Our Digital Health and Social Care team has been busy in 2023, delivering both in-person and online events and workshops.

We started the year as nominated finalists for Digital Team of the year at the Digital Health and Care Awards, and at the Conference we presented on our DHSC activity. This included our Human Rights Principles for Digital Health and Social Care (HRP) which shape all our activity. We endorse our HRPs across networks, at a strategic and key stakeholder level. This year we presented on our HRPs at an international, national and local level which included ICIC23, Dive into Digital (Fife) and to student nurses at Glasgow Caledonian University.

Our Discovery Grants supported six organisations to engage effectively with communities to collect insight regarding the needs and barriers to digital health and care access, with our Enabler Grants continuing activity delivery into 2024. Our six organisations embedded our HRPs into their activity as we strive to have them embedded into third sector activity as well as industry.

It has been a big year for the Discover Digital project, starting with the launch of Discover Digital Workshops and Roadshows in February, followed by new online learning opportunities in Spring. The Roadshows have been a fantastic opportunity to ask the public if they have considered using digital for their health and well-being. This year, we have delivered eight Roadshows to over 600 people across seven local authorities. The Workshops are tailored training to organisations on free and trusted digital tools and resources for health and wellbeing. This year we delivered nine Workshops to 150+ people across Scotland

We hosted a small ‘Strictly Come Digital’ event for our members in February and hosted sessions at our Digital Gathering and our Annual Conference. In October, we hosted our first large in-person event since before the pandemic, with over seventy people attending our ‘Discover Digital: Embedding Human Rights in a Thriving Digital Scotland’ event.

The Digital Citizen Panel (DCP) has also extended its reach this year, increasing both the numbers and diversity of the network, with the DCP membership now at 130 members. The DCP continue to support people with lived experience to participate in engagement to help shape digital services, supporting Scottish Government and external stakeholders’ consultations. Topics this year have included; Digital Front Door, Digital Dispensing and AI.

DCP members and ALLIANCE colleagues have been working collaboratively to promote the work of the DCP, contributing to ten community activities across four local authority areas, including partnerships with men’s shed networks, Pachedu and African and Caribbean Women’s Association.

The DCP programme and its members also led on the ALLIANCE’s celebrations of Black History Month 2023, sharing calls to action on social media and highlighting the increased grassroot community reach of the DHSC Team.

This year this team has also been busy on the radio and with interviews. Including an ALLIANCE Live with Alzheimer Scotland on its virtual reality projects, an online Discover Digital Workshop and a chat with RNIB on the Discover Digital project and Black History Month coverage on Jambo Radio.

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