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Health collaboration is showing signs of progress
North Ayrshire’s efforts to tackle health inequalities through participation in the Collaboration for Health Equity in Scotland (CHES) programme is showing early signs of progress.
CHES – led by Public Health Scotland and Professor Sir Michael Marmot’s Institute for Health Equity – is a two-year partnership that was launched in February 2025 to strengthen and accelerate actions that will reduce health inequities for people living in North Ayrshire, Aberdeen City and South Lanarkshire.
Here in North Ayrshire, three key workstreams - Good Start, Good Jobs and Good Health - are underway in three different areas to tackle deprivation and poor health under the banner of Good North Ayrshire.
North Ayrshire has some of the lowest healthy life expectancy figures in Scotland - with men and women living in good health for around 52 years.
The work aims to help make life better for people by focusing on early intervention, employment, ill-health prevention, early years, education and community-based support.
CHES work locally has been led by North Ayrshire Integration Joint Board, which is the governing body of North Ayrshire Health and Social Care Partnership, and the Community Planning Partnership Board, which brings together public organisations including the Council, Third Sector groups and the NHS.
The programme is underpinned by three key worsktreams:
- Good Start – to give every child the best start in life, concentrating on the Fullarton, Castlepark and Bourtreehill areas of Irvine. This workstream involves families, schools, nurseries and local groups to help deliver more joined-up support that helps children and their families thrive
- Good Jobs – with a focus on fair employment and good work in the Saltcoats Central, Ardrossan Central and Stevenston Hayocks neighbourhoods. This workstream centres on fair work, decent pay and skills development as well as creating new routes into secure jobs and training, and
- Good Health - to strengthen the role of ill health prevention within the Garnock Valley. This workstream is looking at increasing affordable healthy food provision, improving local wellbeing services and designing community-led solutions.
A recent report to Cabinet has outlined local progress, with early feedback demonstrating the positive impact of hyper-local action, including community engagement and data-driven decision making.
Key findings include:
- more than 200 family responses are helping to shape future family support services in Irvine through Good Start
- through Good Jobs, we are exploring a new Good Jobs charter with local employers, stronger connections between GP practices and employability services, and are working towards improved connections between key partners and
- thanks to Good Health, targeted health initiatives are improving access to preventative services, including cardiovascular health screening.
A national report from the Institute of Health Equity – published on 13 October - highlighted North Ayrshire as an example of innovative practice in reducing health inequalities.
The collaboration has also supported North Ayrshire to attract additional investment, expertise and partnership opportunities, including through our Pride in Places bid.
Quote: It is encouraging to see early signs of positivity from the three workstreams and I would like to thank all of the staff and community partners involved for their efforts. A combination of prevention, early intervention and the use of local data will, hopefully, lead to improved outcomes for our residents for years to come. Health inequalities are avoidable differences that can have a profound impact on all aspects of someone’s life – from their job prospects to their mental health – and I am pleased that our CHES work is examining meaningful ways to change this.
Quote from: Councillor Margaret Johnson, Cabinet member for Health and Social Care
Participation in CHES has also led to additional support including for the Place Standard Toolkit Food Pilot in the Garnock Valley, Nesta system mapping in Irvine and the successful Pride in Places funding bid for the Three Towns.
Going forward, the local CHES Steering Group will examine how the work could feed into broader discussions on Public Service Reform – which could see Scotland’s existing 32 councils being replaced by a new two-tier system of regional authorities and local community authorities.
The CHES work being carried out locally aligns with the Council’s Wellbeing Priority, which aims to deliver increased prosperity, resilience and wellbeing for residents.
Cabinet agreed to note the progress, receive further updates and endorse the approach of focusing on early intervention and prevention to improve residents’ lives.
Published: 10 November 2026