Chamber and committees

We talked about decluttering with the previous witnesses.

Absolutely.

That concludes questions from committee members, but I still have a couple of questions that touch on areas that we have not covered yet.

The first is for Mirren Kelly. The submission from COSLA talks about the impact of the national outcomes on the economy as one example of collaborative working. It says that

“the Business Gateway National Unit in COSLA ... works extensively and in collaboration with the Scottish Government, the three enterprise agencies, Skills Development Scotland, Visit Scotland and Creative Scotland as well as all 32 Councils.”

It goes on to talk about community planning partnerships and other structures, such as integration joint boards. One area that is not covered, but I am sure that it is also in your mind, is city and regional deals.

Do you feel that delivery of the national outcomes would benefit from a decluttering of the public sector landscape?

You have talked about sharing internally, but what about either learning from or sharing with other local authorities?

I would be delighted if you did. You have mentioned the no wrong door initiative a couple of times. I am quite intrigued by that. Resources are tight and are likely to be tight for the foreseeable future, and I hope that, if best practice can be shared, resources will be spent at a more optimum level than perhaps happens at the moment across Scotland.

I will finish where I started, with a point for Mirren Kelly, which is also on the question about sharing examples of good practice. Again, I was somewhat disappointed in COSLA’s response to that question. Your response said:

“This has involved working collaboratively with a range of organisations, where workstreams with a range of stakeholders have been set up to progress each of the agreed outcomes.”

There was a sentence before that, and a long sentence after it, but not really any specific examples of best practice, as I would consider it, where improvements have been made. If we are going to deliver on the outcomes, it is important, as I have already pointed out, that we share that information. Do you have any specific direct examples that you can share?

Yes—or services delivered by the NHS, for example; I would imagine that there would be issues there.

Are there any further points that our witnesses want to make before we end the session?

When the national performance framework was set up, John Swinney, who was the finance secretary at the time, had an overview of it. Of course, he is now the Deputy First Minister, and he still has an overview of it.

It was going to be Paul Bradley actually.

I am going to bring Amy Woodhouse in, but leadership was something that I was going to come to you next on, because you said in your submission:

“There needs to be a consistent commitment to and leadership of the NPF throughout the Scottish Government and other public bodies that delivers policy coherence across strategies, plans, frameworks, and activities.”

Have you identified a significant gap in that regard?

I agree with that. If I have to do a piece of work and I have been given a deadline of Friday, I will do it on Thursday. If the deadline is the following Monday, I will do it on Sunday. If there is no deadline, there is always something else to fill my time. I do think that that is an issue. With the best will in the world, we always have other priorities, some of which are time driven.

I said that I would go back to Amy Woodhouse. In your submission, you say:

“We believe there is scope for funding to be more closely aligned to the national outcomes, and we would welcome the opportunity for discussion about how this could be taken forward appropriately.”

How can it be taken forward? You talk about that in your submission, but, rather than read it out, I will let you cover that ground.