The Centre for Health Policy is keen to support work to reflect and learn on past policy initiatives via a method called ‘Witness Seminars’. This is a way of generating a collective oral history of a recent event, with people who can provide first hand accounts.

In 2024, the Centre for Health Policy hosted two witness seminars to mark 25 years of devolved health policy in Scotland, supported by an Opportunity Grant from the Social Policy Association. These were both held in May 2024 and each focused on a different aspect of health policy ‘success’ in Scotland. The first explores Scotland’s decision to get rid of a purchaser/provider split in our National Health Service (the NHS). The second considers Scotland’s leadership of smokefree public places. The reports of both witness seminars are available below.

Witness Seminar 1: Abolishing the NHS purchaser-provider split in Scotland

Witness Seminar 2: Scotland's Introduction of Smokefree Public Places