What is an outcomes-based planning framework?

The chain

Keep the words stable. Different strategies mix them up.

Term	Meaning
Vision	The intended future for the strategy area
Principles	How you will work (for example, infrastructure first, or the Welsh "ways of working")
Objectives	The things the SDS is trying to achieve
Outcomes	The change you would observe if the objective worked
Measure	The quantity you will collect
Indicator / KPI	The measure expressed so it can be reported, often with a direction or target
Monitoring	The report that publishes the indicators and says what happens if they fail

PM1 already requires an SDS to monitor implementation. PM2 asks local plans for a vision supported by no more than ten measurable outcomes. That local-plan rule is a useful discipline at SDS scale too: few outcomes, each with a measure.

Reference models (not templates to copy blindly)

London Plan Good Growth (2021). Six named objectives, monitored through a statutory Annual Monitoring Report under the GLA Act. The strongest English example of outcomes tied to a legal monitoring duty:

1. GG1 Building strong and inclusive communities
2. GG2 Making the best use of land
3. GG3 Creating a healthy city
4. GG4 Delivering the homes Londoners need
5. GG5 Growing a good economy
6. GG6 Increasing efficiency and resilience

Oxfordshire Strategic Vision (2021). A long-term cross-authority vision to 2050 that does not fix a housing quantum. Useful as a shared frame. Weak as a monitoring system because indicators were acknowledged as needed and not set at adoption.

Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015. Seven well-being goals, national indicators and milestones, plus five ways of working. The most legally embedded outcomes model in the UK. Future Wales is aligned to it. England has no equivalent statute for SDS. The seven goals are: a prosperous Wales; a resilient Wales; a healthier Wales; a more equal Wales; a Wales of cohesive communities; a Wales of vibrant culture and thriving Welsh language; a globally responsible Wales.

Use these as comparisons in an SDS evidence note. Do not paste London's six objectives onto a different geography and call it done.

A working SDS set

The outcomes framework template uses ten themes. That is a ceiling, matching the local-plan "no more than ten" idea, not a legal requirement:

1. Growth and economy
2. Housing
3. Health and wellbeing
4. Transport and connectivity
5. Education and labour market
6. Natural capital and green infrastructure
7. Water security
8. Climate resilience and net zero
9. Communities and governance
10. Design and place

Each row should have one objective, one outcome, one measure and one indicator. If you cannot name the dataset, it is not yet an indicator.

A filled version of those ten rows, written as full outcome sentences for a growth-corridor SDS, is on the worked example. Three before-and-after rewrites are on how to write one outcome.

One chain, written out

Take housing. A vision sentence such as "everyone can access a high-quality home in a thriving community" is not an outcome. An outcome adds the change you would observe, and a trigger you can fail:

Everyone can access a high-quality home that remains affordable across generations. A school, a surgery, a shop and open space are within an easy walk of new homes and are open from the outset.

Measure: affordable completions by tenure; months between first occupation and the first school, surgery or shop. Indicator: those two numbers, reported per broad location. Dataset: MHCLG live tables, LPA AMRs, education and ICB returns. If "from the outset" has no month or occupation trigger, the outcome cannot fail, so it cannot be monitored.

How this links to examination

PM14's effective test asks whether local plans will be capable of identifying sites to implement the spatial strategy, and it flags post-adoption monitoring where the SDS is relying on a change in market conditions. An outcomes framework is the place that monitoring lives. If the framework only restates the vision, it will not help at year seven when PM1 asks whether the SDS should be replaced early.