Healthy Living Centres

Healthy Living Centres (HLCs) were established by the New Opportunity Fund (now Big Lottery Fund) in 1999, creating 352 HLCs in the UK.  Scotland's share of that investment was £33.5 million which created 46 HLCs in Scotland.
 
Locally run and rooted in their communities, Scottish HLCs are characterised by their diversity, from projects which are centre based to virtual organisations; from those with voluntary status to those based within the statutory sector.  What all the projects have in common is their commitment to tackling health inequalities in deprived communities.  HLCs provide a range of services that not only impact on Health Improvement objectives but also contribute to the broader development and well-being of their communities.  In most instances the projects successfully work with target groups who would not normally take up traditional NHS services.  The key to their success is that the HLCs prioritise partnership working, service user involvement and working with the social model of health as key elements of their approach.  The projects have also been instrumental in levering in substantial resources from local and national partners to focus on health and social inequalities.

Healthy Living Centres in Scotland are an ideal access point for the statutory sector to engage with hard-to-reach groups because of their ability to reach people through their use of their local knowledge and innovative delivery methods.