The CHEX Conference 2026 brought more than 70 people together to explore the role community organisations play in addressing Scotland's health inequalities crisis.
This year’s conference focused on the urgent need to move beyond ambition and into reality. Conference chair, Brendan Rooney, spoke passionately about the reality we face: premature deaths, division and a corrosion of society. "We need to call it out and speak about it,” he said.
Evidencing this challenge, we heard from Dr David Walsh, author and academic, who outlined the stark reality of health inequalities in Scotland. These inequalities are a political choice and cause stark and avoidable differences in people’s health and life expectancy, leading to Scotland being a country where many people die younger than they should.
Solving the implementation gap
A recurrent theme was the role of the implementation gap – we know what needs to be done, and the policy environment has never been so supportive. Yet, we don't see real change at the urgency and scale required.
This urgency was a key theme raised by our keynote listeners, who reflected on what they heard from our delegates and presenters during our world cafes and workshops.
We heard from Ruth Glassborow from Public Health Scotland, Donna McLeod from the Scottish Government's Population Health Directorate and Kat Smith, Professor of Public Health Policy at the University of Strathclyde.
