The Scottish Government and COSLA are delighted to announce the publication of the ‘Data Strategy for Health and Social Care 2025 Update: Our progress and priorities’ which you can read at Gov.scot.

Published in February 2023, the Data Strategy for Health and Social Care sets out the key elements for ensuring that data is managed and used consistently and securely, to improve the care and wellbeing of people in Scotland.  This update sets out the progress made in 2024 and some priorities for 2025 and is based on regular discussions with delivery partners and stakeholders, reiterating the agreed approach in achieving the safe, secure and consistent use of data across Scotland’s health and care systems.

We caught up with some of our delivery partners to learn more.

Albert King, NHS National Services Scotland (NSS):

As a data leader in Health and Social Care, the Data Strategy is my touchstone.  It helps me link our work to the outcomes we achieve for patients, the workforce, and society. Communicating this potential is crucial for realising opportunities. The strategy is a vital tool for driving progress and aligning our efforts to ensure maximum impact.

I view data as a team effort, which is evident in the strategy. It addresses policies and frameworks like ethics and information governance, skills, culture, collaboration, technologies, standards, and platforms. It also emphasises the importance of investing in and maintaining our collective data assets. Progress in all these areas is essential, as only their combined efforts will unlock the full potential.

A great example is the collaboration between Public Health Scotland (PHS), Scottish Government, and NSS. Together, we delivered data products that give health and social care leaders a shared, near real-time view of system pressures. This collaboration has fostered collective decision-making through new data, new working methods and technologies.

Carole Morris, Public Health Scotland (PHS):

The Researcher Access Service has been a huge step towards a unified research infrastructure in Scotland.  This was co-developed by Research Data Scotland (RDS) and the eDRIS team within PHS and has integrated to the existing service offerings seamlessly.  This new digital platform is already allowing us to co-produce the project’s data requirements and to process data access requests more efficiently and timely. PHS has led the way in making a subset of key national datasets available through this route demonstrating its support for data driven research that aids in its mission to address public health priorities.

Roger Halliday, Research Data Scotland (RDS):

The Data Strategy’s ambition for research was to improve access to the excellent health data we have in Scotland and get it used to improve services and people’s wellbeing. Research Data Scotland has been proud to contribute to meeting this aim by delivering a quick and user-friendly Researcher Access Service together with PHS, which is showing that access to data can happen in a couple of months. We’re also working with the wider data for research community to take steps to align data and services for researchers. Having the strategy has given a clearer focus for collaborative work and opened doors with public bodies whose data we’re looking to make available for research in the public good. We have more to do, particularly in securing GP practice and social care data for use in research. By acting as a single team across Scotland, and with the continued support from Scottish Government we can embed the systematic use of data driven research in service and national policy improvement that saves time, money and lives.

Greg Thomson, NHS Education for Scotland (NES):

The Data Strategy and the intentions outlined within it are a great north star for delivery partners who work with data and provide intelligence and capabilities for Health and Social Care in Scotland. It has been a great vehicle to drive important strategic discussions regarding more consistent ways of working as partners are working aligned to a common vision and key strategic outcomes. Even where deliverables we work on aren’t directly tracked via the Data Strategy, the intentions and principles it outlines should ensure any work we undertake aligns as much as possible to the overall aims set out in the Strategy.