Digital

  • Scottish Government Digital Academy: Progress Update on Deliverables

    16th July 2026 by

    Lee Dunn, head of the Scottish Government Digital Academy provides an update on the progress being delivered through the Scottish Government Digital Academy.  The Digital Strategy Vision Statement and the Sustainable Public Services Delivery Plan were published in November 2025. Co-owned by the Scottish Government and Local Government (Digital Office for Scottish Local Government and COSLA) these documents...

    Read more

  • Care Inspectorate’s Stage 2 Digital Transformation project – using assurance proactively

    15th July 2026 by

    Blog by Niamh Duncan, Independent Assurance Stakeholder Communications Manager, Scottish Government, Digital Assurance Office. Introduction The Care Inspectorate is a scrutiny body which supports improvement, looking at the quality of care in Scotland to ensure it meets high standards. Over 600 staff work across Scotland, specialising in health and social care, early learning and childcare,...

    Read more

  • The most common myths about User Research (and why they persist)

    13th July 2026 by

    Aileen Baxter, Lead User Researcher at Social Security Scotland blogs about some common myths around user research.  User research has never been more important in government, yet it remains widely misunderstood. Even as research becomes more embedded in teams, misconceptions still exist about what it is, when it should be used, and the value it...

    Read more

  • Moving beyond clear and simple to reach overwhelmed users

    9th July 2026 by

    Sarah Waterfield, Senior Content Designer blogs about using a test and learn approach to improving letters issued by Social Security Scotland. Imagine you’ve waited months for an important decision. One that will shape your daily life. The process has been long and sometimes difficult: gathering documents, sharing personal health information, asking for help, then the...

    Read more

  • Getting ready for beta: inside data.gov.scot

    7th July 2026 by

    Blog by Auren Clarke, Senior Product Manager in the Digital Directorate’s Open Data Team, Data Division. The Scottish Government is working with Storm ID to build data.gov.scot, a new service to make it easier to find, access and reuse data about Scotland. This blog is the second in a series. You can read the first...

    Read more

  • Why our team blogs

    26th June 2026 by

    Claire Robertson, Senior Content Designer in Social Security Scotland guest blogs about the value of blogging. On the 2 year (ish) anniversary of our Social Security Scotland content design blog, I thought it would be useful to reflect on the value of blogging and how it has helped our team. What do other teams think...

    Read more

  • Technology Assurance Framework – what we learned from Major Digital Project Reviews in 2025-26

    24th June 2026 by

    Guest blog by Anneke Davie, Audit and Assurance Insights team, Digital Assurance Office. In 2025-26, 45 major digital project reviews were completed under the Technology Assurance Framework (TAF). These reviews generated 345 recommendations for improvement. These recommendations have been analysed to identify common challenges and are shared to support others to deliver more successful projects. This blog...

    Read more

  • Building joined-up digital public services in Scotland

    18th June 2026 by

    Blog post by Isaac Smith, Deputy Director for Digital Components and Infrastructure. Over the past few years, Scotland has made significant progress in delivering digital infrastructure to support public services. As more of these services are made available there is an increasing need to manage them as a holistic suite of products rather than focusing on individual services.   This shift towards more connected services aligns closely with the Scottish Government’s Public Service Reform Strategy (PSR), which emphasises the need for services to be more...

    Read more

  • Boost creativity and collaboration: The power of pair writing

    18th June 2026 by

    Morven MacAllister, a content designer in Social Security Scotland blogs about pair writing and its benefits. What is pair writing? Content designers create content for everyone. We make complex services and systems easy to use and complex language easy to understand. We help users complete tasks and help teams design tasks for a user to...

    Read more

  • What is data.gov.scot and why are we doing it?

    3rd June 2026 by

    This blog post has been written by the Open Data team in the Data Division of the Scottish Government’s Digital Directorate. We are building data.gov.scot, a new service to make it easier to find, access and reuse Scotland’s data. This is the first in a series of blog posts which we’ll be releasing over the...

    Read more