{"id":938,"date":"2026-09-02T15:58:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-02T15:58:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sawconcepts.com\/?p=938"},"modified":"2026-09-03T16:08:02","modified_gmt":"2026-09-03T16:08:02","slug":"first-minister-unveils-five-year-programme-for-government-replacing-14-health-boards-with-two","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/sawconcepts.com\/index.php\/2026\/09\/02\/first-minister-unveils-five-year-programme-for-government-replacing-14-health-boards-with-two\/","title":{"rendered":"First Minister unveils five-year Programme for Government, replacing 14 health boards with two"},"content":{"rendered":"

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First Minister John Swinney has set out a five-year Programme for Government headlined by the replacement of Scotland’s 14 territorial NHS boards with two strategic health boards.<\/p>\n

Announcing Programme for Government 2026-2031 on 1 September 2026, First Minister John Swinney said patients would receive better care, with shorter waits, “as a result of the most significant structural reform of our NHS in the devolution era”.<\/p>\n

Other measures include a national breakfast club for all primary schools from August 2027; childcare support 52 weeks a year for children from nine months old to the end of primary school by 2031; raising the Scottish Child Payment to \u00a340 per week for eligible babies under 1 during 2027-28; \u00a3205 million in winter heating payments for pensioners, families with disabled children and struggling households; defining misogyny as a distinct form of prejudice and abuse; and expanding the \u00a32 bus fare cap beyond the Highlands and Islands to the Strathclyde Partnership for Transport area from Monday 7 September, ahead of a national roll-out by the end of this Parliament.<\/p>\n

The Government said it would support “better jobs and higher incomes by making Scotland a better place to invest and do business”, and bring the national environment public bodies into a single overarching body.<\/p>\n

Nine Bills will be introduced during 2026-27: the Budget Bill; Buildings (Heating and Energy Performance) and Heat Networks (Scotland) Bill; Council Tax (Scotland) Bill; Damages (Scotland) Bill; Food Prices (Scotland) Bill; Football Banning Orders (Scotland) Bill; Legal Aid (Scotland) Bill; Misogyny (Criminal Law) (Scotland) Bill; and Public Service Renewal (Scotland) Bill.<\/p>\n

First Minister John Swinney said: “This ambitious Programme for Government has radical and widespread public service reform at its heart to deliver real, lasting improvements to people’s lives.”<\/p>\n

He said: “By rewiring a system of services designed for the last century, we will simplify and reshape organisations on which everyone relies and ensure every pound of investment achieves maximum impact.<\/p>\n

“As we do so, we will build on the most generous cost of living package anywhere in the UK while continuing to tackle inequality, poverty and division.<\/p>\n

“This is a Programme for Government to deliver a fairer, healthier and more prosperous nation.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

First Minister John Swinney has set out a five-year Programme for Government headlined by the replacement of Scotland’s 14 territorial NHS boards with two strategic health boards. Announcing Programme for Government 2026-2031 on 1 September 2026, First Minister John Swinney said patients would receive better care, with shorter waits, “as a result of the most […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":940,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/sawconcepts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/938"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/sawconcepts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/sawconcepts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sawconcepts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sawconcepts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=938"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/sawconcepts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/938\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":941,"href":"http:\/\/sawconcepts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/938\/revisions\/941"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sawconcepts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/940"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/sawconcepts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=938"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sawconcepts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=938"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sawconcepts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=938"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}