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. By prevention, we are referring to public policy interventions that prevent poor outcomes in the future as opposed to policies and practices that intervene to mitigate harms once they have already occurred or subsequently deal with the consequences. This principle of prevention was set out in the Christie Commission’s report on public service reform in 2011, and has framed much of the discourse on public service delivery in Scotland ever since.
In this edition we cover:
- Public Health Scotland’s typology of prevention
- Prevention in the the 2025/26 Scottish Budget
- Audit Scotland reporting on health prevention
- Public Health Scotland’s Care and Wellbeing Dashboard
