Health and social care: a year of progress 2025-2026

4. Next Steps

The achievements set out here form strong foundations for the next steps in our reform work, which will change the planning and delivery landscape in Health and Social Care by:

• Bringing Health Boards together to plan services jointly through new sub national planning structures, working in partnership with the health and social care workforce to design services around people and communities, not organisational boundaries.
• Launching Public Services Delivery Scotland on 1 April 2026, which is a new organisation to improve how we deliver digital services, data, training, procurement and other specialist functions across the country.
• Setting up a new National Social Work Agency to strengthen support for the social work profession.
• Developing new plans for long-term conditions, mental health, primary care and community health; and
• Revitalising our approach to workforce planning, with a new Improvement Framework later this year, helping to manage pressure and support staff wellbeing
• Reducing the full-time working week for NHS Agenda for Change staff to 36 hours per week, from 1 April 2026. This has been delivered in full partnership with NHS trade unions.

The Service Renewal Framework will build on the many improvements outlined here, embedding and maintaining this progress over the next decade while continuing to transform health and social care services to deliver sustainable change which meets the needs of our population at a national, sub-national and local level.

Through the Population Health Framework, we will continue to take steps to tackle the root causes of ill-health, working with partners beyond health and care to reduce inequalities and improve the nation’s health. This will build on significant Budget investment in addressing the causes of poor health - £111 million on tackling child poverty, including increases to the Scottish Child Payment; an additional £40 million investment in sport and physical activity; over £160 million to support our new Alcohol and Drugs Strategic Plan published in March 2026; and significant legislative progress on the drivers of poor health – including laying legislation in October to improve the healthiness of the balance of foods available on promotion and the Four Nations Tobacco and Vapes Bill to create the first tobacco-free generation.

The first report outlining progress with the Year One actions of the Service Renewal Framework and Population Health Framework will be published later this year, which will define deliverables for Year Two.