Welcome to our newsletter, bringing you all the latest from the Digital Office for Scottish Local Government. In this newsletter, we bring you a detailed update on what has been happening throughout the last month and details of upcoming activities.
If you have any queries regarding any of the content within this newsletter, please get in touch.
We launched this at FutureScot’s Digital Scotland event which took place in November 2025 at Edinburgh’s EICC – with the Minister for Public Finance Mr McKee, Our Chief Digital Officer Martyn Wallace and Scottish Government’s Chief Digital Officer Geoff Huggins.
Check out our latest blog, where Becca Fairless, Head of Digital Strategy and Policy in the Scottish Government talks about launching our refreshed joint Digital Strategy for Scotland at a recent digital conference.
National Learning Management System Discovery - Key Highlights and Next Steps.
Over the past few months, we’ve been working closely with councils, COSLA, Society of Personnel and Development Scotland (SPDS), NHS Education for Scotland and partners to build a clear picture of Scotland’s current Learning Management System (LMS) landscape. This work is a core part of the National Training Platform discovery phase and is helping us identify opportunities, challenges, and priorities for a “Once for Scotland” approach.
Scotland is collectively investing heavily in LMS solutions that don’t deliver consistent value, yet needs and systems are far more aligned than they appear.
There is a major opportunity to use a national learning infrastructure to drive capability, coherence, and collaboration across all councils. This is not just a Learning Management System project—it’s a national capability initiative.
The sector is showing strong overlap, strong appetite, and strong opportunities to create a model that works for every council.
Thank you to everyone who has completed the insight request to date. if you haven’t already, you can still contribute to this initiative and read more about what we’ve learned so far and what comes next for the community. If you have any questions, please get in touch with Verity Hislop.
Coming Soon: Refresh of the Scottish Approach to Service Design.
The Digital Office and the Office of the Chief Designer have been working together on a refresh of the Scottish Approach to Service Design (SAtSD), which will be released soon.
Members of the Local Government Service Design Group have contributed feedback to help inform the refresh, representing 11 local authorities: Argyll and Bute, Dundee City, East Lothian, East Renfrewshire, Highland, Orkney Islands Council, Renfrewshire, South Ayrshire, South Lanarkshire, Stirling and West Lothian.
As part of this collaboration, the Office of the Chief Designer has agreed to provide training for all local authorities at no extra cost. We will confirm the training dates shortly. In the meantime, we encourage colleagues to register their interest so they can be notified as soon as spaces become available.
Along with the refreshed approach, a new Scottish Approach to Service Design Maturity Assessment has been developed. West Lothian Council has collaborated with the Office of the Chief Designer over recent months to prototype a process and supporting tools that help teams assess their readiness for design and identify priority areas for development.
We are now inviting additional local authorities to take part. The Office of the Chief Designer is offering to share the Maturity Assessment, along with its guidance, process and prompts, so organisations can test it and provide feedback.
By taking part, organisations will:
Help shape national guidance that supports consistent adoption of service design
Test and influence the next iteration of the Scottish Approach to Service Design Maturity Assessment
Ensure the process and tools reflect real‑world local authority contexts and challenges
Gain a clearer understanding of what to focus on to build their service design practice
Please contact Synnøve Frøiland to express your interest in participating in the development and review of the Scottish Approach to Service Design Maturity Assessment and/or securing a place on the upcoming free training.
Information Gathering: Microsoft Copilot Licences.
Crown Commercial Service (CCS) is currently working with Microsoft to explore options for making Microsoft Copilot licences available to the public sector at discounted rates.
As part of this work, we’re expecting to be asked to support some early information-gathering to help CCS understand:
Levels of interest across councils
Potential use cases
Any constraints or considerations that may affect take-up
At this stage, this is a heads up for awareness only. No commitments are being asked for, and no decisions are required.
If Copilot licensing is something your organisation may be interested in exploring, or if you’d like to be kept in the loop as this work develops, please get in touch with Monika Franko or Euan Miller.
Over the past few months, we’ve been working with councils and partners to shape practical guidance on Microsoft 365 labelling and classification, focusing on what’s realistic to implement and sustain in local government.
As a next step, we’re planning to start Phase 1 pilot activity in Q2 2026, working with a small number of councils to implement and refine this guidance in real-world settings. This pilot phase is particularly suited to:
Councils that do not currently have Microsoft labelling and classification controls in place, or
Councils that are at a very early stage and want a supported, low-risk starting point.
The aim of the pilots will be to test the guidance, capture lessons learned, and refine the resources before making them available nationally.
If you’re interested in finding out more, or would like to explore whether your organisation could take part, please get in touch with Monika Franko or Euan Miller.
Join Our M365 Licence Allocation Framework Working Group Starting February 2026.
We’ll shortly be bringing together a cross-council working group to develop a practical framework to support councils with auditing and allocating Microsoft 365 licences.
The focus of this work will be on helping councils:
Understand which licence types are genuinely needed for different roles
Align licence allocation to staff day-to-day responsibilities
Consider line-of-business systems and their requirements towards M365 tools and services
Maintain capability and security whilst looking for opportunities to reduce spend
We’re particularly keen to involve:
IT / digital leads
Information governance and security colleagues
Business change colleagues
Councils currently reviewing or planning changes to their M365 licensing approach
If your organisation would be interested in taking part, or if you’d like to be kept informed as this work progresses, please get in touch with Monika Franko or Euan Miller.
M365 Education Tenancy Deep Dive Sessions.
Over the coming months, we will be holding several M365 education deep dive sessions to help councils share practical approaches to managing pupil devices in Intune and setting up separate M365 Education tenancies.
In discussions late last year, the Digital Office and council colleagues identified challenges in several areas – what works for classroom device setup, passwords for younger pupils, cloud‑only vs hybrid management, support models and more. They also explored tenancy options, highlighted licensing complications and raised email and domain migration issues.
With this background context set out, the goal of these deep dive sessions is to build a clear, shared picture of what councils are doing to overcome these challenges and to identify the areas where collective guidance or national support would help most.
If you are interested in being a part of these sessions, please get in touch with Monika Franko or Euan Miller..
Our Digital Telecare Team has been shortlisted for two categories at this years Digital Health & Care Awards.
We’re delighted to share that we’ve been shortlisted for two awards at the Digital Health & Care Awards 2026, hosted by Holyrood Connect.
Each year, the awards celebrate digital innovation across health and care, recognising outstanding work across six categories.
Our Digital Telecare team has been shortlisted for Digital Health & Care Team of the Year, recognising the collective effort behind Scotland’s analogue‑to‑digital telecare transition and the delivery of resilient, future‑ready services.
We’re also thrilled to see our Business Relationship Manager, David Brown, shortlisted for the Digital Leader Award, recognising his leadership and impact across digital health and care.
Both shortlisting’s reflect the incredible collective effort supporting the analogue‑to‑digital telecare transition across Scotland.
We are thrilled to announce the launch of the Countdown Campaign!
Over the next 12 months, our Countdown Campaign will spotlight some incredible efforts and achievements within the telecare community in Scotland. Each month, we’ll showcase your successes, highlight key information, and celebrate the outstanding contributions made by individuals and teams across our sector.
We would like to invite you to get involved, whether by sharing your experiences, or participating in upcoming events and initiatives. Your voice and your work are central to our shared mission. Stay connected for more details!
Take a moment to explore the brand new resources we have added to the Resource Centre this month! Not signed up yet? Register now to unlock full access and stay up to date with the latest resources.
Please note: you must be logged in to the Resource Centre for the below links to work and take you directly to the resources.
We’ve published a new set of 16 M365 Information Governance (IG) resources on the Digital Office Resource Centre, building on feedback from councils over the past year. The latest publications include:
Product assessments of various M365 tools
DPIA process overview
Information sharing guidance
M365 and Azure technical controls explained
Litigation and e-discovery guidance
Data ownership and stewardship guidance
Examples of information covered under IG rules
Information rights and types management
Email and communication guidance
These resources are intended to support councils in making informed, proportionate decisions about M365 use, information sharing and risk management.
Thanks to everyone who contributed comments and feedback during development! It’s very much appreciated.
Introduction to Service Design: What is service design and why do you need it?
In case you missed it, we launched our beginner-friendly introduction to service design: What is service design and why do you need it? in December 2025.
This presentation is designed for easy reuse and adaptation, making it a practical resource for anyone in Scottish local government who is responsible for informing or teaching others about the basics of service design.
Developed collaboratively by the Local Government Service Design Group, the Scottish Government, and the Digital Office, the presentation aligns with the Scottish Approach to Service Design, and reflects shared learning and experience across the public sector. Topics covered in the presentation:
Why you need service design
What is service design?
Good and bad services
How to do service design
The Scottish Approach to Service Design
The Double Diamond
Service design in action (case study showing what good looks like)
Recommended further reading
The Local Government Service Design Group is a community for anyone in Scottish Local Authorities with an interest in service design. The members share knowledge and resources through regular meetups and a dedicated Teams channel. If you’d like more information or are interested in joining, please contact Synnøve Frøiland.
From Local Insight to Scotland‑Wide Impact: Smart Data Foundry's Economic Wellbeing Explorer: 13th February 2026.
Further to ongoing collaborations between The Digital Office for Scottish Local Government, Cosla, Local Authorities and The Smart Data Foundry, we are delighted to welcome you to a live demonstration of the Economic Wellbeing Explorer, an interactive tool designed to support place-based decision-making and improve understanding of local economic wellbeing.
Join our show and tell session where we’ll explore the capabilities of the Economic Wellbeing Explorer and how it can support data‑driven insight and decision‑making across local government.
This session will provide an opportunity to:
See the tool in action from The City of Edinburgh Council, who are using it to help co-ordinate their homelessness and poverty prevention strategies
Understand its potential to surface real‑time financial wellbeing indicators
Explore how it aligns with our wider digital and data priorities, existing commitments and the potential of ‘Scotland Wide’ adoption.
Scaling Digital and Data Capabilities for a Future Ready Workforce: 9th Feb & 5th March 2026.
We’re delighted to announce that our upcoming sessions will feature a dedicated showcase highlighting the national open‑access resources provided by the Digitally Enabled Workforce (DEW) Team, hosted in NHS Education for Scotland and commissioned by Scottish Government and COSLA.
Paula Baird, Programme Lead for the DEW team, will provide an overview of the nationally available resources designed to build digital and data capabilities across Scotland’s health and social care workforce. The session will also include insights from Alan Milbourne from the Scottish Government Digital Health and Care Team, who will share the Digital, Data and Technology (DDaT) aim for specialist workforce development.
In this session, we’ll explore how adopting these resources can deliver real benefits for staff and organisations, as well as the value of engaging with plans for workforce transformation and long term success
Please use the form below to select the session you would like to join and register.
Dates: Thursday 19th Feb (11am -12pm) Thursday 5th March (10am - 11am)
TechUK: Digital Strategy for Scotland Webinar: 24th February 2026.
We’re pleased to share that Colin Birchenall, our Chief Technology Officer, and Becca Fairless, Head of Digital Strategy at the Scottish Government, will be joining TechUK for a webinar to discuss the Digital Strategy for Scotland 2025.
Scotland’s Digital Strategy sets out a shared vision from the Scottish Government and local government for a more connected, inclusive and digitally enabled nation.
Following publication of the strategy in November 2025, this session will examine the national digital vision, its relevance to inclusive growth, and the delivery plan outlining actions through to 2028.
The Digital Office is a proud member of the Cyber Partnership, who are once again supporting Cyber Scotland Week!
Cyber Scotland Week will run from 23–28 February 2026, bringing organisations, businesses, community groups and individuals together to share knowledge, strengthen resilience and celebrate innovation in cyber security.
Throughout the week, you'll find a packed schedule of events, practical guidance, and opportunities to learn more about the everyday steps we can all take to stay secure online. Whether you're part of a local authority, a business, a community group, or simply want to improve your own cyber habits, there’s something for everyone. Online security starts with you.
Interested in learning more about the events happening during Cyber Scotland Week? Access the link below to view the schedule and get involved.
