Measuring the impacts of Scotland's agricultural support – a national level monitoring framework

Introduction and Context

Policy context

The Agriculture and Rural Communities (Scotland) Act 2024, also known as the ARC Act, commits to the design and implementation of a Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) plan for the Rural Support Plan. M&E provides a structured approach to understanding the extent to which the Rural Support Plan is delivering what it is intended to deliver. The Act also requires the Scottish Government to report on each Rural Support Plan period every five years.

Monitoring is the ongoing process of data collection that happens throughout a programme. It aims to help track the progress of a programme and whether it is on course to meet its intended goals.

Evaluation provides an understanding of the economic, financial, social and environmental impacts of a programme, and/or provides an assessment of how it is or was implemented, whether it delivered as expected, and whether it represents value for public money.

Implementing effective monitoring and evaluation mechanisms ensures there are evidence-based insights to inform current decision-making and future policy design. It is essential for:

• Tracking delivery
• Evidencing the extent to which outcomes have been achieved
• Determining most effective use of public money
• Ensuring accountability to stakeholders
• Enabling continuous improvement

This document presents an initial monitoring framework for the agricultural elements of the Rural Support Plan, designed to assess progress towards achieving five Strategic Outcomes and their associated sub-outcomes that are set out in the next section below.

It is a national-level framework, meaning the indicators measure progress at a national level rather than for local geographies, land types, or agricultural sub-sectors. These will be considered as part of the wider M&E approach, specifically for the four-tier framework set out in the Rural Support Plan.

It should be noted that community-development elements of the Rural Support Plan, specifically Community Led Local Development, the Scottish Rural Network, and the Scottish Land Matching Service, are not covered by this document. These elements will be monitored separately but will support progress towards our high level outcomes and incorporated into evaluation of the Rural Support Plan as a whole.

The framework is intended to be flexible and adaptable, allowing for integration of new evidence and learning over time. It will adapt to new and emerging policy priorities as well as developing data and research. As such, it represents an initial version that will evolve with future iterations of the Rural Support Plan. The monitoring framework will be reviewed in line with the Plan reporting, to ensure the most appropriate indicators are used, as data and technology develop. It is likely that this baseline set will be supplemented with new indicators in future iterations of the framework.