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

Recommendations

The following actions are recommended to address the barriers identified and ensure MyCare.scot delivers equitable outcomes across all groups:

• Maintain and actively promote non-digital access routes (telephone and in-person) as equal alternatives to digital access throughout rollout, with no assumption made about users’ digital capability or preference.
• Prioritise development of proxy access pathways, with clear public guidance and governance alignment, to support carers, parents, and people who require assisted access.
• Embed intersectional monitoring across all programme governance, requiring PSD Scotland to collect and analyse usage data disaggregated by equality grounds and to include people with multiple overlapping characteristics in user research and co-design.
• Ensure WCAG 2.2 Level AA compliance is verified and maintained through ongoing accessibility testing, including with screen-readers, voice-to-text, and switch-access users.
• Develop and publish accessible communications in Easy Read, BSL, and the most frequently used community languages, informed by analytics and engagement with community organisations.
• Develop safe-access guidance for people experiencing domestic abuse or coercive control, including signposting to safety resources and promotion of community hub access points.
• Ensure inclusive data capture for Trans people, including preferred name and pronoun fields, with staff guidance on consistent application across the health and care system.
• Implement a regular review cycle, with each subsequent MyCare.scot release triggering an update to this EQIA incorporating MVP and rollout evidence.
• Support workforce readiness through digital confidence training, clinician briefings, and a clear feedback mechanism for frontline issues.
• Align with national infrastructure investment (R100, Project Gigabit, Scotland 4G Infill) and monitor usage by geography to target connectivity mitigations in rural and island areas.