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Scottish Labour election candidates will be regularly checked to see they are meeting party and public expectations, under plans being put to its conference in Aviemore this weekend.

Wendy Alexander spelled out in advance of the gathering that they will be required to sign Candidate Agreements as "a basis for ensuring that when people take on a responsibility, they fulfil that responsibility".

The leader in Holyrood explained: "There are occasions where people feel an elected representative, of whatever sort, isn't fulfilling the obligations or expectations of the job, and the fair way to assess that is to determine in advance what the expectations are. The Candidate Agreement makes that explicit."

Contracts have been used in parts of England, with MPs and councillors required to report back to the party regularly on their activities. Facing calls within the party for some incumbents to be de-selected, Ms Alexander said of her plan: "Do I think that is the last word? No, I do not."

She was speaking before the first Scottish Labour conference since the party lost office at last year's Holyrood election. She hopes to push through reforms on Sunday, with her leadership speech tomorrow.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown delivers his speech today, arguing the challenge of globalisation is best answered by Scotland remaining part of the UK, with Labour governing as "the people's party".

"Scotland stands on the brink of unprecedented prosperity, but is held back by an executive that doesn't understand the modern world and has no plan except to retreat from it," he will say.

Mr Brown is to attack Alex Salmond's administration over the lack of a school building programme and its funding of universities, colleges and enterprise agencies: "Precisely the institutions which could equip our people to prosper in the decades to come."

Speaking to The Herald, Ms Alexander said her first six months as leader, which have featured investigations into an illegal campaign donation, have taught her lessons: "You stay focused on the big issues, come what may. We live in a world with a lot of flim-flam, and the important thing is to set a course, and that course was about reforming our party, renewing our policies and reconnecting with the electorate.

"There are some areas you move faster than you had hoped and other areas you don't move as fast as you hoped. That's the nature of leadership. It's a long game."

She said her media image is not necessarily the public view: "The job of a leading politician is to put the issues on the agenda which constituents bring to them, and you have an obligation to try and not be part of the trivialising of politics, because in general, that leaves the public cold."

Looking to Aviemore, she said: "What I want from conference is for Labour to have learned the lessons of the recent past, to be listening to the people of Scotland and taking the fight to the SNP."

Asked what the lessons were, she replied: "That the need to campaign in government every day was something Labour was not adept at over the whole of the last eight years, and we, in Scotland, need to learn the lessons from that."

She said the manifesto had to be clearer and more focused on core promises, conceding that worked for the SNP, but also counter-attacking: "They have government by focus group. It was a manifesto to die for, but also a manifesto to lie for, because they simply haven't delivered on the pledge card promises."

Her speech will challenge Labour to get in touch with Scots' aspirations, conceding the failure to do so is part of the explanation for last May's loss. Building schools was not enough without working on what happens in them, she argued, and reducing NHS waiting lists was not enough without making the service more personalised.

After facing criticism for mishandling the winter's Budget process, the leader signalled Labour is preparing to build an alliance that will put pressure on SNP ministers to reinstate funding for vulnerable toddlers and for schools of ambition as part of the next Budget.