Event Report: Improving Digital Inclusion Pathways
On Wednesday 22nd May 2024, the Digital Inclusion APPG held a roundtable on Improving Digital Inclusion Pathways. The session focussed on three themes: How can we design digital inclusion pathways to benefit end users?; What is the best way to coordinate existing digital inclusion measures under one system?; and How can industry and government promote digital inclusion support to end users?
The event was Chaired by APPG Co-chair Matt Warman MP. Speakers included Saqib Bhatti MP, Minister for Tech and the Digital Economy, Sarah Murray, Principal, Public Policy at Ofcom, Julian Ashworth, Director at Ofcom, Emma Stone, Director of Evidence and Engagement at Good Things Foundation, Toby Shergold, Deputy Director for External Engagement at Jisc, Chris Ashworth, Head of Social Impact at Nominet, and Julia Chippendale, Head of Business Development at We Are Group.
Matt Warman MP began the session by thanking everyone for attending and thanked his colleague the Minister for Tech and the Digital Economy, Saqib Bhatti MP for joining the meeting. He then introduced Mr Bhatti MP.
Saqib Bhatti MP started by thanking Matt Warman MP for his role Chairing the APPG. He outlined that in a broad sense, it is very clear that digital inclusion is firmly embedded in the Government’s agenda and that they are committed to not leaving anyone behind. He pointed out that digital skills and access are cornerstones of his Department’s work, suggesting that a number of studies have indicated that if you’re digitally excluded, you’re more likely to be lower paid, have worse social outcomes and lower life expectancies. Given the broad negative effects of digital exclusion, fixing it has become a Government-wide priority, he added.
To this end, Mr Bhatti MP added that the Government is working to design inclusion pathways which benefit for all users – regardless of their location or income. For example, the Central Digital and Data Office (CDDO) – who lead the Government Digital and Data function in Whitehall – ensures that all public sector websites are accessible on public devices and well-sign posted. More specifically, he referenced that on the Department for Work and Pensions website there is a wide range of digital skills and employment support. At the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, he also noted that there is a widespread recognition among Ministers, Advisors and Civil Servants that digital inclusion is a cross-governmental issue given its salience. The pressing need to address digital inclusion – and the issues it causes in society – meant that his Department had stepped up the frequency of digital inclusion team meetings, he added.
Mr Bhatti MP also added that the Government is working with Ofcom to increase number of social tariffs available to consumers. Recognising that industry and Government need to work together more to design more digital inclusion solutions, Mr Bhatti MP thanked the room for the collaborative approach they had adopted over the last few years.
The Minister then pointed out that digital inclusion was an issue which was complex and needed to be tackled from several different angles. For example, he noted that the Online Safety Act was a groundbreaking piece of legislation which would go a long way in addressing issues related to exclusion. He added that the Department is working with Ofcom to implement the Act in full. Mr Bhatti MP also noted that given the complexity of digital inclusion, third sector groups are vital in helping end users. Notably he thanked groups such as the Good Things Foundation and Age UK as well as several other social enterprise groups for the ‘on the ground work’ they had been pioneering in the sector.
Matt Warman MP thanked Saqib Bhatti MP for his contributions, noting that he was encouraged by what the Minister had said. He then introduced Sarah Murray and Julian Ashworth from Ofcom.
Julian Ashworth introduced himself and explained that Ofcom have no specific powers in the space but can incentivize people to get connected. He said Ofcom have worked to reduce the number of people digitally excluded from 11% to 7% since 2019. He added that the final 7% seemed particularly hard to get connected as it had been stuck at that level for a few years, and that the proportion of those who were digitally excluded reached 16% among older people.
Julian also noted that the challenges of digital inclusion aren’t all about access, and that of those excluded 66% say they choose not to be connected, compared to just 25% saying they can’t afford it and 15% saying it’s overly complicated. The root causes of digital exclusion are nuanced and not all about increasing a nebulous idea of ‘access’, he concluded.
Sarah Murray began by saying that the challenges associated with digital inclusion can be split into three ‘buckets’; access, affordability and ability. She firstly concurred with Julian that access is available to most people and that Ofcom are taking significant leaps in the field. For example, full fibre coverage now reaches 57% of premises - up from 42% last year- and super-fast broadband has a 97% availability countrywide. She also pointed out that the Shared Rural Network has led pioneering work to increase 5G uptake across the UK, however 61,000 homes and businesses still have intermittent access to reliable broadband – something Ofcom’s Telecoms Access Review is looking to address.
Turning to the issue of affordability, she argued this has been broadly achieved in the UK as the telecoms industry is competitive and there are a wide range of products available to the consumer, especially when compared with other Western countries. Additionally, she noted that in the sector, the cost-of-living crisis has probably passed its peak as the proportion of consumers stating they had problems with affordability is 28% - up from just 15% in 2021, but down on 32% in October 2022. She added that social tariffs had become widespread and take-up has quadrupled in the last few years to 380,000.
Finally, she shared how Ofcom have led on pioneering legislation to empower consumers. She gave the example of their proposal that mid contract price rises should be banned if they are linked to inflation the suggestion that all price rises should be clearly written into contracts. She concluded saying that UK mobile prices were listed as the second cheapest in Ofcom’s study of six major economies.
Matt Warman MP thanked both representatives from Ofcom for their contributions and introduced Emma Stone from the Good Things Foundation.
Emma Stone began by handing out the Good Things Foundation 2024 State of Digital Nation report. Within this, she highlighted how the Essential Digital Skills Entitlement – which put digital skills on the same footing as literacy and numeracy legislatively – was not effective in its implementation. By way of an example, she said 8.5 million people still lack foundational digital inclusion skills and studies have shown that 16% of Department for Work and Pensions customers are offline and thus unable to access welfare provisions adequately. She also called attention to surveys which have found that 40% of PIP customers lack digital confidence and 45% of households with children don’t have adequate online access. She compounded this by noting these statistics are only amplified by the fact that only 18,000 people accessed Department of Education digital inclusion programmes. She concluded that it is no longer affordable to wait for AI literacy frameworks to address these problems and instead, a holistic approach is needed which deals with access and affordability problems in different ways – depending on context and location. To conclude, she asked the Minister if there are any plans to donate old tech from Government Departments to be recycled for those without devices.
Matt Warman MP thanked Emma Stone and introduced Toby Shergold, Deputy Director for External Engagement at Jisc.
Toby introduced Jisc as an organisation that offers free access to the internet to students via ‘eduroam’ and set out how this is now being extended to include 5G technology beyond campuses. Pointing to a sample study where 5G is being rolled out on trams in Edinburgh to benefit students, he argued that the number of access points for all students has increased with Jisc. Toby also added that the high cost of technologies had made access extremely uneven. He concluded that there is a deep need to expand the higher education curriculum so that digital skills provision was better integrated into teaching.
Matt Warman MP thanked Toby Shergold and introduced Chris Ashworth, Head of Social Impact at Nominet.
Chris Ashworth told attendees most digital inclusion pathways had already been designed by Government, business and third sector groups working in tandem. He went on to argue that the fundamental questions around skills needs to have users centred on them as top-down initiatives never work effectively. For example, he referenced the fact that debates around the transition to AI just don’t happen in most community centres or houses. Indeed, he suggested that McDonalds is the ‘centre of the universe’ for digital inclusion in the UK as it is a mass provider of reliable, free WIFI. This community and people centred approach should not be overlooked, he argued. He pointed out that inclusion pathways work best when they are localised with trusted faces and that we should all empower groups like the Good Things Foundation to let them do what they do best in local areas.
Chris continued by saying more coordination was needed under one system. He suggested that whilst the Digital Inclusion Framework is brilliant around policy related to access and outcomes, it doesn’t empower the end user enough with solutions catered to the benefit of the community. He also said that with some groups – such as those from lower socio-economic backgrounds, those in isolation, the disabled, the vulnerable and neuro-diverse people – there is a worry that they only engage with services if they are led by local government. He shared his concern that this means official statistics underestimate the extent of exclusion on a national scale.
Beena Puri from the Greater Manchester Authority agreed with Chris that currently the role of local authorities is being ignored by national policymakers. She said that, despite local authorities gaining more power to utilise – for example over adult education budgets & programmes which map digital skills provision with local needs – regional needs are largely overlooked at a national policy level.
Addressing the room, Lord Kamall offered all attendees the opportunity to work alongside the House of Lords Digital and Communications Committee because part of their remit is to empower community organisations delivering inclusion programmes.
Leigh Smyth from We Are Group then asked Saqib Bhatti MP what kind of systems-based approach is needed to ensure digital inclusion is implemented effectively.
Freddie Quek, Chair of the BCS Digital Divide Specialist Group, agreed with Leigh and Beena and pointed out that the Government’s existing design of solutions are not fit for purpose currently. He added that there is a need to focus on those who don’t have access to online Government services at all.
Answering the questions from the room, Saqib Bhatti MP agreed there is lots of work to do at a policy level, and assured attendees that the Government is not just giving themselves a pat on the back. He added that he appreciates the work of the Good Things Foundation in their community led approach, because it caters for the fact that each Government Department has different procurement contracts – and thus different levels of output. To answer Emma Stone’s question, he said work is being done in the Treasury on device donation schemes. He also told attendees that on AI more broadly, the Digital Skills Council is doing a lot for the digitally excluded. For example, he had come across one lady who was in temporary employment who now works in cyberspace at BAE systems after she retrained through the Digital Skills Council. Concluding that he would love to return to the APPG, he added that investment in skills is going up to £3.5bn in the next year and that the scope of the Government’s skills agenda was being broadened substantially.
Julia Chippendale, Head of Business Development at We Are Group agreed with Emma Stone over the statutory entitlement for skills not going far enough in the digital area. She added that digital poverty is the flipside of digital inclusion. Being in digital poverty, she argued, can have disastrous consequences around access to online banking and welfare for example. On the point of AI, Julia noted that it's out of reach and scary to far too many people. To this end, she spoke of a desperate need to cut through the complexity of AI and design pathways, so everyone has same route to inclusion. She then pointed out that while we should coordinate services better under one system with better integration, there should be one larger national vision which provides multiple solutions. Whilst she admitted that it’s difficult to convene diverse advocacy groups, she argued that there enough stakeholders in the APPG to cut through this issue and pioneer new solutions that empower local communities.
Matt Warman MP then briefly invited those attendees who hadn't spoken yet to say their thoughts. He first introduced Emma Weston from Digital Unite.
Emma Weston said there is a lack of strategic leadership from the Government on the issue of prioritising end user’s needs. She added that the cross ministerial group –who had been created to work on the issue - had only met three times.
Lord Kamall noted his full agreement with agreement with Emma and suggested Government positioning on the issue hasn’t been refreshed at all in years. Alongside Lord Lipsey, he then offered the group the chance to submit written questions through him to Ministers.
Leigh Smyth from We Are Group argued that Scotland is a good example to follow in this instance as third-party influence is generally limited. Additionally, she noted her support for the recent move in Scotland to set up a Digital Inclusion Alliance across all departments to coordinate all policy, funding, customer experience decisions.
Referring back to Julian Ashworth’s comments on the hard to reach 7%, Professor Simeon Yates said the discussion had so far ignored the plethora of reasons why this group is isolated. He added that they are not online due complex issues such as chronic illness, poverty and vulnerability – all have which have become engrained societally. He ended by saying a digital skills deficiency complicates the issue further - referencing recent surveys which found that 59% of people don’t have the essential skills for their work .
Paul Finnis from Unconnected concluded participant contributions noting that the organisations need to de-silo campaigning efforts and increase coordination.
Matt Warman MP agreed. He pointed to the APPG’s State of the Nation Report as the best place to ensure that de-siloed, united message. Matt then thanked attendees for coming to the meeting and suggested that the collective power of everyone in room going to government with one voice was stronger than ever.