With No One Left Behind undergoing a review, we have a briefing out today covering our research into it over the past year. Our key finding: There's a lot positive about NOLB, but significant funding and data issues we hope the review addresses. See here: buff.ly/cKgOCje

Reviewing Employability Services in Scotland: Our findings on the future of No One Left Behind - Scottish Health Equity Research Unit

View this report as a PDF.

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Yesterday’s Scottish drug death figures show the rate of drug use deaths among men rose sharply in 2025, following a decline in 2024 although the rate remains below peaks observed between 2018 and 2021. Last year’s fall was welcome, but it was too soon to know whether it marked a sustained change.

1/ Prevention is often discussed in terms of policy ambition and national plans. Our new report asks: what does prevention look like from the perspective of the people trying to make it happen?

Now that we’ve had two weeks to look over it, our reaction to the Programme for Government is out today. Our central question: what does it mean for health inequalities? The PfG is certainly ambitious, but it's not clear how far beyond intention it will go. Read the briefing here: buff.ly/eoViETB

This year’s Programme for Government is notable because it covers the next 5 years (rather than just a year), supported by annual delivery plans aligned with future budgets. A longer-term framework can improve coherence and funding stability, enabling more joined-up action to reduce inequalities.

To deliver on Public Sector Reform, Scotland needs to actively reshape government structures and work to dismantle silos, engage local government and communities, and provide secure, long-term investments in communities.

Our July edition of Prevention Watch is out now! This month, we look at the Scottish Government's new Prevention Unit, the CMO's annual report, further reflections on youth employment & the Milburn review, and an audit into housing from Audit Scotland. Read here:

Prevention Watch July 2026 - Scottish Health Equity Research Unit

Prevention Watch is a regular Scottish Health Equity Research Unit (SHERU) briefing that looks at prevention as a means of public service delivery to reduce health inequalities in Scotland.

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New SHERU analysis explores the dynamics of poverty among young adult men. How persistent is poverty among this group? What events push young men into poverty – and what events pull them out? Read the report: scothealthequity.org/poverty-dyna...

Poverty dynamics among young adult men in Scotland - Scottish Health Equity Research Unit

This report explores alternate labour market estimates for Scotland and is accompanied by a dashboard with local authority-level estimates

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Congratulations to our co-lead @profkatsmith.bsky.social, @profbambra.bsky.social and Julia Lynch, on winning the Richard Titmuss Book Award for their Policy Press book "Getting Better: The Policies and Politics of Reducing Health Inequalities" at last week’s @socialpolicyuk.bsky.social Conference!

ICYMI: Last week, we released a briefing on the challenges with (& solutions for) labour market stats. One of the more interesting cases: employment volume in Orkney, which has collapsed under current APS estimates. See our report (& data dashboard) here: buff.ly/8GTFzuQ

It's become increasingly difficult in recent years to know how many people in Scottish local authorities are not in work. With this in mind, we built a dashboard which uses tax data to model employment across all 32 local authorities. View it & accompanying report here:

Local Authority Labour Market Dashboard - Scottish Health Equity Research Unit

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Last week's Milburn Review showed how disconnected young people are from education, employment & training in the UK. But what's the picture in Scotland? We found a slightly better picture of participation here, but his concerns nevertheless ring true. Read more here:

Employment and Education Among Young Adults in Scotland: Reflections following the Milburn Review - Scottish Health Equity Research Unit

Last week’s Milburn Review highlighted the scale of disconnect from education, employment and training among young people in the UK. This article explores what aspects of the Milburn Review are…

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Our May edition of Prevention Watch is out! We look at preventative reports for the new parliament, DWP’s Right to Try policy, the price of drug-related deaths, investing in leisure & sport for wellbeing, + PHS’ report on monitoring health inequalities. scothealthequity.org/prevention-w...

Prevention Watch May 2026 - Scottish Health Equity Research Unit

Prevention Watch is a regular Scottish Health Equity Research Unit (SHERU) briefing that looks at prevention as a means of public service delivery to reduce health inequalities in Scotland.

scothealthequity.org

We are pleased to share a new development in the SHERU Data at a Glance resource. scothealthequitydatadashboard.my.canva.site/homedash

Employability policy has the potential to play a significant role in reducing health inequalities. New SHERU analysis considers how Scotland's employability strategy, No One Left Behind, can best fulfil this potential. Read the report here: scothealthequity.org/assessing-sc...

Assessing Scotland's approach to employability from a health inequalities perspective - Scottish Health Equity Research Unit

from a health inequalities perspective

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With the Scottish election a week away, we looked at how preventative each party's policies might be. Spoiler: some messaging was better than others. View our analysis here: scothealthequity.org/the-scottish...

The Scottish Election: What do the party manifestos say about preventing poor health outcomes? - Scottish Health Equity Research Unit

How do the manifestos stack up in terms of preventative policy, their cost and feasibility, and how joined-up different policy areas are?

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💻️ Recording of our latest webinar is now live 🗳️ Views on health policy and prevention: a look to the Scottish election Featuring Allison Catalano, Katherine Smith @profkatsmith.bsky.social David Finch @healthfoundation.bsky.social and Fiona McHardy Watch here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vYX...

Views on health policy and prevention: a look to the Scottish election

In this webinar, we look at Scottish social attitudes towards preventative health and policy and discuss the health context in party manifestos with the Health Foundation. 01:28 Poverty, prevention,…

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Tackling child poverty agenda in Scotland is at a pivotal point, with any new administration facing challenging targets to reach by 2030; preventative approaches to policy are also gathering interest. Read our response to the tackling child poverty delivery plan scothealthequity.org/assessing-th...

Assessing the tackling child poverty agenda: the role of prevention - Scottish Health Equity Research Unit

March was a busy month for the tackling child poverty agenda in Scotland. First, we saw the publication of Bringing Hope, Building Futures, the Scottish Government’s third and final delivery plan…

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Last month, we held a series of stakeholder engagement sessions to discuss our recent work on health inequalities and young adult men. Read our reflections here: scothealthequity.org/men-and-heal...

Men and health inequalities in Scotland: reflections from stakeholder engagement sessions - Scottish Health Equity Research Unit

Reflections from stakeholder engagement sessions

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Our March edition of Prevention Watch is out: PHS’ new 10-Year Strategy & transport poverty review; Parenting Across Scotland’s report on access to hobbies for young people; work on young adult men and prevention; Scotland’s new Alcohol & Drug strategy. scothealthequity.org/prevention-w...

Earlier this year, SHERU consulted with researchers at SPICe to discuss the ongoing need for prevention-based policies and the need to implement prevention into budgeting activities. digitalpublications.parliament.scot/ResearchBrie...

Preventative spending in Scotland

This briefing explores prevention as a principle of public service delivery which includes risk avoidance and mitigation, long-term thinking, and linking spending and outcomes. The briefing includes…

digitalpublications.parliament.scot

Following the Scottish Government’s final child poverty delivery plan, new stats out yesterday show both relative and absolute child poverty fell by 1 percentage point in 2022-25 compared to 2021-24. Relative child poverty after housing costs was 21% and absolute poverty was 23%.

Last year, we worked with ScotCen to include 11 questions about health inequalities & prevention in the annual Scottish Social Attitudes survey. Crucially: 94% of the population thinks it’s important for the Scottish Government to reduce the health gap between rich & poor people.

🔷 New webinar 🔷 🗳️ Views on health policy and prevention: a look to the Scottish election 🕙️ Thursday April 23rd, 10-11am www.eventbrite.com/e/views-on-h...

Views on health policy and prevention: a look to the Scottish election

A look at Scottish social attitudes towards preventative health and policy

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A recording of our webinar "Refreshing the National Performance Framework" is now online. Watch here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jGk... Featuring Mairi Spowage @fraserofallander.org Sarah Davidson @carnegieuk.bsky.social and Ali Hosie (Scottish Human Rights Commission).

Refreshing the National Performance Framework

A timely opportunity to reflect on what the NPF has achieved to date, what it has struggled to deliver, and how it can be strengthened. The National Performance Framework (NPF) has been a defining…

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We have a new article out today which lays out what we do and don’t know about No One Left Behind, Scotland’s strategic framework and funding stream for employability. scothealthequity.org/employabilit...

Employability in Scotland: what do we know, and what remains unclear? - Scottish Health Equity Research Unit

Employment is a key determinant of health inequality, and a central focus for health-related policy across both Scotland and the UK.

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🔷New SHERU webinar🔷 ❤️‍🩹 Young adult men and the drivers of health inequalities www.eventbrite.com/e/young-adul...

Our latest report featured in @heraldscotland.bsky.social: Young Scottish men 'experiencing poverty at similar rates to children' www.heraldscotland.com/news/2584912...

Young Scottish men 'experiencing poverty at similar rates to children' - report

Young men in Scotland are facing similar levels of poverty as children, according to a new report by the Scottish Health Equity Research Unit…

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New SHERU analysis highlights a concerning rise in poverty among young men in Scotland – a key group of interest from a health inequality perspective. scothealthequity.org/poverty-amon...

Poverty among young adult men in Scotland - Scottish Health Equity Research Unit

Our findings

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New SHERU webinar: 🔷Refreshing the National Performance Framework🔷 🕐️ Monday March 2nd, 1-2pm 🔗 Sign up here: www.eventbrite.com/e/refreshing...