An update on Scotland’s data strategy for health and social care has shared key achievements from 2024/25 and priorities for 2025/26. The update highlights the launch of the first iteration of the digital front door in NHS Lanarkshire in December 2025, plans to develop an interactive map for data ethics, a pause in GP IT system transition, work on the primary care data and intelligence platform, and an upcoming policy framework for the use of AI in health and social care.
The update follows on from a speech by Scotland’s First Minister in January, which outlined the importance of “better use of data” and digital in delivering more preventative models of care; and the NHS Scotland Operational Improvement Plan, which also set out key commitments such as the rollout of digital dermatology across general practice, the use of the Community Health Index (CHI) within local government, and the launch of a health and social care online app by December 2025.
Noting progress around the development of the digital front door, which will “underpin delivery of other digital and data services such as the Digital Health and Care Record”, the government sets out priorities for 2025/26, with action areas including data ethics, data access, talent and culture, protecting and sharing information, tech and infrastructure, information standards and interoperability, creating insights from data, and research and innovation.
A technical blueprint setting out target architecture for health and social care has been drafted, with a focus on “reducing risk and complexity across the digital landscape in health”. Stakeholders are being engaged to help inform the development of a policy framework on the use of AI in health and care, and a decision tree has been developed to support organisations in determining when it is appropriate to use cloud technologies. The National Digital Platform (NDP) has continued to be expanded with digital dermatology and Scan for Safety data, and the government is now exploring the potential for a data platform to support automation of data collection and exchange of information.
Through the NDP, an API catalogue will be created for health and social care in 2025, including an API for dermatology and medical devices. Priorities for the NDP include integration with ScotAccount and CHI “to create a public identity and access management offering that will allow individuals to see their own health record and interact with CHI linked data”; and the development of a service that passes appointments data from NHS Scotland patient administration systems and digital front door. The picture archiving and communication system programme is preparing for national rollout starting in 2025, and engagement is taking place to consider the use of AI tools to enable faster diagnosis and improved outcomes.
Looking to data access, the government shares its commitment to launch a personalised digital health and social care service over the next five years. The digital front door will provide identity and access services for individuals to allow access to their health and care information to support the delivery of the Digital Health and Care Record. “Testing of the Digital Health and Care Record with a small audience did not progress as planned during 2024 and instead is being considered as part of the wider programme, initially being progressed through digital front door programme,” it states.
Work was progressing toward a single supplier for GP IT, with 312 GPs having made the transition to the new supplier as of March 2025, “however, there is currently a pause on future migration as a result of the supplier entering into administration in December 2024 and work is underway to fully understand the impact on delivery and sustainability of existing GP systems, the GPIT programme and the supplier.”
Elsewhere on primary care, the technical solution for the Primary Care Data and Intelligence Platform has been developed to support extraction of primary care data from GP systems.
On talent and culture, the government points to the publication of the Digital and Data Capability Framework in July 2024 to support the development of digital skills for the health and social care workforce, and highlights the redesign of the Thriving in a Digital Age pathway to include modules on AI and cyber. Funding has been provided to deliver a new essential data skills course to the workforce, and a pilot of the use of the Digital Data and Technologies Framework with health boards will run throughout 2025 to test its ability to support workforce development. The Digital and Data Capabilities framework will continue to be promoted, and further opportunities will be explored to develop specialist pathways to ensure resources are easily accessible to staff across the sector.
Discovery work is underway to explore technology options to support the development of data catalogues for health and social care that will set out data available on an open basis, the government notes.
For 2025, priorities on data ethics include improving protected characteristics data, completing the implementation of a “long-term solution” for the recording of race and ethnicity data by Autumn 2025, and scoping out the potential to develop an interactive map to help people identify relevant ethical frameworks. Engagement is also to take place on the use of GP data, with a pilot to explore the use of tech to scale public participation and help build public awareness, trust, and transparency in relation to the use of health and social care data.
The government has also developed a draft cyber security strategy to inform the delivery of key services, and plans to develop an information governance code of practice framework. Other work shared in the update covers improvements in data, exploring the automation of data collection, and scoping work around the safe access to health and social care data for research and innovation.
Digital in health and social care in Scotland
Scotland’s Public Service Reform Strategy has been published, setting out three commitments for Scottish public services: to be preventative, to better join up, and to be efficient. It outlines 18 workstreams covering areas such as leadership, cultural change, and understanding demand drivers; as well as data sharing, digital public services, digital skills, and intelligent automation.
The Scottish Government is set to make an £85 million investment in frontline frailty services, with plans to expand the Hospital at Home service to 2,000 beds by December 2026 and introduce frailty services in every A&E department by the end of summer 2025. The announcement follows the release of the 2025-26 budget in December, which outlined £21 billion of funding for health and social care services, including an additional £2 billion for NHS boards across Scotland to deliver frontline services.
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, NHS Lothian and AI evaluation company Aival have begun testing the technical performance of AI tools as part of a £1 million project looking at how well AI integrates with existing clinical systems and workflows. Funded by Innovate UK, the project aims to assess the safety and effectiveness of AI technology, creating a validation framework that will support assessments of these tools prior to procurement and help develop “less invasive and more cost-effective options”. This involves looking at AI systems used for diagnosing head trauma and lung cancer, with a focus on “improving care for patients and supporting NHS staff”.
