Scotland’s social care system is at a turning point. Demand is rising, resources are stretched, and expectations are evolving. But alongside these pressures lies a clear opportunity: to use digital innovation to transform how care is delivered, experienced and sustained.

Professor Margaret Whoriskey explains how a collaborative is setting about turning a vision for change into reality.

“At a time when health and social care services are under increasing pressure from demographic change, workforce shortages and rising demand, there is both an opportunity and an imperative to improve access to high quality digital services and tools for those delivering care and those who rely on services.

The Digital Care Collaborative Scotland (DCCS), launched in December 2025 and hosted by the Digital Health & Care Innovation Centre (DHI), has been created to help realise that opportunity. Bringing together partners from social care, social work, housing, academia, industry, policy and lived experience, it is designed to accelerate innovation at a national scale.

The strength of the partnership is in its role bringing together the insights and expertise of different people.”

Despite strong ambition, innovation in social care has struggled to take hold.

A national landscape review  conducted by DHI and partners highlighted several persistent barriers:

• Limited infrastructure and support systems to enable adoption
• Underrepresentation in innovation and entrepreneurial ecosystems
• Fragmented evidence and difficulty accessing learning
• Lack of national coordination and consistent leadership

Put simply, innovation has too often been isolated rather than scaled. Valuable ideas are developed, but they don’t spread widely enough to deliver consistent impact.

DCCS has been tasked by Scottish Government with changing this - creating the conditions for a more joined-up, supportive system that enables innovation to thrive.

Turning potential into progress

There is a significant opportunity to focus more strongly on prevention and early intervention, to amplify work already underway, and to create conditions that attract greater inward investment into Scotland.

The scale of opportunity is significant. Across social care, social work and housing, there is both diversity and untapped potential.

DCCS is focused on ensuring innovation is not just piloted but adopted and scaled to improve outcomes across Scotland. Its approach mirrors wider health innovation efforts - ensuring that new solutions benefit people wherever they live.

Importantly, this is about more than technology. It’s about improving prevention, strengthening services, and supporting independent living.

Priorities for action

To deliver meaningful change, DCCS has set five clear priorities:

1. Create the right conditions: Develop a national framework and innovation pathway that provides clear priorities, supports consistency and positions DCCS as a trusted source of guidance.
2. Enable collaboration: Create spaces - both physical and virtual - where partners can connect, share learning and collaborate locally, nationally and internationally.
3. Build evidence and learning: Showcase best practice, consolidate evidence and connect organisations to funding and research opportunities.
4. Provide practical tools: Develop actionable resources that help organisations apply innovation in real-world settings.
5. Strengthen the workforce: Support leadership, build confidence in digital innovation, and develop future talent pathways through partnerships with education and training bodies.

DCCS is grounded in real challenges facing services today. Its programmes bring together the expertise needed to design and deliver practical solutions.

Current areas of focus include:

• Digital care planning
• Remote monitoring and virtual care
• Data sharing
• Assistive technologies
• Artificial intelligence
• Tools that support independent living

These are not abstract concepts - they are technologies and approaches that can directly improve care, independence and quality of life.

The critical role of housing

For me and my colleagues at DHI this is more than an academic exercise.

I am also reminded of the critical role that housing plays within our wider health and social care ecosystem.

I am lucky enough to be able to bring a unique perspective through my dual role, including as Chair of Hanover Housing. This experience reinforces a vital point: housing is central to health and wellbeing.

Housing remains a foundational element of wellbeing, independence and community resilience - and has enormous potential to drive digitally enabled prevention and support.

Integrating housing into digital innovation efforts is essential to delivering truly person-centred care.

Building momentum for the future

DCCS will shortly publish its first delivery plan, setting out clear actions, timelines and ambitions.

But the real success of the programme will depend on maintaining momentum – continuing to build collaboration, scale innovation, and keep people at the centre of every development.

The ambition is clear: to make Scotland a leader in digitally enabled, person-centred care. The opportunity is there, and now, so is the coordinated effort to realise it.

Professor Margaret Whoriskey MBE is Head of Innovation for Care and Well Being at Scotland’s Digital Health & Care Innovation Centre.

For more information, got to the Digital Care Collaborative Scotland website.

Margaret can be contacted at: margaret.whoriskey@dhi-scotland.com  

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