Local government support organisation partners with Young Scot charity to develop new uses for young people’s version of entitlement card
Scotland’s local government Improvement Service and Young Scot, the national youth information and citizenship charity, have partnered up in an effort to boost the use of the Young Scot National Entitlement Card (NEC).
They said they will work with other organisations including Transport Scotland and the National Entitlement Card Programme Office (NECPO), and with young people in the country, to help them to get more from the smart cards.
The partnership is planning to develop and test a range of new services for the cards, which are currently held by 680,000 people.
Among the possible measures will be to bring together Young Scot NEC and the myaccount, the secure sign-in mechanism for public services in the country, to give young people access to a wider range of personalised services and information.
The Improvement Service said it will also keep an eye how the work might be re-used to deliver digital services for other groups of people, such as older volunteers and the unemployed.
It said the benefits to young people should include the ability to receive universal, targeted and bespoke entitlements, concessions, discounts and rewards. It hopes to develop a digital version of Young Scot NEC and a proof of age and entitlement for use with mobile devices.
New solutions
Louise Macdonald, chief executive of Young Scot, said: “The Young Scot National Entitlement Card is an exciting platform for service innovation. Two out of every three young people have a Young Scot NEC, this gives us scale to try new solutions and use technology to tackle inequality in all of its forms.”
Colin Mair, chief executive of the Improvement Service, added: "An important dimension to our exciting partnership with Young Scot is not only on how we can make life easier for young people, but equally on how we can support changing peoples' lives for the better while innovating along the way."
The card can be used as proof of age and for discounts on public transport and in some shops and entertainment venues.
Image from Young Scot
