CHEX 2026: what does it take to make it happen?
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comment and opinion
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.
He reflected on the context we’re working in, now in the 47th year of neoliberal capitalism with a small group of ultra rich are getting wealthier and gather more power. "We need to call it out and speak about it,” he said.
The challenge we face
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.
Read more from out speakers and keynote listeners
World cafe inputs
During the day, we hosted a series of world cafe inputs where participants to go hear about projects from across Scotland, ask questions and take part in discussion.
Learn about our world cafe discussions
Workshops
We were delighted to have workshop hosts who shared their knowledge and insight, opening up opportunity for reflections and discussion about their work.
Explore our workshop discussions