Once for Scotland Catch Up

 

I enjoy catching sessions from Once for Scotland on the first Thursday of each month.  It is great to hear about all of the joined-up digital initiatives in the national pipeline.  I do think many of these initiatives need more public awareness. There are a lot of potentially really good things happening. If you work across the public sector in Scotland you really should sign up for Once for Scotland. 

The initiative does not have a brand or logo, so I got AI to make one up. 

This month we got updates on 

Scottish Government Digital Mailbox 

The Scottish Government Digital Mailbox is a national digital communication platform designed to provide the people of Scotland with a single, secure location for receiving correspondence from public sector organisations. Following a successful CivTech challenge, and based on the Danish Digital Post system used population wide, the Scottish Government invested in the core infrastructure through Netcompany's AMI platform, integrating it with ScotAccount for trusted identity verification and the Scottish Government Cloud Platform to establish a scalable national service. The platform is now operational and forms part of key strategic programmes including the Digital Front Door (MyCare), providing a foundation for secure digital communications across health and wider public services in Scotland. The focus has now shifted from building the platform to driving adoption, onboarding public bodies, and realising the benefits of a shared national service. This supports the ambitions of the Sustainable Digital Public Services Delivery Plan, which aims to move 25% of public sector correspondence to digital channels by 2030 and deliver potential savings of more than £100 million per year through reduced printing, postage and administration costs.

I can see this as a great tool if adopted by organisations like Qualifications Scotland. 

ScotPayments – 

ScotPayments the payment service designed by and built for government, including background information, progress to date, what the programme is working towards and opportunities to become involved.

 Local Government Architecture Model 

The Local Government Architecture Model (LGAM) is an evolving shared framework for describing the technology councils need to deliver local public services. Creating a common language across local government to support collaboration, technology planning and the adoption of reusable solutions across the sector. 

ScotAccount v MyGovscot Accounts

Many citizens will be trying to understand the difference between their ScotAccount and their Mygovscot account, if they have set one or both up.  Here is a quick table guide. 

Feature	ScotAccount	mygovscot myaccount
Who runs it	Scottish Government	Local councils / Improvement Service
Purpose	National digital identity	Local council service login
Identity verification	Yes (photo ID or security questions)	No
Typical use	PVG, disclosures, MyCare.scot, Redress, DAS	Council tax, bins, schools, benefits
2FA	Yes	Sometimes
Reuse across services	Yes (national)	Yes (local authority only)
Interoperability	Separate from myaccount	Separate from ScotAccount

The Silent Crisis: Why Your Vote in May 2026 Matters for Scotland’s Colleges

Scotland’s funding system prioritises where you study over what you learn. This has left college students chronically underfunded compared to their university peers, even when they are studying for the exact same level of qualification.

As we approach the Scottish Parliament election on May 7th, the survival of the college sector is no longer a "future" problem; it is a present-day emergency. I have looked beyond the campaign slogans to ask: which policies will finally align our education system with the occupational competencies the modern world actually demands?

The "Data Gap": Why Universities Resist the SCN

A major hurdle to fairness is the lack of transparency. Most people don't realise that while work-based learning, schools and colleges use the Scottish Candidate Number (SCN) to track a learner’s journey from age five, the university system has largely resisted adopting it.

By using their own internal IDs instead of the SCN, universities make it nearly impossible to track a student’s progress through the entire system. This "data silo" hides a multitude of sins, including potential double-funding and an inability to prove if "widening access" programs are actually working. Without a single ID, we are essentially trying to run a national education system where the biggest players speak different languages.

The "Missing Link" Between Degrees and Competencies

The core of the problem is a fundamental divide in how courses are built. Universities enjoy "Academic Autonomy," meaning they create their own curriculum based on theoretical research. In contrast, colleges deliver a curriculum mapped to National Occupational Standards (NOS).

If a degree claims to be vocational but isn't tied to these competencies, should it be funded at the same rate as a course that is?

Qualification Type	Primary Driver	Linked to Occupational Competency?
College HNC/D	Industry Standards (NOS)	Directly. Required for professional registration.
Modern Apprenticeship	Employer Demand and (NOS)	Directly. Based on "doing" the job.
Traditional BA/BSc	Academic Research	Rarely. Designed for "critical thinking," not a specific job.
Graduate Apprenticeship	Co-designed (Uni + Employer)	Directly. The "Gold Standard"—should embed HN and SVQ levels based on (NOS)

Where the Parties Stand (May 2026)

I believe all the current manifestos fall short of delivering a truly equitable settlement for vocational education, but here is how the "Big Three" are pitching their solutions:

1. The Scottish National Party (SNP)

The SNP is betting on the Tertiary Education and Training (TET) Act 2026. Their plan is to merge college and university funding into a "single bucket" to ensure money follows the learner.

• The Catch: While they talk about "parity," college funding has dropped by 20% in real terms, leaving campuses in an "emergency" state.

2. Scottish Labour

Labour is positioning itself as the party of the workforce, promising multi-year funding settlements. This would allow colleges to stop living hand-to-mouth and actually plan for the long term.

• The Catch: They have been vague on whether the current "no-fee" model is sustainable without a massive injection of cash they haven't yet found.

3. Scottish Conservatives

The Tories are focusing on the physical decay of the sector, proposing a Capital Investment Fund for "wind and watertight" repairs. They also want more "college autonomy" to let institutions keep the money they earn from business partnerships.

• The Catch: Their wider plans to cut government spending could leave little room for the revenue increases the sector desperately needs.

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The Verdict

If we want a fair system, we must "cut our cloth" accordingly. A truly learner-friendly policy wouldn't just promise more cash; it would mandate that any vocational degree must be mapped to National Occupational Competencies and funded at the same rate as a college HND.

Until we close the "Missing Link" and adopt a single tracking number (SCN) for every student, the "parity of esteem" between colleges and universities will remain a myth.

Many of these issues are very long-standing, and no administration has really been prepared to tackle them. The system should be about learners, not institutions. I reflected on a similar theme in 2024.

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Transparency Note: To help navigate the dense landscape of 2026 election manifestos, budget reports, and legislation like the Tertiary Education and Training (TET) Act, I used AI as a research collaborator to pull this data together. All policy comparisons and insights were cross-referenced against official party platforms and sector reports from Colleges Scotland and Audit Scotland to ensure accuracy.