POLICY: The Scottish Draft Budget 2016-17 - prevention

The RCN Scotland written evidence to the Scottish Parliament’s Finance committee call for evidence on preventative spending in health

In this written evidence we noted that many of the questions asked by the committee were addressed by the RCN in our 2010 contribution to a previous finance committee’s preventative spend inquiry along with our evidence to this finance committee on the 2012-13 draft budget and spending review. Our concerns in the last five years have changed very little and many of the issues raised in those submissions have not yet been addressed.

The nature of funding, both at NHS board level and government level, is a key barrier to progress towards preventative spend. The way in which the current Scottish budget is split, scrutinised and allocated by portfolio does not allow for easy conversations about the consequences of, for example, increased or reduced investment in housing or social care on health spending or outcomes.  Our evidence set out some key changes that could support better investment in, and scrutiny of, prevention.

If you have any comments or would like to find out more information then please contact the RCN Scotland Policy team by emailing them at policyscotland@rcn.org.uk or by filling in the attached feedback form and sending it to Policy, RCN Scotland, 42 South Oswald Road, Edinburgh, EH9 2HH