Verity House Agreement - Assurance and Accountability
This document sets out the assurance and accountability approach local government and the Scottish Government will use to evidence progress towards our shared priorities, setting out the principles of the Verity House Agreement outcomes framework.
2. Assurance
The Verity House Agreement sets out how the Scottish Government and COSLA, on behalf of Scottish Local Government, will work together, and includes prioritising a positive and proactive working relationship based on mutual trust and respect, and prioritising early engagement across all relevant policy areas.
Developing and agreeing a shared Verity House Agreement Outcomes Framework is one tool to facilitate improved assurance and accountability arrangements by articulating a more comprehensive understanding of the three shared priority outcomes.
The Outcomes Framework will support strong assurance arrangements and inform discussions between the Scottish Government and Local Government at different levels. Annex A sets out the principles for how existing data and evidence, including evaluation findings, will be used to understand collective progress towards shared outcomes; crucially, this will not introduce any additional reporting requirements. It is recognised that the measures identified will be iterative to ensure they clearly reflect priority areas for delivery against the shared outcomes and can demonstrate where progress is, and is not, being made across the whole system. It is hoped that they will also assist in identifying what wider reporting and monitoring can be reduced where they are adding pressure to the system and not supporting effective assurance and accountability.
The shared outcomes framework will sit between the revised National Performance Framework[4] and various existing portfolio and policy reporting structures. The revised National Performance Framework will be used to provide assurance of wider progress towards long-term national outcomes, and existing portfolio and policy reporting will provide assurance of delivery and, where necessary, of how issues are being resolved.[5]
The Scottish Local Government Improvement and Assurance Framework –developed by COSLA and the Improvement Service and launched in 2024 – demonstrates that councils are responsible for their own performance and improvement with internal management structures, elected member governance, and public performance reporting to the electorate. All of these components are part of a local government ‘system’ that is well shaped by legislation and has a clear understanding of local needs married with the appropriate service delivery structures.
The Scottish Local Government Improvement and Assurance framework provides an understanding to all partners of the robust structures in place across Local Government, supports streamlining of reporting by outlining the existing reporting landscape and is being used to help drive self-assessment and continuous improvement across all councils, including through the sharing of good practice and collaborative peer review.