Prevention Is an Economic Strategy. Scotland Should Start Funding It Like One

In business, we fund what we believe drives long-term value.

We invest before markets mature.

We build capability before demand peaks.

We manage risk before volatility becomes visible in the numbers.

That discipline has served Scottish enterprise well.

Yet across much of our wider economic system, we still finance reaction more readily than prevention.

We pay for crisis.

We rarely structure capital to avoid it.

This is not a failure of ambition. Scotland is rich in commitment and innovation. But the way capital flows through our system continues to reward visible activity more easily than long-term outcome.

Outputs are counted.

Programmes are delivered.

Budgets are allocated.

The harder question often remains unanswered.

Did the intervention reduce future cost?

Did it strengthen resilience?

Did it make the system more stable?

For private sector leaders, this is not abstract.

When public systems absorb pressure for too long, the effects ripple outward. Workforce pipelines weaken. Health challenges intensify. Local economies destabilise. The cost of late intervention rarely remains contained.

Prevention is frequently framed as a social ambition. It should also be understood as an economic strategy.

A useful term for this mindset is prehabilitation.

In simple terms, prehabilitation means building strength before strain. It is what prudent leaders already practise inside their organisations. They invest upstream to reduce downstream volatility.

The difficulty is structural, not philosophical.

Prevention is harder to finance because its returns are realised over time. Traditional funding models are built around annual cycles and visible outputs. Outcome measurement requires shared definitions, credible data and aligned incentives.

But that challenge presents opportunity.

Around the world, outcome-linked approaches are beginning to align capital with long-term results. Investors accept measured risk in return for measurable impact. Public bodies shift from purchasing activity to commissioning outcomes.

For business, this matters.

Stable systems underpin competitive markets.

Resilient communities support productive workforces.

Long-term thinking protects growth.

Scotland has the ingredients required to lead. A strong enterprise culture. Increasing sophistication in impact measurement. A business community that understands disciplined capital allocation.

The next step is not to talk more about prevention, but to fund it differently.

If we continue to finance only visible crisis, we will continue to absorb avoidable cost.

If we begin to treat prevention and prehabilitation as economic infrastructure, we strengthen the foundations of long-term growth.

The question for Scottish business is straightforward.

Are we prepared to fund the strength that makes future prosperity possible?

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Saltire Sentinel’s editorial stance.