NALW Responds to SNP Manifesto

We welcome the SNP’s ongoing commitment to our NHS. However, there are opportunities to make the manifesto more innovative and ambitious. Building on the SNP’s 2016 manifesto, we suggest consolidating gains on recruitment of link workers and making further progress by including explicit commitments to prevention, mental health, care closer to home, addressing health inequalities, and advancing the national care service, among other ongoing initiatives.

To drive progress and innovation, a comprehensive workforce plan and staffing projections should be developed to include the number of social prescribing link workers needed. Any boost to NHS funding should encompass investment in social prescribing to ensure holistic and integrated care. This approach will ensure our healthcare system is robust, forward-thinking, and capable of meeting current and future challenges.

For further details, please refer to our manifesto to learn more about our requests for political parties.

Christiana Melam MBE, Chief Executive of the National Association of Link Workers