The Collaboration for Health Equity in Scotland (CHES) is a partnership between Public Health Scotland (PHS), the UCL Institute of Health Equity and three collaborating places: Aberdeen City, North Ayrshire and South Lanarkshire. CHES was established in 2024 to explore routes forward to tackle health inequities.

A major report by IHE based on the CHES, Fairer, Healthier Scotland, published 13 October 2026, lays out the evidence, explains why progressive policies have not closed the country’s large health gap and makes recommendations about what needs to change covering the structural drivers of poor health and the implementation landscape, with examples of action being taken by the three collaborating places.

Fairer, Healthier Scotland also explores how much health inequalities could be reduced by long-term investment in income, housing and the early years interventions. See 'IHE Working Paper: Estimating the Impact of action on the Social Determinants of Health on inequalities in health in Scotland’. It’s estimated:

• Reducing material deprivation and improving income security could bring inequality in life expectancy down by around 20%
• Improving the energy efficiency of low-income, fuel-poor dwellings could reduce inequality in healthy life expectancy by up to 4%
• Expanding and consolidating provision of family services and early childhood interventions could reduce health inequality by 10-20%

Earlier reports based on the CHES have overviewed health inequalities in Scotland. A second report focussed on inequalities in the Marmot 8, social determinants of health nationally and in the three places, alongside analysis of resource allocations across the country and how those relate to levels of deprivation.