Why is Scotland doing so well with data?
Since 2021, over 8,400 staff across more than 50 organisations have taken part in the Scottish Government’s Data Maturity Programme – a free, six-month, cohort-driven initiative that helps organisations assess their current data practices, set strategic goals, and build actionable improvement plans. A key part of the programme is Data Orchard's Data Maturity Assessment, which allows each of the organisations taking part to gain an objective picture of where they are on the journey to data maturity.
A new cohort has just started the Data Maturity Programme
We're now working with our 7th cohort of Scottish public sector organisations on the Data Maturity Programme. We’ve written before about the exciting progress on data being made in Scotland, including by members of previous cohorts. Reaching a 7th cohort is itself a signal of how embedded data improvement has become in Scottish public sector practice. The benefits of the Data Maturity Programme have been consistent and real:
Improved data awareness, culture, and engagement across organisations.
Clearer priority areas for improvement and investment.
Practical support and guidance to develop data roadmaps and action plans.
Stronger knowledge, confidence, and skills among data project teams and wider staff groups.
Ongoing access to an alumni community, expert advice, training, resources, Scottish Government data specialists, and peer networking opportunities.
Scotland’s next step to data maturity
Scottish Government has been playing the long game – steadily building public sector data capability and advancing data maturity for AI-readiness and data for public good. In August 2026 they (beta) launched data.gov.scot, Scotland's first open data platform. It's the fruit of years of groundwork, and we're glad to have helped lay some of it.
“We’ve been working with Data Orchard since 2021, taking cohorts of Scottish public sector organisations through the Data Maturity Assessment process. It’s really helped engage stakeholders, enabling organisations to understand where they are and what they want to achieve with data.
Over 50 organisations of all sizes have participated in our data maturity programme. The assessment and the improvements they’ve made over the last few years, based on our feedback – and that of the cohorts themselves – has been great. It feels like we and Data Orchard are working together to the same goals!”
Want the same clarity on data in your organisation?
Whether you're in the public sector, nonprofit world, or a commercial organisation, our data maturity assessment can help you understand where you stand and build a clear plan to improve. Get in touch to find out more.
Leading data maturity for a network, sector, or group of grantees?
Scotland isn't the only place scaling this – we're now doing similar work with a bilingual national data maturity programme in Canada too.
Join us for Scaling data maturity across nations: Lessons from Scotland and Canada – a free, hour-long session for networks, membership bodies, grant-makers, and national bodies thinking about how to improve data maturity at scale, across multiple organisations. We'll be joined by Shona Nicol (Scottish Government) and our Canadian partners, with time for a live Q&A.
Date: 26 November 2026
Time: 4:00–5:00pm UK / 11:00am–12:00pm ET / 8:00–9:00am PT