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.
Digital inclusion in health and care
National Knowledge Exchange
The Digital Inclusion in Health and Social Care National Knowledge Exchange supports health and social care organisations across Scotland to understand digital inequality and take practical action to address it.
The Knowledge Exchange is led by the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations, working in partnership with Mhor Collective and Tara French Consulting. It focuses on sharing learning, tools and approaches that help digital inclusion become an essential part of the delivery of health and social care in Scotland. This work builds on learning from the Scottish Government’s Digital Health and Care Division’s Digital Inclusion Programme, delivered in partnership with SCVO.
Our Knowledge Exchange takes learning from the programme and:
- shares it with a wider health and social care audience
- supports services and organisations to apply learning in practice
- creates space for discussion, reflection and shared problem-solving
The work supports organisations to better meet the needs of people who may otherwise be excluded as services become more digital.
The National Knowledge Exchange brings together:
- senior leaders
- practitioners and managers
- commissioners and policy colleagues
What we’ve delivered so far (2025)
Delivering from August 2025 - March 2026, the Knowledge Exchange has already engaged 427 people from across Scotland’s health and social care system through leadership sessions, practitioner workshops and system-focused deep dives.
Who it’s for: Executive teams, directors and senior leaders
Focus: Leadership, strategy and system readiness
Between October and November 2025, we delivered five 90mins masterclass sessions, engaging 99 senior leaders from across Scotland’s health and social care system.
The sessions supported leaders to:
- understand the implications of digital inequality for service access, outcomes and health inequalities
- reflect on leadership responsibilities for inclusive digital transformation
- consider how digital inclusion can be embedded into strategy and service reform
Participants came from a wide range of organisations, including:
Who it was for: Practitioners and managers across health, social care and wider services
Focus: practical insights and tools to help embed digital inclusion
Between November 2025 and February 2026, we delivered twelve 90 mins practitioner workshops, with over 300 people attending from across health, social care and related sectors.
The workshops explored how digital inclusion can be supported in everyday practice across different services and settings.
Topics included:
- mental health
- primary care
- social care
- self-management
- disability
- work with ethnic minority communities
Who it’s for: Commissioners, policy leads, providers and national partners
Focus: System-level challenges and enablers for digital inclusion
We delivered a half-day deep dive session with experts in ethical commissioning to explore the challenges and requirements for digital inclusion as part of commissioning.
The session created space to explore how digital inclusion can be better embedded into:
- commissioning and procurement
- quality and assurance frameworks
The session focused on mapping current experiences and barriers, identifying opportunities to build digital inclusion into commissioning approaches, and exploring potential next steps. The learning from this session helps inform wider understanding of how digital inclusion can be resourced and sustained within health and social care.
Who it’s for: Health and social care leaders ready to take action
Focus: Building a live, practical digital inclusion action plan
The digital inclusion accelerator (one day session) supports organisations to turn learning into practical action.
Participants will work through a structured day to develop:
- a draft digital inclusion action plan
- an outline business case
- an asset register of internal and community-based resources
Accelerators will take place across Scotland February - March 2026 and are currently fully booked.
Who it’s for: People working in health and social care settings
Focus: resources and support to promote and deliver digital inclusion.
The Knowledge Bank provides access to digital inclusion tools and resources for people working in health and social care settings and services. The Knowledge Bank links to existing digital inclusion resources and specific health and social care focused tools produced by the national digital inclusion programme such as the Digital Inclusion Practice Guide for Health and Social Care.
We will continue to build the Knowledge Bank as further resources are developed. Keep up to date on available resources here.
Keep up to date or get involved
This page will be updated as new activity and outputs become available.
If you work in health or social care and are interested in digital inclusion, we’d like to hear from you.
Get in touch to:
- find out about upcoming sessions
- explore whether the accelerator is right for your organisation
- discuss how this work could support your service or partnership
Contact: digital@scvo.scot