The prevention agenda in Scotland is a worthy initiative, but the tensions inherent in its execution may yet undermine it

The Scottish government is taking preventative spending seriously and is giving localities the resources and power to design and implement prevention programmes. Emily St Denny writes that this initiative recasts local autonomy as the capacity to express local strengths and identity, and to develop responses to local needs. However, the disparity across locales, compounded by the vagueness ‘prevention’, may yet undermine the Scottish government’s bid to introduce a more rational, effective and evidence-based form of prevention policymaking.