The UCL Institute for Health Equity (IHE) chose the award-winning Hamilton Family Hub in Burnbank because South Lanarkshire Council is one of three local authorities involved in the Collaboration for Health Equity for Scotland (CHES), along with Public Health Scotland.

CHES follows similar projects in England inspired by the work of Professor Sir Michael Marmot, who argues that health inequalities are driven by factors such as income, housing, work and education, rather than simply access to healthcare.

Council Leader Maureen Devlin said: “We already know what causes poverty and health inequalities, but through the CHES project we have been able to use data to understand it more fully and, crucially, to show exactly where action needs to be taken most.

“As a starting point, working with families in the Burnbank area, we and our Community Planning Partners have secured £8 million to redesign local services to intervene in early childhood before problems reach crisis point.

“That includes building parents' confidence and wellbeing, offering learning and parenting support, and linking families with community and peer networks. Behind the scenes, partners are joining up how they work, sharing a common set of outcomes, cutting duplicate assessments and referrals, and coordinating better across services.”

The IHE national report warns that Scotland's efforts to reduce its wide health inequalities are being undermined by an unequal distribution of power, money and resources – the structural drivers of health – and by problems delivering change, including a lack of long-term funding.

Professor Sir Michael, who is Director of IHE, said: “Scotland has been hit badly by the sluggish recovery from the economic crisis in 2008, which has affected salaries and, in turn, living conditions and health equity. Further, the pandemic, climate change and political instability in the UK government have added to the challenge of addressing health inequalities.”

The IHE report and details of the CHES pilots are available online.