Where we live has a direct impact on health and wellbeing. Our ambition is to make sure the fundamental building blocks needed for good health are in place for Fife. The recent Director of Public Health Annual Report highlights the stark differences in life expectancy and healthy life expectancy (years lived in good health) between people living in the most and least deprived areas, borne out by statistics across a wide range of health outcomes.

As we emerge from the height of Covid, it’s clear that the inequalities in health that existed before the pandemic have been exacerbated, though we don’t yet know what the full impact will be. The cost-of-living crisis is making things even worse for the most vulnerable of us, and tipping different people into disadvantage.

Improving health and wellbeing, and reducing inequalities, is about far more than effective delivery of health and social care services. Successfully tackling the ‘upstream’ factors, such as poverty, quality of work and housing, is fundamental. The way services communicate with people and how we tailor support to individual needs and circumstances is crucial.

Experiences of our collective response to Covid were mixed. In many instances, individuals and organisations showed tremendous flexibility in doing whatever was necessary to meet people’s needs. In other cases, the pandemic exposed rigid systems and practices, and heightened their impact.