Our Vision
The Improvement Service will support local authorities, working with their partners, to deliver transformational change to sustain and where possible improve outcomes, reduce inequalities and achieve efficiencies.
Our Purpose
The Improvement Service is the national improvement organisation for local government in Scotland. We are a company limited by guarantee, with 34 members: COSLA, Solace and Scotland’s 32 local authorities. We deliver improvement support that helps Councils to provide effective community leadership, strong local governance and deliver high-quality, efficient local services.
Our purpose is to:
- Support local government to deliver sector-led improvement through our improvement architecture
- Provide leadership to local government and the wider system on transformation and improvement
- Develop capability and capacity for improvement within local government
- Support local authorities to collaborate and work together to tackle shared challenges and drive improvement and innovation
- Support local authorities to share knowledge, practice, learning and skills
- Deliver national improvement programmes for local government and partners, supporting local authorities to improve at a local level
- Provide research, data and intelligence to inform local government’s policy-making and decision-making and to drive improvement
- Deliver national shared service applications and technology platforms
- Broker additional resources to support our improvement work.
We are governed by a Board of Directors nominated by COSLA and Solace. Our website and business plan provide more information about our programmes of work, how we work in partnership with a range of organisations and our shared values that underpin everything that we do.
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Strategic Framework 2023-27
Download a PDF version of the IS Strategic Framework.
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IS Annual Report 2023
A round-up of IS activities, key achievements and performance throughout 2023.
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Our Approach to Net Zero
This statement sets out the guiding principles to our approach to net zero.
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Data and Intelligence Strategy
This four-year strategy sets out our vision and purpose for our work on data and intelligence, how we will deliver this and what we aspire to achieve.