NOVEMBER - DECEMBER 20258GOVERNMENT CIO OUTLOOKIN MYOPINIONrior to September 2018, Scotland did not have its own welfare system. All social security benefits were administered by the UK benefits system. I was asked to set-up the Chief Digital Office function in February 2017 by the Scottish Government, with the aim of planning, designing and delivering the digital and technology estate for the first devolved social security benefits in December 2018. Just 22 months later. This was no mean feat. We had to build a new social security system from scratch that would provide payments for people on low incomes, disabled people, carers, and young people entering the workplace and help people heat their homes. This was not simply `lifting and shifting' a technology estate from the UK Government. Instead, the devolved benefits had to be detached from the UK system, moved onto a new (to be developed) Scottish system, and then connected back into the UK system of reserved benefits to ensure social security functions as seamlessly as possible for clients claiming benefits from both Governments. This is the first time any country has attempted to devolve powers from such an integrated and complex system of social security. Let me take you back to February 2017 when I was tasked with setting up the new digital and technology function from scratch. The race was on to create an entirely new digital capability (systems and people) to support the most significant new public service to be created in Scotland since devolution in 1997. I was conscious that we were laying the foundations for this new public service. A public service that, when fully operational, would be responsible for 20 benefits/payments, 17 of these through Social Security Scotland including seven completely new forms of financial support. Supporting 1.8 million children and adults ­ around one in three people in Scotland. As this was the first time two governments had shared clients, with people being eligible for payments from both the UK system and Social Security Scotland, and with those payments affecting and, in some cases, interacting with one another, we had to make sure that our systems would work together seamlessly. Doing this would mean that people would get the right money at the right time. Without some of the constraints of legacy issues, we took the opportunity to set up our systems in a way that they could evolve and improve over time. CREATING SCOTLAND'S FIRST SOCIAL SECURITY DIGITAL AND TECHNOLOGY SYSTEM Andy McClintock, Chief Digital Information Officer (CDIO), Social Security Scotland ByPAndy McClintock
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