The Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations is the membership organisation for Scotland's charities, voluntary organisations and social enterprises. Charity registered in Scotland SC003558. Registered office Caledonian Exchange, 19A Canning Street, Edinburgh EH3 8EG.
Knowledge bank
The digital inclusion in health and care knowledge bank contains resources to help all levels of service design and delivery.
The 'pillars' papers outline a framework for embedding digital inclusion in health and social care. This is good background reading to establish a foundation for your work.
The Scottish Government’s Digital Inclusion Programme was launched in April 2023. It was delivered in partnership with the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations.
The Programme responded to a need to support access to and awareness of digital health and care services and initially focused on two specific areas:
- people using housing services and support
- people accessing mental health services and support.
The programme was independently evaluated by Blake Stevenson, and you can read their report here:
- 'Digital inclusion' programme evaluation by Blake Stevenson (2025)
- 'Digital inclusion' programme evaluation case studies by Blake Stevenson (2025)
The following resources are funding impact reports, sharing learning and insights from organisations delivering digital inclusion:
- Digital Pioneers Fund: Impact Report (2024)
- Digital Pioneers Progress Fund: Impact Report (2025)
- Connecting to Care: Impact Report (2025)
The following resources were created as part of this programme:
- Digital champion training co-design: mental health (Mhor Collective)
- Digital champion training co-design: housing (Mhor Collective)
- Digital inclusion stakeholder engagement summary: mental health (March 2023)
- Digital inclusion stakeholder engagement summary: housing (March 2023)
- Digital inclusion stakeholder engagement summary: mental health (November 2023)
- Digital inclusion stakeholder engagement summary: housing (November 2023)
- Embedding digital inclusion in health and social care: stakeholder engagement (November 2024)
In this section we have curated resources that will be of benefit to frontline health and social care practitioners:
The Digital Inclusion for Health and Social Care Masterclass was designed for senior leaders across the health and social care system, including executive teams, directors, associate directors, heads of service and equivalent roles across NHS, Local Authorities, Health and Social Care Partnerships, Social Work, Social Care, Care and Support Providers, Housing, and Third, Voluntary and Independent sectors.
The purpose of the masterclass was to support leaders in their responsibility for building digital inclusion into strategies and design for digital services and reform and in delivering commitments as outlined in the Health and Social Care Service Renewal and Population Health frameworks (2025):
Across health and social care, digital inclusion is frequently funded through pilots, small grants, or time-limited projects. While these approaches can spark innovation and demonstrate impact, they also create instability. Services build trust with people, develop new approaches, and show positive outcomes, and then funding ends. Staff move on. Learning is lost. Relationships have to be rebuilt.
This report explores the opportunities to embed digital inclusion in health and social care commissioning.