Introduction
Public health reform is a partnership between Scottish Government and the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA). However, the vision for Scotland’s health cannot be achieved by any one organisation working alone. It will take the combined efforts of partners from across the public, private and third sectors and, importantly, from within local communities.
Public health reform aims to challenge our current ways of working, put more decisions directly in the hands of citizens and provide support to local communities to develop their own approaches and solutions to local population health challenges.
To deliver the vision for public health reform, Scottish Government and COSLA will
- agree public health priorities for Scotland that are important public health concerns and that we can do something about
- establish a new national public health body for Scotland bringing together expertise from NHS Health Scotland, Health Protection Scotland and Information Services Division
- support different ways of working to develop a whole system approach to improve health and reduce health inequalities.