Tackling malnutrition in older people living at home in Scotland

Policy Context in Scotland

A strand of Eat Well Age Well’s work is Policy into Practice. This means we use our evidence and learning to highlight and influence the extent of malnutrition across Scotland, the gaps in service provision, and demonstrate what action could lead to change. Eat Well Age Well have successfully influenced the current policy context in Scotland, in relation to malnutrition.


Policy Context in Scotland

Since the start of the project in 2018, Eat Well Age Well alongside Food Train, have been instrumental in developments in relation to malnutrition, older people and food. We have a strong relationship with Scottish Government and work collaboratively, sharing our knowledge and learning.


This led to the publication of A Fairer Scotland for Older People Framework which was published in 2019. This specifically identified a Scottish Government commitment to tackling malnutrition (see p.23). This was the first-time malnutrition (as undernutrition) was acknowledged in National documentation.

The Public Health Priorities for Scotland were published by the Scottish Government in June 2018. Public Health Priority 6 underpins the work Eat Well Age Well do (see p.38).

In January 2021, the Social Renewal Advisory Board published, If Not Now, When?. The report outlines a series of recommendations to Scottish Government to ‘make proposals that can renew Scotland once we start to emerge from the pandemic’. Call to Action 8 (p.38) recognises the challenges of food access, including explicit reference to older people and to ‘tackle non-financial barriers to food’, as well as recommended solutions, including a case study of the Food Train model.

The Independent Review into Adult Social Care was published in February 2021. Eat Well Age Well gave oral evidence to Derek Feeley at an event hosted by Alliance Scotland as part of the Independent Review into Adult Social Care - click here for evidence collected from the event. Despite this, a significant omission in the review is recognition of the importance of food, nutrition, and food support services as part of Adult Social Care.

Read about our Policy Influencing work

Read more about our 4 Calls to Action

View our Press and Media coverage