Social Publishing Project
  • About us
    • 3 Bs - the Philosophy
    • What We're Up To
    • Contact us
    • Testimonials
    • The Team
    • Design and Print
    • Access Granted
    • Standard T&Cs
  • Quids in! Magazine
    • Citizens Advice Special Offer
    • GPs & Healthcare Centres Special Offer
    • Customer map
    • Rife
  • QI Pro Network
    • QIPN Jobs
    • Resource Hub >
      • Financial Inclusion (Resource)
      • Financial Capability (Resource)
      • Digital Inclusion (Resource)
      • Money/Wellbeing (Resource)
    • QIPN Briefings >
      • Basic Bank Accounts QIPN Briefing
      • Fuel Poverty QIPN Briefing
      • Universal Credit QIPN Briefing
      • Debt QIPN Briefing
      • Loan Sharks QIPN Briefing
    • QIP Blog
    • Archive: QIPN Newsletter
  • Quids In Guides
    • Universal Credit Guide
    • Underoccupancy
    • Payday Loans
    • New Tenants
    • Budget Planner
    • Manifesto
    • Universal Credit Training
    • Welsh Loan Sharks Guide
    • Wellbeing Guide
    • Critical Insights On UC
  • I'm Ready
  • 2018 Research
    • 2016 Survey Report
    • 2014 Survey Report
  • Quids In Readers Club

Guest Blog: Digital Inclusion - It's 2016, Surely Everyone Is Online Now?

8/4/2016

0 Comments

 
Picture
Social tenants will benefit from digital access to services
​Doteveryone and partners are providing a unique offer of kit and connectivity to get social housing tenants online.
​
Note: On 1 April Go ON UK merged with Doteveryone, the new organisation established by Martha Lane Fox to build a brilliantly digital Britain – for everyone, by everyone. Go ON UK is no longer a standalone organisation, but the Go ON UK brand will continue to be used for Doteveryone’s digital skills activity.
Guest blog by John Perkins, Senior Project Manager at Doteveryone.

Since the rise of the internet in the late nineties, the number of UK people online has increased steadily. This has led to a perception that “everybody uses the internet now” and that it’s now “job done”. This is simply not the case. As reports from Go ON UK and the Government Digital Inclusion Strategy noted.
  • 12.6m UK people lack Basic Digital Skills  (that’s over 20% of the UK population)
  • 4.4m people (37%) of those who are digitally excluded are social housing tenants.
 
These are stark numbers, but don’t tell the whole story. We know from Go ON UK’s research that those who can benefit most are often those with the least opportunity to do so. Our digital skills projects are focused on these 'furthest first' people, ensuring we help those who are most in need.

Recent research from Lloyds Bank shows that the average annual saving for an online UK consumer is £744. Regardless of income level, that’s a significant saving, but for those who face some of the hardest financial challenges every day, the resulting impact can be far greater.

Doteveryone is working with its partners and two London Boroughs - Go ON Croydon and Go ON Lewisham. These projects will trial new ways in which we can help everyone achieve the benefits of the internet. These projects are set up on a “test and learn” basis, the learning from which we will share transparently later this year.

One project (launching in April 2016) focusses on social housing tenants in one specific area of Croydon, where digital inclusion levels are low. The residents will be invited to take their first steps in the digital world through the provision of a low-cost tablet, training from volunteer Digital Champions from one of our partners, and access to a really competitive broadband deal. As we know from other projects, it takes a mix of essential elements to ensure lasting digital inclusion. These are:
  • Affordable equipment
  • Affordable connectivity
  • Basic Digital Skills training
  • Motivation or a ‘hook’
  • Understanding of how to stay safe in the digital world

No single element can deliver sustained benefits on its own. All of them are needed to help people gain the necessary confidence to step into the digital world.

This is the first time that we have made such an offer to a social housing community, and we expect that uptake levels for this unique bundle will be high. Moreover, the benefits of being online go beyond the financial ones. These can include:
  • Enabling older people to live independently for longer (thus reducing their requirements from carers or the NHS, and improving their quality of life
  • Helping people keep in touch with friends and family, thereby tackling social isolation and loneliness
  • Access to education/training resources, or job vacancies. This helps children to do better at school, and enables those in training to access a wider range of resources. Nearly 80% of job vacancies are only advertised on line.

The list could be much longer, and the impact of these ‘softer benefits’ will vary according to individual circumstances. Furthermore, for social housing tenants the ability to communicate with their provider at a convenient time for them (as opposed to when the call centre is open) to report issues or ask questions helps to make their busy lives less frenetic. From the landlord’s perspective, mass communication with residents is simpler and more cost effective when done online.

So what happens next? We will be tracking the uptake of the offer, and evaluating the impact on the participants over the coming weeks. This will include measuring their change in confidence in their digital skills, and where they expect to go next as their knowledge and competence grow.
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Click to sign up for QIPN
    Sign up to receive all blog posts via email plus latest QIP news

    Author

    Jeff Mitchell is Managing Editor for Quids in! magazine and co-founder of the Social Publishing Project. A former Managing Director of The Big Issue magazine, he also runs employment project Clean Slate Training & Employment.

    Archives

    April 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    April 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    June 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    November 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013

    Categories

    All
    Aspiration
    Austerity
    Bedroom Tax
    Benefits
    BME
    Fuel Poverty
    Nutrition
    Poverty
    Underoccupancy
    Unemployment
    Universal Credit
    Welfare Reform
    Youth Unemployment

    RSS Feed

    *If you use Chrome, you may need to install the RSS reader (from here)

Quids In Professional Network (QIPN) - Special Reports

QIPN is a network of almost 2,000 professionals working with people in poverty, on low incomes or who are financially excluded. It produces a free monthly e-newsletter to share analysis, good practice and news on issues affecting members. Sign up here.
QIPN is run by the Social Publishing Project, a self-funding social enterprise that produces Quids in magazine and its website.
✕