The National Public Health Performance Standards Program (NPHPSP) is a collaborative effort to enhance the Nation's public health systems. Seven national public health organizations have partnered to develop national performance standards for State and local public health systems.

The stated mission and goals of the NPHPSP are to improve the quality of public health practice and the performance of public health systems by:

1. Providing performance standards for public health systems and encouraging their widespread use;
2. Engaging and leveraging national, state, and local partnerships to build a stronger foundation for public health preparedness;
3. Promoting continuous quality improvement of public health systems; and
4. Strengthening the science base for public health practice improvement.

The NPHPSP is a collaborative effort of seven national partners:

Centers for Disease Control and PreventionPublic Health Practice Program Office (CDC / PHPPO)

American Public Health Association(APHA)

Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO)

National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO) 

National Association of Local Boards of Health

National Network of Public Health Institutes

Public Health Foundation

These partners represent the organizations and individuals that will use the assessment instruments. Through working groups and as field test sites, hundreds of representatives from these organizations were involved in the development, review, testing, and refinement of the three assessment instruments. Their feedback on the draft instruments assured that the final NPHPSP instruments are practice-oriented and user-friendly. Representatives from other organizations, such as academic partners from the Association of Schools of Public Health, also provided valuable input.

Concepts Applied in the NPHPSP:

1. The standards are designed around the ten Essential Public Health Services. The use of the Essential Services assures that the standards fully cover the gamut of public health action needed at state and community levels.
2. The standards focus on the overall public health system, rather than a single organization. A public health system includes all public, private, and voluntary entities that contribute to public health activities within a given area. This assures that the contributions of all entities are recognized in assessing the provision of essential public health services.
3. The standards describe an optimal level of performance rather than provide minimum expectations. This assures that the standards can be used for continuous quality improvement. The standards can stimulate greater accomplishment and provide a level to which all public health systems can aspire to achieve.
4. The standards are intended to support a process of quality improvement. System partners should use the assessment process and the performance standards results as a guide for learning about public health activities throughout the system and determining how to make improvements.