MyCare.scot – digital front door to health and social care: equality impact assessment summary

Key Findings

The assessment identified both positive opportunities and barriers across several protected characteristics. The main findings are set out below.

Benefits Identified

• MyCare.scot has strong potential to advance equality of opportunity for groups who face barriers to in-person care, including older people, those in remote and rural areas, disabled people, and LGB+ people.
• Digital access offers greater convenience, choice, and in some cases a safer route to services — reducing the need for travel, minimising risk of misgendering or discrimination in clinical settings, and enabling private access from home.
• For Gypsy and Traveller communities, access to a centralised digital health record offers continuity of care across different locations.
• For women experiencing coercive control, and for LGB+ people who have faced discrimination in clinical settings, a safe, private digital access route represents a meaningful improvement in equitable access.
• Preventative care, early intervention, and greater engagement are expected benefits for men, who statistically access health services at a later stage than women.

Barriers and Risk Identified

• Digital exclusion remains the most significant cross-cutting barrier. It disproportionately affects older people, disabled people, people on low incomes, and some minority ethnic communities. The 2025 Audit Scotland report found that 15% of Scottish adults lack foundation-level digital skills.
• Connectivity gaps persist in rural and island communities. Full-fibre broadband availability is 49% in rural areas and as low as 17% in Shetland, creating geography-based access inequalities.
• The current 18+ age restriction, driven by ScotAccount’s identity verification services, is a time-limited barrier for younger people as it develops.
• This will be addressed through future phases and the Children’s Rights and Wellbeing Impact Assessment.
• Proxy access pathways are not yet in place. This presents a risk of exclusion for carers, parents, and other affected users who need to act on behalf of others.
• Women experiencing domestic abuse may face specific safety risks around shared devices and coercive monitoring of digital activity. Guidance and safe-access routes must be clearly provided.
• Where maternity consultations are conducted remotely, there is a clinical and safeguarding risk that signs of domestic abuse or postnatal depression may be missed. Remote consultations must complement, not replace, in-person care.
• Risks of deadnaming or display of historic name data exist for Trans people where records have not been updated. Inclusive data capture and staff guidance are required.
• Some minority ethnic communities, refugees and asylum seekers face language barriers, limited digital footprint for identity verification, and lower trust in digital services.
• Board readiness and digital infrastructure vary nationally.

Discrimination Assessment

MyCare.scot does not directly or indirectly discriminate under the Equality Act 2010. The 18+ age restriction is objectively justified by the current technical constraints of ScotAccount and is proportionate to the legitimate aim of secure identity verification online. It is a time-limited restriction that will be addressed through future programme phases.

No significant impacts — positive or negative — have been identified in relation to Religion or Belief or Marriage and Civil Partnership.