Our Chief Executive, Sarah Gadsden, looks back at highlights from the work of the Improvement Service over the last 12 months.
2023 has been another eventful year for the Improvement Service, with our work having a significant impact on many aspects of local government in Scotland. As the year comes to an end, I have taken a look back at some of our highlights from throughout 2023, from key publications and projects to parliamentary appearances and new appointments.
Just as importantly, however, we have already started looking forward to what 2024 has to offer. I am particularly excited to see how our own work with Solace Scotland on a transformation programme for public service reform will develop and how the Verity House Agreement signed by the Scottish Government and COSLA will affect the wider local government sector.
January
At the start of the year, the Shaping Places for Wellbeing Programme expanded into its seventh Project Town, Dalkeith in Midlothian. The Programme is being run jointly by the Improvement Service and Public Health Scotland and aims to improve Scotland’s wellbeing and reduce inequalities through enabling partnership-based system-wide action at a local level. It supports local authorities, health boards, and their partners to deliver on the range of national ambitions including 20-minute neighbourhoods, the review of Scotland’s Town Centre Action Plan and Scotland’s Public Health Priorities.
February
February saw the publication of our annual Common Advice Performance Management Reporting Framework (CAPMRF) report, which measures key indicators of performance for money and welfare rights advice services. These services are funded by Scottish local authorities and delivered internally or commissioned from external organisations. Our report aims to help councils highlight possibilities for further improvement and demonstrate the support offered to service users and the beneficial outcomes secured. Figures showed that the number of people seeking debt advice from local authority-funded advice services increased by 24% across Scotland in 2021/22, as the cost of living crisis started to hit.
March
March saw the publication of our annual Local Government Benchmarking Framework (LGBF) National Benchmarking Overview Report which found that councils are continuing to develop innovative and effective community-based solutions, despite increased pressures around funding, demand, Covid and the cost of living crisis. Data from 2021/22 revealed the extraordinary effort and impressive achievements which were delivered across local government during this period, with councils adapting quickly to meet new demands, creating new services at pace while maintaining essential services and implementing new ways of working.
This month we also completed work on Phase 1 of the Local Government Data Platform project, which was later endorsed by Solace, COSLA Leaders and the LGBF Board. We are continuing to work with the Digital Office for Scottish Local Government, COSLA and Solace to progress Phase 2 of this project which will focus on simplification and streamlining of the reporting landscape, and a report on the findings and next steps will be brought back to Solace and COSLA Leaders in 2024.
April
In April, our Research team launched a fantastic new interactive visualisation tool that allows users to explore sub-council area population projections for the whole of Scotland. Sub-council population projections provide an indication of the potential future population size and structure for small areas within local authorities and these insights can help support a wide range of local level decision-making and planning including housing need, healthcare planning, and demand assessment. To deliver services efficiently and effectively we need to know where people are. This tool provides an insight into the makeup and distribution of a local authority’s population, as well how historic trends might affect where people live in the future.
May
The Improvement Service was represented at Holyrood during May, when the Local Government Committee held an evidence session on Community Councils to mark the 50th anniversary of the legislation which established them in 1973. We have been managing the Scottish Community Councils project on behalf of the Scottish Government for several years now, providing information, support and resources for Scotland’s 1,200 community councils and the 10,000+ volunteers who serve as community councillors. The Local Government Committee session was a great opportunity to talk about the great work which is done by Community Councils across Scotland, especially during the pandemic, as well as considering what they might look like in the future.
June
This year, the Improvement Service opened up access to the Spatial Hub, our local government data resource covering the whole of Scotland. Before June, Spatial Hub datasets were only available to local government, public sector organisations and academics, but new funding from the Scottish Government allowed us to make this valuable information available to everyone. The Spatial Hub collects a wide range of data directly from local authorities and other partner organisations, which is then compiled and published in Scotland-wide datasets for others to use.
June was a busy month for the Digital Public Services team, which launched a mobile app version of their successful parentsportal.scot platform, currently being used by half of Scotland’s local authorities to create a digital relationship between schools and parents, while they also unveiled their new datapipeline.scot service, which enables the secure transfer of data about early learning and childcare eligibility between the Scottish Government and local authorities.
July
Following the publication of our annual Business Plan earlier in the year, July saw the launch of the Improvement Service’s new four-year Strategic Framework. We identified four strategic priorities which will guide our work between now and 2027 and the important role we have to play in supporting local authorities through current and future challenges via our improvement architecture, products and services. The strategic priorities highlight the need for transformation and transition to new models of service delivery; the delivery of sector-led improvement in a range of policy and service areas; a preventative and integrated approach to tackling poverty; and digital and data-enabled solutions. The Strategic Framework was developed in partnership with staff and stakeholders and is a living document that can be adapted as we respond to new and unexpected challenges, rather than setting our strategic direction in stone.
August
In August, we published a new briefing on climate change and health inequalities with Public Health Scotland Adaptation Scotland. Working together to build climate-resilient, healthy and equitable places is aimed at council officers and elected members, as well as local government partners and it sets out how our changing climate can affect health and health inequalities both directly, and indirectly. Continuing the environmental theme, the Improvement Service has also been working in partnership with the Edinburgh Climate Change Institute throughout 2023 to develop the Climate Intelligence Service. This innovative new programme is jointly funded by Scottish Government and local government and will provide practical and tailored support to help councils build capacity and capability for the development of area-wide programmes of emissions reduction.
September
We welcomed a new team member to the Improvement Service in September: Craig McLaren, Scotland’s first National Planning Improvement Champion. This post was created as part of the Planning Act (Scotland) 2019 and aims to improve the planning system in Scotland by monitoring the performance of planning authorities and providing advice on how to improve, while also developing a performance management model for planning authorities, sharing good practice, and embedding learning across the sector. Funded by the Scottish Government, the Champion will work within the Improvement Service, using our links with local government and the wider planning sector through existing programmes.
October
After unveiling details of our transformation programme at the Solace Scotland conference, we issued an appeal for volunteers from across local government and the wider public sector to come forward and offer their expertise and experience in support of our aims. These volunteers will be part of an exciting and ambitious programme led by the Improvement Service and Solace Scotland, working on a range of transformation projects over the next 12-18 months or as part of our Leadership Practitioner Forum, which has already held its first two meetings. The Forum is a new network for aspiring Chief Executives, Directors and Heads of Service that brings colleagues together to explore topics and challenges associated with the transformation programme and identify opportunities to contribute to this work.
November
Every year in November, our Public Service Improvement Framework (PSIF) team holds their annual learning event with council and public sector colleagues from across Scotland. This year’s event saw the launch of the latest incarnation of the Framework which will support users to carry out a programme of self-assessments throughout their organisation. This self-assessment process enables organisations to identify their strengths and the areas for improvement which will inform planning and define improvement initiatives. The Improvement Service will be undergoing its own PSIF process in December, which will help us to identify where we are performing well and where we need to make improvements to our own work. Our Board and Audit Committee also undertook a self-assessment this year, which has resulted in the development of improvement plans.
December
Two Improvement Service projects were nominated for the 2023 Scottish Public Service Awards which were held on 6 December. The Digital Public Services team was shortlisted in the Digital Public Services Award category for their getyournec.scot platform while the National Trauma Transformation Programme was shortlisted for the Campbell Christie Public Service Reform Award. While we weren’t lucky enough to win either award, it was still fantastic to see the work of the Improvement Service and our partners recognised on such a high-profile stage – and hopefully we will be back at the awards ceremony next year!