Voluntary Health Scotland, together with The Health and Social Care Alliance (The ALLIANCE), Scottish Community Development Centre (SCDC), Edinburgh Community Health Forum, and Volunteer Scotland, have today published an update following our Joint Statement on Prevention from September 2025.
In this update, we reflect on developments over the past year, including the launch of the Scottish Government’s Prevention Unit, the pilot of preventative budget tagging, and the publication of a shared definition of prevention. We also reinforce the continued importance of the actions detailed in our original joint statement, which were:
- A clear definition and understanding of prevention
A clear, specific, and consistently applied definition of prevention to see this way of working properly applied across all levels of policy delivery. That means resources being allocated to prevention and the impacts of this approach being measured properly to capture the positive impact.
- Putting the hard-to-do parts of policy making into practice
Tackling the ‘hard-to-do’ aspects of policy implementation that take us beyond ambitions and into reality. That means proper co-production with communities, long-term investment, transparency and accountability, courageous leadership, evidence gathering, and working across silos.
- A whole system approach with a properly resourced third sector
A sustainably resourced third and community sector that is treated as an equal partner in decision making with a public sector committed to working in, and with, communities. Prevention is complex and requires a whole system approach that includes the public, third and community sector – and those who directly experience health inequalities.
On the whole, we are encouraged by the pace and scale of progress regarding the shift to prevention in our health system. However, further work is required to ensure that prevention activity is focused on improving outcomes for people and communities, not on safeguarding systems or reducing costs. It is also vital that the role of people, communities, and third sector organisations in creating health are at the centre of decision-making about prevention.
Read our update to the Joint Statement on Prevention now.
To further reinforce the messages in this update, we will also by publishing a Policy Briefing in the coming weeks exploring the vital role of the third sector in the shift to prevention, and how this can be maximised. This will be published on our website soon.
For more information about this update, or or work on prevention more broadly, please contact our External Affairs Lead, Sarah Latto, on sarah.latto@vhscotland.org.uk.
