That is a good question, and there are a number of strands to it. First, I tried to indicate a moment earlier that there are many things that are important to us as a society that might be quite difficult to measure. Do not underestimate things like kindness, love and all of that. They might be hard to measure, but they have been important in this consultation and it is important that the information is expressed in that fashion. When there was engagement with looked-after children and they were asked about their needs, their number 1 ask was love. How do we measure that?
If we want to respond to people, we must listen to what they are saying, and this NPF refresh has done that. What is important to us as a society cannot always be measured, but we should still be able to express it and, if we can measure it, we should try to do so. There are indicators in that regard, as you have mentioned, which then led to your question about local government.
It is very welcome that local government has responded strongly to the NPF. The local authorities had earlier sight of it through their governance structures, and I think that it has been to the leaders meeting. It has certainly been to the presidential team and the cross-party team of COSLA, with whom I had a meeting. They were of the view that the partnership working here is so strong that it helps to create a new framework for further partnership working. It is a very strong response from local government. Endorsing the NPF in the fashion that they have done suggests that they agree with where we are on the purpose and values as well as the outcomes.
As to local variance, as was the case before, on the single outcome agreements, unless the committee says otherwise, I think it would be hard to disagree with the proposition that we are putting forward, although I would not want to prejudice the committee’s view considering the amount of cross-party work that has gone on. Local government should use the NPF as a very good foundation, as should other parts of the public sector, but they may want to add to it and they will attach appropriate weighting to what is appropriate in their areas.
In the previous iteration of single outcome agreements, local authorities could choose from a menu of indicators what was most important for their areas. We were all agreed on the outcomes and the purpose, but they could determine what was more important to them. Community planning partnerships could then bolt on or enhance data or a particular purpose. They are perfectly at liberty to do all of that again.
Your point, that there may be more local intelligence or knowledge than we have in the national picture, is an important one. All the community planning partnerships, of which local authorities are key partners, can collect that in the fashion that you have described, recognising that, in some areas, they might want to go further or have more data.
The other point to make about how we report on the outcomes is that there has been an improvement in monitoring and reporting on our website. Of course, we can still produce paper reports, and we will do that. We will continue to report through the score card, the committees and the budget process, but online reporting is really powerful because we can get the most up-to-date dashboard of performance and see the relationships between the indicators.
I identify that because we are going to try to make the reporting as local as we can. We are going to make reporting on equality groups clearer, too, so that it shows not just the overall progress that we are making on the outcomes but how they affect particular groups and—where it can do so—how they affect particular areas. That will help to drive the discussion about how local authorities and other key local partners can respond to the national framework.