The National Planning Improvement Framework (NPIF) has been shortlisted in the Plan Making Practice category in the RTPI Scotland Awards for Planning Excellence 2026. The award programme is designed to showcase and reward outstanding achievements in planning.
The National Planning Improvement Framework is a new co-designed plan and collaborative process that supports planning authorities to assess and improve their performance. Taking a constructive approach, it is embedding a culture of improvement in planning services. The framework has been developed with stakeholders and identifies 12 attributes of a high performing planning authority, that provides the basis of assessment and identification of improvement actions to be taken forward. It includes a collaborative peer review where planning authorities discuss their improvement actions with their customers and stakeholders. Agreed improvements are monitored annually for progress and impact.
The National Planning Improvement team will be meeting the RTPI Scotland judges next week to share more about the framework and will be attending the award ceremony in June where the winners will be announced.