Website of the Department of Health

Operational Plans 2008/09 - 2010/11

The Operating Framework, published the end of last year, introduced a new approach to planning and managing our priorities both nationally and locally – the Vital Signs. The planning guidance published today explains how organisations can use the Vital Signs to develop local operational plans to deliver against national priorities and how to select - or even create - local priorities. The document sets out how performance will be managed against each of the three tiers of the Vital Signs, limiting central performance management to the tier one national priorities and beyond that only to those areas or organisations where performance is weak.

• Download National planning guidance and 'vital signs' (updated February 2008) (PDF, 560K)
• Download 'Vital signs' - poster (updated February 2008) (PDF, 500K)