Digital Health and Social Care roundup 2025

The Digital Health and Social Care Programme has continued to drive transformational change across the sector.

This year, the Digital Health and Social Care programme delivered a range of impactful activities that strengthened digital inclusion, promoted human rights in digital services, and amplified the voices of people shaping Scotland’s digital health landscape.

Digital Links Project

The one-year Digital Links pilot supported 103 people to overcome barriers to digital inclusion and gain the skills and confidence needed to use digital health and social care tools – and to participate more fully as active citizens.

Delivered in partnership with the Community Links Programme, 27 Community Links Workers helped address digital exclusion, recognising it as both a cause and consequence of poverty and inequality.

A key legacy is the Glasgow Digital Inclusion Peer Network, now bringing together 21 organisations as a solution-focused working group.

Learning, achievements and ambitions for scaling the project are captured in the Digital Learning Series paper Discover Digital: Supporting Digital Inclusion in Primary Care.

Discover Digital

Discover Digital continues to help people navigate digital health and social care and to make digital tools more accessible.

This year the project delivered:

• Eight roadshows showcasing digital tools and services across community events
• Tailored workshops with six organisations

Digital Health and Social Care Human Rights Principles

This year we revisited and revised the Human Rights Principles for digital health and social care. We reviewed learning from five years of programme activity, published in the Digital Learning Series paper Benefits and outcomes of digital in the context of health and social care.

Through engagement sessions and workshops, we gathered insights and used them to reshape the principles. We also produced two supporting guides:

1. An introductory guide for people or professionals with no prior knowledge
2. A comprehensive guide for professionals designing or delivering digital health and social care services

In October, we launched the revised, co-produced principles at our in-person event DiGiTal Get Together: How to stay human rights focussed in a digital Scotland.

Digital Citizen Panel (DCP)

The DCP now supports 175 members to take part in engagement activities that influence digital policy and design, including work on NHS Inform.

Membership has become more diverse this year, and members have gained confidence – many contributing to local and national events such as the Digital Health and Care Conference (Feb 2025), the ALLIANCE Annual Conference (May 2025), and the People’s AI Panel on Health & Care (Aug 2025).

The DCP also hosts a monthly Conversation Café, which brings together 10–15 members for informal learning and discussion.

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