Health inequality and governance in Scotland since 2007

Since Scottish devolution in 1999, successive governments have accorded priority to reducing health inequality and increasing economic growth. The Scottish Nationalist Party Government elected in 2007 and re-elected in 2011 has accorded considerable attention and allocated substantial resources to addressing these priorities. This article describes why, how and with what results to date the participants in the governance of Scotland, broadly defined to include persons outside as well as within central government, have addressed the determinants of health in order to reduce inequality and, as a result, improve the health status of the population.

Interpretive analysis.

Research for this article applied the methods of interpretive social science to obtain and analyse published and unpublished public documents; secondary sources in relevant disciplines; and interviews with ministers, officials, staff of National Health Service Scotland and its regions, and other persons active in health governance in Scotland.

Participants in the governance of health affairs in Scotland are making important contributions to the reduction of health inequality and the improvement of population health by: (1) linking policy to address health inequality with policy to make health care, public health, social and housing services, and education more effective and efficient; (2) linking policy to address the determinants of health with policy to stimulate economic growth and, as a result, increase employment and income; and (3) embracing and applying a unique synthesis of research findings about the causes of deficiencies in population health status that contribute to health inequality.

These findings could contribute to revising the assumptions and recommendations of some of the researchers and policy advisers who study the determinants of population health, and thus of health inequality, in order to recommend policy. Many contributors to the literature on population health argue that the determinants of health are universal, and that effective interventions to address them are also likely to be universal. Research for this article suggests, however, that participants in the governance of one country, and perhaps of each country, take account of its culture, history and current politics when they describe the determinants of health in order to propose policy to reduce health inequality. The Scottish experience described in this article could, therefore, contribute to conversations about health policy that involve leaders in governance from numerous jurisdictions; conversations that have been occurring regularly for two decades.