Record Health & Social Care Funding
- Lloyd Melville
- Jan 14
- 2 min read
£17.6 billion for NHS Boards
Almost £22.5 billion is being allocated to health and social care to support a more sustainable and resilient NHS with a continued focus on reducing long waits.
NHS Boards will see an increase in their baseline funding, bringing total investment of over £17.6 billion, an average real terms uplift of 1.8%. This will enable the creation of additional capacity and continued expansion of the number of Hospital at Home beds to at least 2,000 by the end of the calendar year.
In addition, the draft 2026-27 budget includes:
£2.4 billion for primary care, including £36 million for new walk-in GP services and a £531 million three-year funding deal for General Practice to recruit more GPs and improve access
an additional £40 million investment in sport and physical activity to support opportunities for people to be more active
£2.3 billion investment in social care, exceeding the Scottish Government’s commitment to increase spending by 25% by the end of the Parliament.
“We want the people of Scotland to live healthier, longer lives. To do this, our services have to be accessible, efficient, and better tailored to people’s needs -whether at home, in the community, or in hospital.
“Our health and social care services still face challenges and that is why we will continue reform, focussing on prevention, reducing waiting times, improving access, and shifting the balance of care to communities. Our plans for walk-in GP services are backed by £36 million and will look to provide additional same-day access for communities.
“Despite ongoing pressures on services, recent statistics from Public Health Scotland show progress is being made, with a 12.8% fall in the number of waits over 52 weeks for a new outpatient appointment between October and November 2025 and a 5.3% increase in the number of operations carried out in the 12 months to November 2025.
“I firmly believe our NHS has turned a corner and this draft budget will enable us to build on this improvement.”
- Health Secretary Neil Gray
Background
Latest statistics show patients in Scotland had 34.28 million direct encounters with staff in General Practice between November 2024 and October 2025 – an increase of 2.3 million on the same 12-month period in 2023-24. The GP investment deal, alongside plans for walk-ins, will build on this and further add to the GP workforce, which stands at 5,423 GPs, an additional 171 GPs compared to 2024.
Comments