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| Towards a Healthier Scotland - A White Paper on Health |
| Foreword by the Secretary of State for Scotland We prize health for its own sake, and for the other things it makes possible. Being well is part of the pattern of opportunity and achievement we want for Scotland, as we start a new century. Being ill makes inequalities between people and groups in Scotland worse, and harder to bear. As we look to help families, we see the importance of health in how children are nurtured, in how parents provide a supportive home, and in the engagement of grandparents in family life. Last year, our Green Paper, Working Together for a Healthier Scotland, asked for views on a fresh approach to improving health in Scotland. We wanted to keep directly in our sights the big preventable diseases that kill and disable Scots. We needed to keep up the push for health on smoking, diet and exercise. Above all, we planned to tackle vigorously the many and linked causes of ill health - poverty, unemployment, bad housing, problems in our education and environment. By combining these 3 approaches, we could make real inroads for health. |
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| It was clear from the 800 responses to the Green Paper that people overwhelmingly endorsed this 3 level approach, and looked to support a programme of action to make it happen. |  |
| This White Paper builds on the analysis and the approaches in the Green Paper. It reflects constructive and innovative comments received in the consultation process. It is about health for all, but children and groups disadvantaged by poor health have a special place. | |
| We report on action already begun, and new steps. Innovative policies, supported by new resources, are now at work, promoting social inclusion, creating jobs, tackling poverty, improving education and making our environment safe and pleasant. They will help improve health, and progressively reduce inequality. Projects and people at work in local communities are already helping to make that difference. Four new health demonstration projects are among new health measures we will put in place. | |
| This is not a matter for Government alone. We will willingly lead, and this White Paper gives Scotland's Health Minister a strong role in ensuring results. Our health services are committed to health improvement. But good health depends on the ready commitment of public, private, voluntary and community bodies; and on individual, healthy choices in life which are not driven or constrained by poverty of means or expectation. | |
| My Ministerial colleagues, who join me in signing this White Paper, share my determination, and are making a healthier Scotland a key objective in the programmes and policies they tend. The new Scottish Parliament and Executive - with their wide-ranging powers to take decisions which will help improve health - will add to the momentum and capacity for healthy change. If all of us work, together, better health can be the experience of this generation - and our legacy for the next. | |
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Sam Galbraith MP |
Calum MacDonald MP |
Rt Hon Helen Liddell MP |
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Henry McLeish MP |
Lord Sewel |
Lord Macdonald of Tradeston |
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