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I agree with that, but I am looking at this from a ministerial point of view. I know that some local authorities will say, “Look—we do not need additional teachers. What we need is a peripatetic higher biology teacher for the six kids in each school doing advanced highers in sixth year. It seems daft to have an extra teacher to cover that in each school, so we will just have one.” However, the headline in the media is still the reduction in teacher numbers or whatever. The political imperative, if you like, is what the public see and, in that example, what the public are seeing is fewer teachers in their area, not an improvement in the delivery of advanced higher in biology. That is the absolute nub of this. Ministers would really like to give local government more flexibility—and, of course, local government would like more flexibility, too—but they are perhaps concerned that politics gets in the way of delivering on these outcomes. That is what I am suggesting. How do we square that circle with a hostile media?

Here is a man who will say it once: Douglas.

We talked about decluttering with the previous witnesses.

Absolutely.

That concludes questions from committee members, but I still have a couple of questions that touch on areas that we have not covered yet.

The first is for Mirren Kelly. The submission from COSLA talks about the impact of the national outcomes on the economy as one example of collaborative working. It says that

“the Business Gateway National Unit in COSLA ... works extensively and in collaboration with the Scottish Government, the three enterprise agencies, Skills Development Scotland, Visit Scotland and Creative Scotland as well as all 32 Councils.”

It goes on to talk about community planning partnerships and other structures, such as integration joint boards. One area that is not covered, but I am sure that it is also in your mind, is city and regional deals.

Do you feel that delivery of the national outcomes would benefit from a decluttering of the public sector landscape?

You have talked about sharing internally, but what about either learning from or sharing with other local authorities?

I would be delighted if you did. You have mentioned the no wrong door initiative a couple of times. I am quite intrigued by that. Resources are tight and are likely to be tight for the foreseeable future, and I hope that, if best practice can be shared, resources will be spent at a more optimum level than perhaps happens at the moment across Scotland.

I will finish where I started, with a point for Mirren Kelly, which is also on the question about sharing examples of good practice. Again, I was somewhat disappointed in COSLA’s response to that question. Your response said:

“This has involved working collaboratively with a range of organisations, where workstreams with a range of stakeholders have been set up to progress each of the agreed outcomes.”

There was a sentence before that, and a long sentence after it, but not really any specific examples of best practice, as I would consider it, where improvements have been made. If we are going to deliver on the outcomes, it is important, as I have already pointed out, that we share that information. Do you have any specific direct examples that you can share?

Yes—or services delivered by the NHS, for example; I would imagine that there would be issues there.

Are there any further points that our witnesses want to make before we end the session?

When the national performance framework was set up, John Swinney, who was the finance secretary at the time, had an overview of it. Of course, he is now the Deputy First Minister, and he still has an overview of it.

It was going to be Paul Bradley actually.