APRIL- 202319GOVERNMENT CIO OUTLOOK 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. Working with colleagues in the Scottish Government, the approach was to ensure the safe and secure transition of benefits in stages, with Carer's Allowance Supplement and Best Start Grant Pregnancy and Baby Payment the first two live payments by autumn/winter 2018. As part of our digital and technology strategy and the foundation pillars of reuse, before buy, before build, we put several technology components in place during 2017 and 2018 which enabled us to deliver safe and secure payments for the first benefits from autumn 2018 onwards. We then focussed on scaling the technology and systems to introduce more capability, to continue to provide a consistent multi-channel experience for our clients and to ensure above all that they are paid on time, every time. Our digital technology strategy, and in particular our 'secure by design' approach has been developed to balance the need to protect and ensure the integrity of Social Security Scotland information whilst recognising its unique function in Scotland, acknowledging its desire to develop a service with dignity, fairness and respect as its core. Keeping our client's information safe and secure is at the heart of everything we do. It is imperative that they have trust and confidence in us to process and protect their information in their time of need. We adopted a cloud-first approach and are hosting all our data within secure UK facilities in line with our risk appetite. We have built our cloud environments using automated infrastructure and deploying infrastructure as code, creating a reusable public library of digital assets for other public sector organisations looking to adopt the cloud and deploy rapidly. This innovative approach has accelerated environment builds, reducing deployment time and resource overheads, allowing us to automate usage and billing controls, an important factor in a pay-as-you-use cloud model. Senior digital leaders are dependent on the expertise and skills of our staff who work tirelessly to deliver great results, and in the last few years, the pressure has been even greater as they adapted to an unprecedented global pandemic. We have a highly talented and dedicated group of colleagues within Social Security Scotland who have got us this far on our incredible journey since formation in 2017. Challenges around recruitment continue, in particular finding people with digital skills in areas such as cloud computing and cyber security, but we are making steady progress in this important area. We are now in year five of delivering the digital and technology system for the devolved social security benefits. It has proven to be increasingly complex with fast-paced delivery since our inception. Our technology will continue to evolve over time, and we will continue to engage our clients on this journey, without losing sight of the needs of our users. Our digital technology strategy, and in particular our 'secure by design' approach has been developed to balance the need to protect and ensure the integrity of Social Security Scotland information whilst recognising its unique function in Scotland, acknowledging its desire to develop a service with dignity, fairness and respect as its core
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