Creating National Performance Framework (NPF) outcomes and indicators for care: the Scottish case and experience

The COVID-19 pandemic has, in many developed economies, highlighted the longstanding social care crisis. This is also true for the UK where the need for thorough and sustained change in the entire policy domain of care – understood to include paid care workers, including childcare workers, and unpaid carers and those experiencing care – is clear. To achieve such change, the prominence and visibility of care as a key policy issue needs to increase. One way in which this may be possible is through having an outcome for care anchored in an outcomes-based performance measurement framework. A number of countries, regions or municipalities use such frameworks, for example in relation to health, the environment, or inequality, and often in the guise of ‘wellbeing frameworks’.

This article presents a proposal for a blueprint for an outcome on care tailored towards Scotland’s National Performance Framework. The blueprint was developed on the basis of a policy review and interviews following participatory action research principles.

It is suggested that the blueprint can serve discussions on how to firmly embed care as an important domain for governmental and public agendas in and beyond Scotland. It argues that performance framework outcomes offer levers for a visible celebration of success and the easier identification of barriers to improvement and that they can provide a positive focus over time to sustain systemic and positive change in order to create ‘countries that care’.