Our response to Scottish Parliament Finance and Public Administration Committee Call for Views on Revised National Outcomes

In our response to the call for views, we comment on each National Outcome of relevance to our work, outlining where we think they can be strengthened and further improved.

We have called for health to be added as a focus to many Outcomes where it is currently missing and have outlined where we would like to see changes to current Outcomes and indicators to reflect this. 

Key points in our response:

• We find the updated purpose watered down, compared to the previous one. It is concerning that
  specific reference to sustainable and inclusive economic growth has been removed
• Health needs to be reflected as a core focus across all of the National Outcomes, to ensure they support improved health and wellbeing for all. We have identified areas where we think this can be strengthened, and are disappointed that many of these which we called for in the previous consultation haven't been reflected in the revision. 
• We feel the revised National Outcomes have introduced an increased focus on businesses and a prioritisation of their needs of public health. The commercial determinants of health are not referenced anywhere in the Outcomes, which is a significant omission. 
• The National Outcomes should support delivery and implementation of other policy processes and frameworks, including the forthcoming Public Health Framework and National Conversation of reforming the NHS. 

The call for views closes on 28th June 2024.