Scottish Budget - Annex A.1 - NHS Recovery, Health & Social Care

20th December 2023

The NHS Recovery, Health & Social Care portfolio is responsible for supporting our health and social care services as they continue to recover from the pandemic, and ensuring an effective, efficient and sustainable health and social care system that is fit for Scotland's future.

It seeks to improve health and wellbeing at all stages of life, supporting infant, maternal health and the ageing population by preventing ill health, promoting healthier active lifestyles, reducing health inequalities and pursuing our national mission on drugs.

The response to the COVID-19 pandemic transformed our health and social care services. Through that crisis they demonstrated an ability to innovate, and to deliver the care people needed in the most challenging times. In the face of the tough financial situation now facing our public services, we must build on that resilience to drive forward the reform needed to ensure long term sustainability and health improvement.

The budget sees funding of over £19.5 billion for the portfolio, protecting existing critical health and social care delivery in the face of unprecedented fiscal pressure. These pressures mean new services and innovations will not be possible without a step-change in our reform programme. Hard choices, greater efficiencies and savings will need to be made. That is why this budget supports front line services to continue to evolve to deliver the best care and treatment for our diverse population, now and in the future.

Over £13.2 billion is allocated to frontline NHS boards to take forward the improvement of health in their communities and to assess and deliver the most effective care for the people they serve.

Our continued support of primary and community care will improve preventative care, and ensure that people are cared for in the right place, at the right time. We will also continue to target resources to reduce waiting times, particularly for those waiting longest for treatment, through maximising productivity and additional resources.

We remain committed to the health and care staff who deliver our front line services, and this budget includes an increase in pay for adult social care workers in the third and private sectors to at least £12 per hour for those in a direct care role. We will also continue to work towards the introduction of a National Care Service so that everyone has access to consistently high quality social care, whenever they need it.

Mental health has seen significant budget increases over recent years and we will continue to optimise investments in prevention, improving mental health and wellbeing support, with reduced waiting times for Child & Adolescent Mental Health Services.

Our spending plans are set out below to prioritise investment and effective reform to refocus our health and social care services for the challenges to come.

Health & Social Care intended contributions to the National Outcomes
Primary National Outcomes

Health
Children and Young People
Human Rights
Secondary National Outcomes

Poverty
Communities
Education
Economy
Fair Work and Business
Environment

For further information on the purpose of the portfolio budget, and contributions to national outcomes (including impacts of spend on equality of outcome) please refer to the relevant portfolio annex in the published Equality and Fairer Scotland Budget Statement.

For all the figures and tables go HERE