Self-assessment plays a pivotal role for local government organisations, allowing them to reflect and scrutinise upon their own practices and outputs, evidence where they are performing strong, and establish the services areas in need of improvement within a structured, service informed approach.
The Public Service Improvement Framework (PSIF) is the most widely used self-evaluation tool across Scottish local authorities and is also used by a growing range of public sector organisations; most recently including Children’s Hearings Scotland and the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service.
PSIF uses a checklist-based approach to support the delivery of self-assessment, helping colleagues across all levels of services identify strengths and areas for improvement while supporting a culture of continuous improvement.
As part of our three-year review of PSIF, we are working with performance colleagues from seven Scottish Councils to refresh and enhance the framework.
The review has produced a range of new and updated checklists, guidance and resources, alongside a refreshed offer of ongoing support to help colleagues apply the framework confidently and consistently within their organisation.
The revised suite includes:
- PSIF Health Check: a light-touch checklist that can be completed annually or every two years to provide corporate oversight across services with minimal resource requirements. It helps identify organisation-wide improvement opportunities and highlights areas that may benefit from a more detailed self-assessment.
- PSIF Service Checklist: helps services assess performance across key areas such as planning, leadership, people, partnerships, resources, service delivery and results. Using staff feedback and evidence, it identifies strengths, improvement priorities and practical actions to support continuous improvement and better outcomes for communities. It is designed to be accessible to staff across all services.
- Outcomes-Focused PSIF Checklist: designed for senior leaders and strategic managers, this checklist explores how effectively councils are creating the conditions for long-term success and improving outcomes for communities. It considers organisational factors such as leadership, governance, performance, partnerships and improvement culture, alongside progress in areas including economic prosperity, empowered communities, tackling poverty and inequality, climate action, education, and health and wellbeing.
- PSIF Corporate Checklist (Best Value): aligned to the seven Best Value themes, this checklist supports councils to assess leadership, governance, resource management, partnership working, community engagement, sustainability and fairness, helping identify priorities for improvement and strengthen organisational performance.
A key aim of the review is to ensure councils using PSIF meet the requirements of the National Self-Evaluation Framework (NSEF), supporting greater consistency across the self-assessment landscape.
Councils using PSIF also benefit from Improvement Service support, including facilitator training and development, year-round guidance, and access to the PSIF Connect Network on Microsoft Teams. This provides opportunities for peer support, knowledge sharing and access to resources such as session materials and output templates. Good practice case studies can also be shared in this space to support national learning and good practice sharing.
To find out more about how PSIF could support your organisation, please contact thomas.boyle@improvementservice.org.uk (PSIF Programme Manager) and erin.neilson@improvementservice.org.uk (PSIF Project Officer).