planning process is key as almost all the outcomes require effective partnership working. SOAs will develop over time to fully involve CPPs, communities and the private and third sectors.

This developmental and cultural change process will require time and support. The Local Government Health Improvement Programme is supporting councils and CPPs with their outcome focused plans and performance management in the following areas:

West Lothian: PSR health improvement pathfinder
Angus: Focus on Alcohol project
Aberdeenshire: Young people and alcohol use in the Peterhead area

Health Scotland is also taking forward a programme of work for Health Improvement Performance Management .

The Improvement Service has also produced guidance for Single Outcome Agreements.

Community Engagement

In December 2006 the Community-Led: Supporting and Developing Healthy Communities Task Group reported:

"The active role of communities is vital:

to ensure that resources are mobilised and are used to address the issues that matter most to the communities involved
to enable individuals and communities to take shared responsibility for their own health and to work to bring about improvements
to create a climate of respect and support for people that directly contributes to their health and wellbeing."

Community Planning Partnerships (CPPs) are a key vehicle to work with local communities. As such they need to identify appropriate and sustainable approaches to health improvement. Part of this is ensuring strong and effective methods of engaging with, and involving, local communities throughout health improvement planning and delivery.

Prerequisites for effective community engagement include

Policy development
Long-term investment
Organisational and culture change
Levels of engagement and power
Mutual trust and respect

Scottish Mental Health Indicators

NHS Health Scotland is working to support councils and Community Planning Partnerships with evidence and indicators to support their planning processes. The NHS Health Scotland mental health indicators programme, established and funded by the Scottish Government, finalised a national mental health indicator set for adults in December 2007.
Read more...

Developing the health improvement elements of the Single Outcome Agreement in West Lothian Council

The project Steering Group, comprising representatives from West Lothian Council, Health Scotland and Scottish Government aimed to assist with the development of the health improvement component of the Single Outcome Agreement (SOA) for the Council and the Community Health and Care Partnership (CHCP) and also aimed to dovetail with the outcomes of the Community Planning Partnership (CPP). Consultants from Blake Stevenson Ltd were appointed to work with West Lothian Council and their partners locally.

Login