Health inequalities: Place and Wellbeing Programme Board minutes - June 2025

Attendees and apologies

• Julie Anderson (deputy), Wellbeing and Prevention Unit, Scottish Government
• Linda Bauld, (Chair), Chief Social Policy Advisor, Scottish Government
• George Booth, Administrative Officer, Scottish Government
• Sarah Corbett (Speaker), Anchors B3 Lead, Scottish Government
• Ruth Glassborow (Speaker), Director of Place and Wellbeing, Public Health Scotland
• Jill Laspa, Policy Manager - Health and Social Care, COSLA
• Wendy MacEwan, Project Support Officer, NHS National Services Scotland
• Lynn MacMillan (Speaker), Head of Health Inequalities Unit, Scottish Government
• Sam Martens, Policy & Business Analyst, NHS National Services Scotland
• Sheila McCole (deputy), Non-Executive Member, Perth and Kinross Council
• Gerard McCormack, Head of Transformation, Performance, and Improvement, Improvement Service
• Clare McCrum (deputy), Public Service Reform, Scottish Government
• Lynne Nicol, Deputy Director Planning & Quality, Scottish Government
• Gordon Paterson, Director of Social Care, NHS Education for Scotland
• Susan Paxton, Acting Director, Scottish Community Development Centre
• Chris Stothart, Enabling Local Change Lead, Scottish Government
• Ian Tervit, Project Manager, NHS National Services Scotland

Apologies

• Angela Davidson, Deputy Director for Improving Mental Health and Wellbeing, Scottish Government
• Chik Collins, Director, The Glasgow Centre for Population Health
• Carol Potter, Chief Executive, NHS Fife
• David Cowan, Head of Regeneration, Architecture and Place Unit, Scottish Government
• Ellie Crawford, Primary Care, Scottish Government
• Eddie Follan, Chief Officer Health and Social Care, COSLA
• Julie McLachlan, Public Service Reform Unit Head , Scottish Government
• Kimberley Smith, Communities B3 Lead, Scottish Government
• Lorna Birse-Stewart, Chair, NHS Tayside
• Marion Bain, Deputy Chief Medical Officer, Scottish Government
• Marie Burns, Councillor Marie Burns, Leader of North Ayrshire Council, North Ayrshire Council
• Niamh O'Connor, Deputy Director, Strategic Capability Division, Scottish Government
• Susan Gallacher, Deputy Director GP practice, Scottish Government

Items and actions

Welcome and apologies – Linda Bauld

Linda Bauld provided an outline of the meeting and noted apologies. Towards the end of the meeting there will be a substantial update on the Population Health Framework from Chris Stothart, including proposed approach to governance.

Linda Bauld welcomed new members Joy Tomlinson, who will be representing Directors of Public Health, and Clare McCrum from Scottish Government, Place-Based Service Change and Delivery.

Minutes from previous Board meeting (Paper 1) – Linda Bauld

The Chair noted that the minutes from the previous meeting were circulated on the 11th June. She invited members to make any amendments not already communicated by email. Members finalised and agreed the minutes.

Marmot Places – Update – Ruth Glassborow

Ruth Glassborow outlined the collaborative work between Public Health Scotland, Local Places, and the Institute of Health Equity on a 2-year initial phase across 3 areas. The focus of this work is to produce impactful and realistic actions for improving health equity, and to reduce the implementation gap.

The work is currently in the Diagnostic phase with teams presenting data profiles in an accessible way and working to identify what actions can be done locally or at a national level that are both realistic and impactful. The data has been positively received by locality area representatives providing new insights with the data available.

The ScotPHO platform holds the Population Health Dashboard, which has replaced the previous Care and Wellbeing Portfolio Dashboard and will give access to much of the data. The data also provides breakdowns of areas of deprivation within local areas, however, there is recognition that small pockets of deprivation can sometime be hidden. It was acknowledged that further work needs to be done to make the data more accessible by partners and to support with decision making.

Linda Bauld asked about the feedback received and potential learning. Ruth Glassborow outlined the benefits of more localised data on deprivation, and there has been good reaction and support from local areas for the new analysis of data that has been made available, particularly with the backdrop against the eight Marmot principles.

Linda Bauld welcomed comments from the Board.

Kerri Todd mentioned that groups such as Community Planning Partnerships have been drawn to this data when broken down into intermediate zones and has been a great tool for re-engaging leaders and in recognising areas with particular issues. The ScotPHO platform will improve accessibility further and hopefully allow other local authorities to recognise varying severity in intermediate zones.

Joy Tomlinson noted the power of convening. Potential to recognise specific Marmot principles within localities, such as employment for young people.

Ruth Glassborow noted some focus on child poverty but also that there was divergence on areas such as economic inactivity. Raised a key issue of proportionate universalism, and how we get resources to the individuals that need them most.

Action 29

• PaW Programme team to share PowerPoint slides from Marmot Places presentation.

Programme update – Emma Wylie

Emma Wylie offered an update on each of the workstreams and relevant programme risk. We remain amber during this reporting period, due to changes in capacity and staffing resource, as well as providing further support for the development of the Population Health Framework.

Linda Bauld asked if colleagues had any questions around the highlight reports for specific workstreams. Noted that the ‘Enabling Local Change’ workstream is paused due to Population Health Framework, but the work will be reviewed with the delivery of Population Health Framework.

Anchors – Annual Delivery Plan response overview and updated workplan (Paper 2) – Sarah Corbett

Sarah Corbett provided an outline of the Anchor objectives submitted by health boards as part of their Annual Delivery Plans. Between four and six objectives were requested, with territorial boards providing an additional two objectives on Local Employability Partnerships.

Sarah Corbett reported varying degrees of detail and depth in how heath boards answered these requests for objectives, including the outputs supporting the delivery of objectives.

For procurement, some boards provided measurable actions including local spend measures and use of the Community Benefits Gateway. Other boards were less ambitious and outlined some business as usual requirements as objectives. Discussion with boards has highlighted that asking for specific and measurable objectives may discourage boards from setting themselves aspirational objectives. This will be considered  in future requests.

Workforce objectives reflected the broad range of work going on in this strand. Many were associated with local projects focussed on priority groups, including apprenticeships, volunteering, paid placements, work experience. There were references to partnership working (Local Employability Programmes, Local Authorities, schools).

Land and Assets objectives were varied, reflecting the different  nature of estates across different health boards, for example some boards tend to have large buildings that may not be suitable for local groups to manage, some have very few assets.

Sarah Corbett outlined proposed actions for the future. This included how we can improve our engagement and clarity of our asks in the next Annual Delivery Plan guidance.

Linda Bauld welcomed comments from the Board.

Sheila McCole noted that it would be worth looking at other assets belonging to public bodies bringing them together in a wider approach.

Susan Paxton asked if there’s been any connection with the Green Health partnerships, and moving away from sustainability and towards green health impacts? Kerri Todd also mentioned that the Green Health Partnerships have been beneficial for NHS Lanarkshire in developing a range of principles around Land & Assets.

Linda Bauld asked what the next steps are for the analysis of data received from NHS Boards.

Sharon Currie noted Public Health Scotland is leading work on Learning and Evaluation for the Anchors workstream and is currently meeting Boards as part of that process. Anchor data submitted this year is being analysed by Scottish Government analysts, with a draft report due in July. This will help to inform the next round of data collection and the ways in which we might streamline our metrics while maintaining a level of consistency with previous years.

Sarah Corbett provided an outline of the Anchor workplan and objectives within. Members approved the workplan and actions.

Decision 9

• The Board approved the workplan and actions.

Action 30

• Sarah Corbett to explore connections and potential support in developing guidance from the Green Health Partnership groups.

Population Health Framework – Update – Chris Stothart

Linda Bauld opened the agenda point by thanking the contribution from a number of colleagues with particular mention of COSLA as co-developers, Public Health Sector and Directors of Public Health providing many contributions.

Chris Stothart also thanked colleagues and noted the very welcome partnership working and collaboration with colleagues to develop the Population Health Framework (PHF). It was noted that the PHF would be published later that day (17th June 2025) alongside the Health and Social Care Service Renewal Framework (SRF). Both Frameworks are part of a suite of three key health and social care reform products; Operational Improvement Plan, published March 30th, focused on the  short-term; the Service Renewal Framework describing the medium to long term approach to renewal; and the PHF, focused on prevention and the longer-term.

Alongside the PHF there will be four sector summaries and an evidence paper to support the Framework. The latter includes a technical note describing how the aim was developed and how progress will be measured going forward.

Chris Stothart provided an overview of the Framework structure and described some initial actions, then finally outlined next steps for the PHF. Once published, colleagues will inform key PHF stakeholders of its launch and provide materials to support stakeholders in presenting the PHF to their own colleagues. Joint governance between Scottish Government and COSLA is being developed and a robust monitoring and evaluation framework is in development.

Linda Bauld welcomed comments from the Board.

Joy Tomlinson asked if the evidence paper relates to both the PHF and the Service Renewal Framework. Chris Stothart clarified it has a focus on the PHF but there will be elements of crossover with the other Health and Social Care reform products, notably around health and care services.

Linda Bauld noted the evidence paper provides an analysis of the rationale but will be a helpful resource moving forward. The sector summaries help set the aspiration for the areas and how they can contribute to population health.

Clare McCrum thanked the collaborative approach and keen to maintain this moving forward. Public Service Reform (PSR) strategy will also be published shortly and would be worth working collaboratively on implementation and governance.

Kerri Todd queried the 30 initial actions across the five drivers and the two priorities. Who will take forward the initial 30 actions? Is it a local decision based on capacity, or are these actions being driven at a national level? Chris Stothart clarified it will be a mixture of local and national actions to be implemented over the next two years.

Lynn MacMillan added that the Framework covers the next 10 years, but we do not yet know all the activities that will be required during this period, which is why rolling approach to updating the Framework actions has been agreed. The initial actions building on existing work and are based on what we know is important to address to improve population health at this time.

Action 31

• Place and Wellbeing Programme team to share PowerPoint slides from PHF presentation.

Action 32

• Chris Stothart and Clare McCrum to meet and plan collaborative work around PHF and Public Service Reform strategy, particularly around implementation and monitoring.

Transition to the Population Health Framework – Emma Wylie

Reform Executive established in November 2024, which oversees the three products as part of the suite of reform activity. The Population Health Framework Programme Board will meet in September, aiming to set out the role of the group and a clear path of action.

Emma Wylie provided an overview of the emerging thinking around governance and noted the need for strategic direction as well as local autonomy of delivery and the requirement to obtain a balance.

The next steps are to complete a governance mapping exercise across the areas of the PHF, develop a Programme Definition Document and Assurance and Approval Plan, followed by the development of terms of reference and membership list for what will eventually be the PHF Programme Board.

Linda Bauld welcomed comments from the Board.

Shelia McCole stated that the role of local authorities must be included in this development of the terms of reference, as buy-in is needed at a local authority level. Shelia McCole also argued that local authorities will be best suited to progress much of the work. Jill Laspa also supported the need for local government to be embedded throughout the development of the PHF Programme Board.

Linda Bauld noted the co-development with COSLA and highlighted that a practical approach is required to ensure the governance is effective. Noted taking these points on board and work will be undertaken over summer to map existing governance and raised the importance of avoiding duplication.

Clare McCrum highlighted the importance of aligning policy and ensuring coherence offering to support the work on mapping and what the role of the groups are.

Decision 10

• The Board approved the proposal to transition from the Place and Wellbeing Programme Board to a Population Health Programme Board

Action 33

• Chris Stothart and Clare McCrum to work with PSR Strategy team to establish how best to support the governance mapping work with the aim of reducing duplication and improve coherence.

AOB – All

No other business was raised.

Linda Bauld noted that the existing invite for the next Place and Wellbeing Programme Board will remain in the diary as a place holder for now, but further communication will be provided nearer the time. Linda Bauld thanked the members for their contributions to date.