9. Define what success looks like and publish performance data

Scotland has a national performance framework to help set priorities and understand how government spends public money.

This framework measures Scotland’s progress against a set of national outcomes (aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals) to help track progress in reducing inequality.

It’s important that services contribute to these outcomes - and that we can report progress against the national indicators.

When measuring the performance of a service, defining what good looks like and identifying appropriate metrics means that you’ll know whether the service is solving the problem it’s meant to solve.

Collecting the right performance data means you’ll be alerted to potential problems with your service. And when you make a change to the service, you’ll be able to tell whether it had the effect you expected.

Publishing performance data means that you’re being transparent about the success of services funded by public money.

How you do it

Map to the national outcomes in Scotland’s National Performance Framework
Describe which national indicators your service contributes to
Understand what success looks like for your service
Identify metrics which will tell you what’s working and what can be improved
Use a wide range of data to make improvements
Collect and use performance data from different sources, both online and offline
Continually review the performance of the service
Use data to make decisions about how to fix problems and improve the service
Improve your management information over time
Review and improve your metrics and data collection practices as you learn more about user needs
Publish data to help inform and improve future government services
Publishing information about your service will help government be open, accountable and make evidence-based decisions on future services

Links to detailed guidance:

Best practice analytics guidance from the Scottish Government's Design System
Find tools and examples on how to use the National performance framework
Guidance on Measuring the Success of your Service from GDS - note that the four mandatory Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are examples and are not currently mandatory for central Scottish Government organisations
Find information and case studies about the Code of Practice for Statistics
National Statistician’s guidance for Management Information