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What Does Scotland’s New Programme for Government Mean for Health Inequalities?
Created: 06/10/2026News/Events Category: Health and Social Care
The Scottish Government’s new Programme for Government 2026–31 sets out its priorities for the next five years – with commitments covering areas including child poverty, housing, employment, public services and prevention.
But what could it mean for health inequalities?
A five-year approach could provide an important opportunity to take a longer-term view. Many of the factors that shape our health – including income, housing, employment and education – cannot be changed overnight, and tackling inequality requires sustained action over many years.
Turning ambition into action
The Programme for Government includes a number of commitments that could help improve health and wellbeing, including increasing the Scottish Child Payment, expanding free school meals, delivering more affordable homes and taking action to prevent homelessness.
These measures are particularly important because health inequalities are closely linked to the circumstances in which people are born, grow up, live, work and age.
However, having ambitious plans is only part of the picture. The real test will be whether these commitments lead to meaningful changes in people's lives – particularly for people and communities experiencing the greatest disadvantage.
The Scottish Health Equity Research Unit highlights the importance of looking beyond individual policy areas and understanding how issues such as poverty, insecure employment, poor housing, transport and social isolation can overlap and reinforce one another.
Looking at the bigger picture
The Programme for Government also proposes significant changes to public services and local government. These changes could create opportunities for services to work more effectively together, but structural change alone will not reduce health inequalities.
What matters is whether new approaches help communities and public services work together to tackle the underlying causes of inequality, make better use of evidence and lived experience, and focus on what actually improves people's lives.
The move to a five-year Programme for Government provides an opportunity to make prevention and long-term action a stronger part of policymaking. The challenge now is turning that ambition into sustained investment, effective implementation and real improvements for people across Scotland.
What now?
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