The eSAY Project is run by the Scottish Consortium for Learning Disability. It came from the recommendations of “The same as you?” and is funded by the Scottish Government. The Project has been running since 2003. eSAY is about sharing information to help people get better services.

• eSAY wants to provide better access to electronic information for people with learning disabilities.
• eSAY aims to make sure everyone records and measures information in the same way.  We have developed a set of data standards that will be used by local authorities and health boards when they are collecting information.

• The information collected using the data standards will be used to help create local shared databases and be the basis of the national database.
• eSAY will help to set up joined services between Health and Social Work. This was piloted by 4 local partners: Dundee City Council, Glasgow City Council, South Lanarkshire Council, Western Isles Health Board. We are still working with the Scottish Government to help people set up databases locally.

To achieve all this eSAY will work to develop a National Database. It won’t hold any personal information about anyone - only numbers and statistics*.

*Statistics are numbers that tell us about something we are interested in. These numbers are based on facts.  In eSAY the statistics tell us about what is happening in services across Scotland. You can’t find out any personal information about an individual like names, date of birth or anything else that is personal.

By making sure that everyone records and measures information in the same way we will be able to see an clear picture of what is happening in an area. This means people can compare information with other areas and see what is happening nationally. Service providers can also see how well their service compares to others across the country.

This will allow health and social care agencies to get a better picture of a person’s needs and will allow them to respond more quickly to a request for help and support.