Culture, human rights added to Scotland vision for first time

Culture and human rights have been included in a vision for national wellbeing in Scotland for the first time.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon launched the government’s new national performance framework at an international conference in Edinburgh.

The framework includes 11 national outcomes that set out a vision for Scotland and 81 indicators which will be used to track and measure progress towards achieving them.

Ms Sturgeon said: “The Scottish Government wants Scotland to be the best place possible to live, work, grow up and study in.

“This new national performance framework includes 11 key outcomes that the whole of Scotland can get behind and has been developed in collaboration with other parties and all aspects of society, including public and private sectors, voluntary organisations, businesses and communities.

“As a government we recognise that economic growth is hugely important, but it must be matched by improvements in our environment, in people’s quality of life, in the opportunities available to people and the public services they have access to.

“As a government and as a country, the challenge this new framework sets us all is to make progress in these areas to improve wellbeing across Scotland.”

Welcoming the focus on culture, cabinet secretary Fiona Hyslop said: “The inclusion, for the first time, of the new cultural national outcome in the National Performance Framework is of immense importance and reflects the growing recognition of the strategic significance of culture in Scotland.

“It will also foster better government working and encourage other policy areas to consider how their work can help to meet the ambitions and aims of the developing culture strategy and cultural outcomes.”

Judith Robertson, chair of the Scottish Human Rights Commission, said: “The inclusion – for the first time – of a National Outcome focused on human rights is a significant and welcome development in how we measure our progress as a country.”