Stewart Hamilton
Written 221 posts
Communications and Engagement Officer
Technology Assurance Framework – what we learned from Digital Scotland Service Standard Assessments in 2024-25
11th September 2025
Guest blog by Laura Johnstone, Continuous Improvement team, Digital Assurance Office In 2024-25, 22 Digital Scotland Service Standard (DSSS) assessments were carried out under the Technology Assurance Framework (TAF). The Digital Assurance Office, who administer the TAF, have analysed the outcomes from these assessments to identify common challenges and are sharing these to support others…
Technology Assurance Framework – what we learned from Major Digital Project Reviews in 2024-25
11th September 2025
Guest blog by Laura Johnstone, Continuous Improvement team, Digital Assurance Office. In 2024-25, 37 major digital project reviews were completed under the Technology Assurance Framework (TAF). These reviews generated 288 recommendations for improvement. The Digital Assurance Office (DAO), who administer the TAF, have analysed these recommendations to identify common challenges and are sharing these to support others…
Making It Happen: Scotland’s Vision for Public Sector Data
26th August 2025
Blog by Joyce Dalgleish, Data Innovation and Change Lead, Scottish Government. It’s hard to believe it’s been 10 months since we shared the draft of the vision for public sector data. Since then, we’ve been genuinely heartened by how many of you have leaned in—giving your time, sharing your experiences, joining groups, and contributing ideas. Your…
ScotPayments – Onboarding milestones and reflections
17th July 2025
Blog by Megan Abbott, Lead Business Relationship Manager, ScotPayments. Milestones In a recent update, we shared that the ScotPayments team was focused on onboarding new partners and progressing toward Public Beta. Since then, we’ve made significant strides. In January, we began onboarding the Scottish Public Pensions Agency (SPPA) as our second Beta partner. We’re proud to share…
ScotAccount: transforming public services in Scotland
16th July 2025
Blog by Trudy Nicolson, Programme Director for the Scottish Government’s ScotAccount programme. It has been a busy period for the ScotAccount team, and we wanted to mark that by sharing an update on our progress. We are delighted to report that the service goes from strength to strength in supporting the modernisation of public services…
Digital Scotland Service Manual: A helping hand for digital
14th July 2025
Blog by Angela Saunders, Senior Product Manager, Digital Directorate. Hello. I’m Angela Saunders and I work in Scottish Government’s Digital Directorate, in the team that’s developing the Digital Scotland Service Manual (DSSM). It’s a self-help resource designed to support colleagues across Scotland’s public sector in the delivery of digital projects. Why the DSSM? We’re…
Understanding how we can serve people with additional communication needs
11th June 2025
Guest blog from Fiona Wright, Senior User Researcher at Social Security Scotland. Making our communications more accessible is a key focus for the user-centred design team at Social Security Scotland. From years of research and design work, we understood that some clients with additional communication needs were facing barriers to accessing our service. To understand…
Reflections on the Warm Scottish Welcome programme
15th May 2025
Blog by Robbie Fergusson, Senior Product Manager, Design, Digital and Data team (Warm Scottish Welcome programme). I worked on the Warm Scottish Welcome programme for nearly three years as part of a mixed team. We were responsible for delivering applications to help match Ukrainian guests with host families in Scotland, who offered their flats and…
Scottish Government Data Maturity Programme – Information session
7th May 2025
Blog by Sally Kerr, Data Transformation Lead, Technical Data Policy team. With the rapid adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI), data maturity has become even more important, and becoming data-ready for AI is one of the key drivers for those organisations who choose to take part in the Scottish Government Data Maturity Programme. To become data-ready…
Digital Support Service Procurement- SRO reflections on the value of independent assurance
30th April 2025
Guest blog by Laura Johnstone, Continuous Improvement team, Digital Assurance Office. The Digital Assurance Office (DAO) are working with project and service teams who have received independent assurance through the Technology Assurance Framework (TAF) to share their experiences. In our last blog we heard from Eddie Turnbull, Deputy Director, Agriculture and Rural Economy (ARE), Scottish…