1. Good governance means
focusing on the organisation’s
purpose and on outcomes for
citizens and service users
The function of governance is to ensure that an organisation or partnership6 fulfi ls its
overall purpose, achieves its intended outcomes for citizens and service users, and
operates in an effective, effi cient and ethical manner7. This principle should guide all
governance activity.
Each organisation has its own purpose. There are also some general purposes that are
fundamental to all public governance, including providing good quality services and
achieving value for money.
The concept of ‘public value’ can be helpful when thinking about the unique purpose of
public services and therefore of their governance. Public value refers to the things that
public services produce, either directly or indirectly, using public money. Public value
includes: outcomes (such as improved health and improved safety); services (such as
primary care services and policing); and trust in public governance.