M365 Cross-Organisation Collaboration

The National Programme was established to maximise collaboration and communication opportunities available to employees working across the Health and Care sector, using M365 as a common platform.

For several years, across local government and the Health and Care sector, there have been challenges calendaring, collaboratively communicating and working between multi-function teams across Scotland's Health and Care Systems. The need to take action was raised by frontline workers, respective Heads of Service and CMTs across local government, Integrated Joint Boards, NHS Scotland and the Care Inspectorate.

To make better use of technology and M365 as a common platform, it was recognised that enabling further collaboration between Health & Social Care partners would act as an enabler for a better integrated approach between teams at all levels.

Jointly chaired by Scottish Government Digital Health & Care, and the Digital Office, a Short Life Working Group was established to implement:

• Outlook Calendar Availability Sharing (free/busy) 
• Teams calls/chat functionality 

This work allowed the successful deployment of calendar availability sharing and Teams chat and calls within nine organisations, consisting of 3 health boards and 6 councils. 

Following this, the National Programme was established in October 2022 to maximise collaboration and communication opportunities available between council and NHS employees using the M365 platform.

The Mission:

• To enable health and care staff to easily communicate and collaborate using M365, with minimal restrictions in functionality and usability.
• To remove duplication wherever possible including systems, devices and licenses.
• To support staff training and confidence in using digital tools to aid collaboration.

The Outcomes:

• Collaboration using one common platform to enable better interactions to support professional decision making.
• Immediate and longer term efficiencies in M365 licensing, security, hardware, training and staff time.