‘Person-centred’ will transform Scotland’s Digital Public Services

Scotland has a chance to create a country with genuinely person-centred services. The Christie Commission recommended this in 2011, and now, with the ongoing transfer of powers, the citizens of Scotland are in a unique position in Europe. The new Scottish Social Security System reform is one ongoing example of where Scotland could create genuine, trusted, person-centred services that can change opportunities for citizens.

A shift in thinking

Scotland is managing a legacy system, and is creating a new Scottish Social Security System with and outwith of DWP. The Scottish Parliament had no hesitation — the Welfare Reform Committee left a legacy and cogent advice to the Scottish citizens and their Government in its Recommendations in 2016:

The other major principle which we advise the Scottish Government to adopt is to make the new system person centred […] — Welfare Reform Committee report, paragraph 14

Real shifts in thinking are needed for countries and organisations to change and become person centred, and the Health and Care Agenda is no different. This is difficult, but people and communities across Scotland want to help. It’s encouraging to see these words, and 2017 is a time for action as strategies are refreshed and new Local Government Councils will be elected in May.

[…] we need to continue to build on these solid foundations to ensure that integration delivers real improvements for people, with a greater focus on anticipatory, preventative and person-centred care. This represents a real shift in thinking at all levels as to how these services are delivered. — Scottish Government Re-shaping Care blog

Leadership and collaboration across sectors are needed, and the means to achieve this arrived in a recent, cross-sector Report convened by Scottish Council for Development and Industry. This report — authored by a mixture of organisations — recognised some important characteristics of digital success in Scotland in 2017 would include leadership, trust, person centred approaches and personal data stores.

40 people gathered from all walks of life, including Scottish Government, private and third sector to create the Smart Citizens, Smart City Regions report. For the first time, a paper that recognises the primacy of citizens and communities and their roles in transforming a country.

The recommendations include some which have been presented before, such as the need for trusted, personal data stores, first made in the Scottish Government Data Vision of 2014, and still a feature 3 years later:

The Scottish public sector must build a relationship of trust with citizens that will underpin faster rollout of digital public services and put citizens in control of their digital lives. The development of a trusted ‘data bank’ mechanism that covers data collection, sharing and storage of personal data of citizens will require top-level leadership.

The road ahead

Citizens are now working with the Third Sector and other organisations in Scotland to take the lead, in collaboration with Ministers, public servants and others to implement genuinely person-centred services. This is an opportunity for Scotland to lead the world, and to empower citizens to be equipped with both a privacy-protecting digital identity, and a consent mechanism that allows genuine participation in services.

This would be one person centred, trusted, portable identity that enables participation in a person-centred trust framework. An identity that empowers citizens to accumulate their personal data as part of their journey through their use of public services. A store once, share many approach that can deliver quality, effectiveness and resilience.

In this regard, it is encouraging to see the Cabinet Secretary for Finance, Derek Mackay reply to a Parliamentary Question S5W-07384 last month, and include these observations that reflect a more person-centred design and delivery direction for identity, consent management and personal data stores across Scotland’s public services -

Ministers do believe that it is desirable that a member of the public, who wants to access public services online, can be given the chance to demonstrate their identity easily — and be confident that no-one else is able to pretend to be them, and that their privacy is guaranteed. This becomes ever more important as the Scottish Government takes on new powers, prepares to deliver new services, and aims to make these services as convenient, accessible and user-centred as possible.

Ministers therefore intend to work with stakeholders, privacy interests and members of the public to develop a robust, secure and trustworthy mechanism by which an individual member of the public can demonstrate their identity. Any such mechanism will have to be entirely consistent with the Scottish Government’s Privacy Principles, so that members of the public can be confident that their privacy is being protected.

Elsewhere in Scotland, for example In Aberdeen, organisations in health and care also seem to have the right words; Scotland and citizens now wish to work with organisations to implement genuine, trusted person-centred services and design equality into these activities.

What does this mean for the residents of Aberdeen? We will be person-centred in all our activities and will always consider the best interests of the individual. — The Aberdeen City Health & Social Care Partnership Strategic Plan 2016–2019, p.26

Citizens have a need for front-end simplicity, control over the exchange of their data with services, and ease of use, ultimately leading to better outcomes both for them and the organisations they interact with.

Citizens are the point of integration.

A great opportunity

All over Scotland, citizens can see an emerging shift in language, principle and values to person-centred services.

As the latest Digital Strategy says:

Digital and data are irresistible forces that drive innovation in our public services — they open up new choices and possibilities for us all.— Derek Mackay, Cabinet Secretary Finance and the Constitution

The Scottish Government can support this further with the social economy, third sector and their focus on person centred services and innovation able to deliver with citizens and organisations. The benefits will be felt by all citizens and communities in Scotland, if the Scottish Government public sector trusts and empowers citizens and communities to co-design person-centred services.