Councillor introduction to…digital inclusion and connectivity

On 20 January 2021, the LGA ran a session with a range of speakers on digital connectivity and inclusion. This webpage provides a range of resources relating to that event to help both those who attended at the time and those who didn't.

Connectivity

The scope of this issue

In many council areas a fundamental obstacle to maximising the potential of digital is quite simply connectivity– access to the internet.  This may be about citizen and business access to fast wired broadband or to mobile broadband eg 4G and, increasingly, 5G.  Some councils are seeking to level up their area in terms of access, whilst others who may have locational advantages are already connected and are seeking to use this to help differentiate their place as an attractive place to live or to do business.

In the session on the day we heard from a council – Wolverhampton – which is at the leading edge of this, and also heard from DCMS who with their barrier-busting work are seeking to support all councils to do what they can to improve connectivity in their area.  Because it’s clear that councils do play a role, either as significant investors of resources or time on behalf of their place or by removing some of the friction that providers of connectivity find, from time to time.

Of course, connectivity is no good if people can’t afford it, or don’t know how to make use of it – that’s an issue which we’ll go on to explore in the Digital Inclusion part of this resource pack.

 

Connectivity case example: Wolverhampton

Councillor Momenabadi, Digital Champion at Wolverhampton spoke about her council’s journey in connectivity

This is the video of councillor Momenabadi’s talk.

Note: Cllr Momenabadi used video at various points in the presentation which weren’t captured well in the screen recording: clearer access to those videos can be found in the slides which follow, either as links or as embedded video.

You may also be interested in the interview recording from this tweet in which Councillor Momenabadi addressed the issues of digital inclusion touched on in the last part of her presentation.

Full fibre Broadband

  •  Local full fibre network: Connecting public sector premises across Wolverhampton to a full fibre broadband network
  • Social housing fibre rollout: Trough use of non-exclusive wayleaves to enable rollout
  • Gigabit vouchers: £2,500 available and medium-sized enterprises

Wireless Connectivity

  • Smart infrastructure: Upgrading lampposts to run Smart technologies and facilitate the rollout of 5G small cell
  • WMCA Urban Connected Communities 5G: Facilitating the rollout of 5g across Wolverhampton including infrastructure acceleration and a testbed around construction

Cross cutting

  • Assets for technology: addressing barriers and maximising use of council assets for technology
  • Growing Wolverhampton’s digital economy, skills and inclusion: Maximising benefit from digital infrastructure to Wolverhampton’s businesses and residents

Importance of Digital

  • Covid-19 accelerated the adoption of digital services and is critical to level-up our economy to power economic and social recovery.
  • Driven by Digital cross cutting theme of Relighting the City recovery commitment and cross cutting theme of Scrutiny Panels
  • However lessons learnt from online delivery during COVID are likely to continue to influence how services are delivered going forward with some services continuing to be delivered electronically.
  • To maximise benefit, we need to tackle the digital divide, improve digital skills, support businesses to digitalise and introduce technology to support the delivery of services.
  • View the Wolves business video 

Update on Infrastructure Rollout

  • Significant progress has been made including successful bid for Local Full Fibre Network funding to connect 170 public buildings across Wolverhampton.  The commercial rollout of full fibre broadband is also underway supported by barrier busting activity.
  • Working with WM5G, Wolverhampton has introduced new systems in place to support the rollout including identifying suitable assets viable for telecoms uses, agreeing a commercial model to facilitate the rollout and improving access arrangements.
  • West Midlands has the best 5G coverage of all the regions with Wolverhampton’s proactive approach accelerating deployment of 5G by 6 months including the UK’s first 5G mast.
  • The Councillor Digital Innovation Champion has played a key role in addressing misinformation about 5G during the first lockdown

Future opportunities

  • The rollout of futureproofed digital infrastructure opens up some exciting opportunities in the delivery of services across a range of different areas:
  • A local GP and care home are participating in a 5G Care Home Project offering video consultation, diagnostic tools and capturing vital sign information to allow for early identification of issues.
  • The City will be home to one of three 5prinG Application Accelerators offering cutting-edge facilities and expertise helping public and private companies to understand 5G, its applications and support to unlock its potential.
  • The City has set up a Digital Wolverhampton Partnership involving the Council, University and NHS Trust to drive forward this agenda and explore innovative service delivery.

Connectivity case example: Councillor's role in addressing digital inclusion

During the first lockdown, a number of schools reported that less than half of their pupils had a device and/or connectivity.  Others reported that pupils lacked suitable devices or had restricted access due to sharing devices.

Ward Councillors have donated ward funds to fund connectivity and devices for children forced to self-isolate.

A plea to telecoms companies led to the donation of 100 BT Hotspot Vouchers.

National Expertise: Connectivity

Richard Maddock, from the Barrier Busting team, at DCMS spoke about the work of the team, resources available to councils and the role that councillors can play to speed up connectivity in their area, especially around planning considerations, use of council land and property, and highways.

This is a video of Richard Maddock’s talk.  The slides he used follow in this pack.

Barrier Busting Task Force

Who are we?

The Barrier Busting Task Force addresses the issues which slow or prevent the deployment of connectivity; focusing on legislative and non-legislative solutions.

Currently addressing six key challenges:

  1. Tackling property processes through simplification of wayleaves.
  2. Mandating gigabit-capable infrastructure in new build developments.
  3. Improving street works by improving compliance and coordination.
  4. Simplifying the planning process (through permitted development rights in England).
  5. Ensuring the Electronic Communications Code is fit for purpose.
  6. Enabling easier access of public assets for mobile infrastructure

Working with numerous governmental and non-governmental bodies.

Your role as Councillors

Councils play a vital role in the Government’s target of nationwide availability of gigabit broadband as soon as possible.

Councillors can work with their highways, planning, estates and legal teams to drive broadband deployment. Ensuring that these teams work towards an agreed goal will bring about the benefits of connectivity faster.

The Barrier Busting Task Force actively supports councils, both directly and through the Local Government Association, to promote best practice and understanding of roll out.

Local authority guidance can be found on our Digital Connectivity Portal.

Highways

  • Government delivered significant reform to street works in 2020:

    - 4th edition of the Specification for the Reinstatement of Openings in Highways released in May 2020.

    - Street Manager launched in July 2020.
  • Reforms to continue throughout 2021 - incl. Openreach and Sheffield CC flexi-permit trial.
  • Councils should also follow the principles set out in the street works toolkit, in addition to COVID-specific guidance from HAUC and JAG.
  • We are working with both industry and highway authorities to improve coordination and compliance.

Electronic Communications Code (ECC)

  • The Electronic Communications Code (the Code) regulates the legal relationships between electronic communications operators and site providers, including local authorities, to support the rollout and maintenance of digital infrastructure.
  • The Code sets out how statutory rights to deploy infrastructure can be obtained, and how and when they can be exercised. Exercising these rights is normally subject to an agreement between site providers and operators.
  • The public sector should lead by example, and local councils can play a vital role by:

    - Making their land and assets readily available for digital deployment;

    - Engaging collaboratively with operators when they request rights to access or use public sector assets;

    - Progressing these requests quickly, efficiently and in line with the legislative framework and public policy;

    - Negotiating agreements in line with guidance available on the Digital Connectivity Portal.

Planning

  • Government published its response to the in-principle consultation on proposed reforms to permitted development rights in July 2020.
  • The response stated that Government intends to take forward the in-principle proposals consulted on to:

    - Enable the deployment of radio equipment housing on land without requiring prior approval up to specified limits;

    - Strengthen existing masts up to specified limits without prior approval;

    - Enable the deployment of building-based masts nearer to highways subject to prior approval and specified limits;

    - Enable higher new masts subject to prior approval and specified limits.
  • Preparing the technical consultation on these proposed reforms, and expect to publish in early 2021.
  • Updating the Mobile Code of Best Practice.

Connectivity: discussion, resources and summary

Discussion

  • There was Q&A in each of the sessions and a breakout group discussion on this topic.
  • The most significant theme which emerged in a number of questions was the issue of connectivity in rural areas in particular.  DCMS indicated that this was priority for future attention for them and pointed delegates at the Digital Connectivity Portal which is intended to be the key help resource for local authorities.
  • Another theme was the siting of 5G masts, with concerns that there is not enough mast sharing between operators.  The role of the planning authority was key here with resources in the digital connectivity portal.

Key Resources: Connectivity

The DCMS Digital Connectivity Portal, which contains, amongst many other resources:

Other resources include:

Summary: Some Questions to Consider Asking

  • Do we have a detailed understanding of the level of connectivity in our area and an assessment of the impact of no/poor connectivity?
  • Do we have an explicit strategy for ensuring connectivity? Does it include
    • Commercial alliances
    • Relevant planning policies
    • Relevant highways policies for eg broadband street works
    • Use of public buildings and land eg for masts
    • Ensuring legal teams have the skills and capacity to engage rapidly with these issues?
    • Keeping policies up to date in line with new legislation and best practice?
  • How are we managing stakeholders such as providers like BT, Vodafone etc, or local businesses and communities in need of reliable connectivity?
  • Is the council consciously deciding on the priority of new initiatives made possible by new forms of connectivity (eg 5G) in its own work or work with partners?
  • Is there a cabinet member with specific responsibility for this (amongst other things)?
  • Is it clear which scrutiny committee owns this as an issue for attention?

Digital inclusion

The scope of this issue

People are digitally excluded if they don’t have connectivity – see the first part of this resources pack – but they can also be excluded for reasons of poverty, an inability to connect to the broadband outside their street, lack of devices, lack of knowledge or a specific skill shortage.

This is an important issue for councils not only because it will prevent people from accessing the council services in lower cost ways but because more fundamentally a lack of digital skills can limit peoples’ work ambitions, and so the economic strength of the area, and it may also prevent people from securing cheaper services that are often “online only”.

In this session we heard a national expert, Catherine Mills, from the Good Things Foundation, a charity which undertakes a considerable amount of work in this area, working with local authorities and a case study from Cllr Kate Butler, from Stockport MBC.

National Expertise: Digital Inclusion

Catherine Mills, Head of Digital Social Inclusion at the Good Things Foundation  (a social change charity which helps people to improve their lives through digital) spoke about the scale and importance of this issue, and gave some pointers to advice and support, and examples of good practice.

This is a video of Catherine Mills’s talk.  The slides she used follow in this pack.

The Benefits

Boost the Economy

  • Skills: Recent polling shows 65% of adults agree that keeping their digital skills up to date is important for their future.
  • Jobs: Access new employment opportunities; search for new jobs; digital skills for current jobs. Manual workers with high digital skills earn around £2,160 more a year than those in the same jobs with low digital skills.
  • Economy: £14.80 return for each £1 invested in basic digital skills.

Health and Wellbeing

  • Better access to health services: Access essential online information and services for health, including online consultations with GPs, and accessing up-to-date health information
  • Mental wellbeing and reduced loneliness: Connection to other people and communities. 87% said the internet helped them connect better with friends and family, 55% said it made them feel more part of a community. 44% said being online helped them to manage physical and mental well-being.

Levelling up opportunity

  • Public services: Equality of access to high quality public services.
  • Equality: Digital exclusion affects the same geographies and same demographics of people who feel left behind. Action on digital inclusion will support levelling up.

Three steps to fix the digital divide

  1. Our Great Digital Catch Up: £130m over 4 years, alongside support from businesses, so that every village, town and city has a trusted place to get support with digital inclusion. Let’s help 4.5 million more people across the digital divide, fire up the post-COVID economy and level up opportunity. 75% of adults agreed that every community in the UK needs a place where people can visit to get help with Internet skills, such as how to do online banking, how to access online education.

     
  2. A Data Poverty Lab: Recognise internet access as an essential utility, like electricity. Commission people with lived experience, design thinkers, digital inclusion and industry innovators to codesign solutions - exploring ideas from social prescribing to data donating. Let’s pilot a Gigabit-Giveabit scheme to channel public generosity through donating unused data. 61% said internet access should be recognised as an essential utility, like electricity; and 47% of adults said they would donate unused data to low income families, according to data from a new public poll.

     
  3. A Digital Strategy for everyone so we continue to lead the world, leaving nobody behind. Let’s make digital inclusion a social priority. Embed digital inclusion into financial, health and government public services. Improve metrics and establish a better baseline - informed by the people - of what we need to live in a digital society. 80% felt digital technology was a vital support to them in lockdown; and 78% said the pandemic had escalated the importance of digital skills.

Digital Inclusion and Local Authorities

What we have learnt from these projects

  1. The importance of working in partnership with community organisations
  2. Embedding digital inclusion into interventions and activities
  3. Community ownership of the project
  4. Digital Champions

What can you do?

Strategic and place-shaping role

  • Advocacy/influencing for digital access & inclusion
  • ‘Essential Digital Skills’ entitlement - adult informal learning
  • Embed digital inclusion in your strategic plans , e.g. health, jobs, ageing well
  • Create local ‘ecosystems’ of support which value community organisations
  • Increasing free WiFi across your areas

Community Networks

  • Encourage your community organisations to  join the ‘online centres’ network

    - Free to join; access free resources, peer support, webinars, guides etc

    - Access to Learn My Way and Make it Click

Organisation level

  • Investing in your staff and volunteers (not assuming they have the digital access, skills and confidence they need now)

Digital inclusion case example: Stockport

Councillor Kate Butler, Cabinet Member for Citizen Focus and Engagement spoke about her council’s work in this area since April 2018.

View Councillor Butler’s presentation

In her presentation she mentions a video showing  a particular resident. View the video of the resident’s story.

DigiKnow – Stockport’s Digital Inclusion Movement

  • The Digital Inclusion Alliance, or DigiKnow, was formed in April 2018 - an innovative collaboration with the UK’s leading digital inclusion charity Good Things Foundation and local organisations (Starting Point Community Partnership, Stockport Homes and The Prevention Alliance, libraries, community groups and businesses)
  • Aims to build a sustainable ‘movement’ for digital inclusion - digital support and skills delivered through established trusted community groups who are already providing social support and will continue to build digital skills long-term.
  • The people most likely to be digitally excluded are typically those less likely to engage with adult learning due to specific barriers such as financial difficulties, health and disability issues, language barriers or social isolation. By using our ‘trusted faces in local places’ we have a greater chance of engaging these hard to reach groups. 
  • Together we have already helped over 9,000 residents to get online and develop their digital confidence and we now have approx 40 partners made up of voluntary sector organisations, public sector and local businesses all helping to join up the message, and provide a link to digital support whether it be motivation, skills or access to equipment.

Digital Inclusion Pathway

We've created a digital inclusion pathway to show where this work fits in with the government's Essential Digital Skills Framework

It’s important to recognise that many people don’t want to go into a formal setting if they don’t have digital skills. To target cohorts who we think are most likely to be excluded, we need to understand their barriers and then recognise that weaving digital into the social mission of local groups is a good way of influencing and helping harder to reach groups.  

The Digital Inclusion Pathway shows on a page:

  • our target cohorts
  • what their barriers are
  • where DigiKnow sits

It also shows the importance of having a pathway so that once we have helped people with their acute need, we can look at progressing them on through the framework via signposting them to further formal or individual learning to develop the specialist digital skills that meet Stockport’s aspiration to have a thriving digital economy. 

Digital Inclusion – evolving our offer to meet need in COVID-19

COVID-19 exacerbated the digital divide. For people without internet access, lockdown and social isolation is so much harder:

  • An estimated 8,000 people in Stockport who were asked to shield, couldn’t use digital (based on national stats that suggests 1 in 6 not being online)
  • Schools put remote learning in place, but only accessible to those with a suitable device and connectivity
  • Community organisations had to close or shift to provide services online (libraries are this lockdown still open for pre-booked slots on their public computers)
  • Office workers needed to be connected to work from home
  • Many people who lost their job needed to improve their digital skills to search/apply for a new one online

All this seemed to be helping motivate potential new digital users so Stockport’s DigiKnow Response focused on two key areas:

Providing digital skills support remotely

  • Set up a dedicated DigiKnow Helpline as an easy way for the less confident to call for help (run by our commissioned partner Starting Point)
  • Retrained our DigiKnow digital champions to offer support via the phone, zoom and screen sharing
  • new ‘help doing things online’ area created on our website with practical advice for anyone who wants to improve their digital skills or who can help others to get online for the first time
  • DigiKnow helped voluntary sector organisations to reach their most vulnerable clients by training them in the use of Zoom and other digital support techniques
  • Online webinars for businesses

Increasing access to digital devices and data

  • 67 4G tablets distributed to all 60 of Stockport’s care/ nursing homes and supported living schemes, to enable more frequent communication between residents and their families.
  • DigiKnow digital champions support to use the devices
  • 764 laptops provided by DfE were distributed by the council to care leavers, children with social workers and Y10 children in receipt of free school meals (a further 2000 will go directly to schools from DfE as part of 2nd and 3rd waves)
  • Funding provided by our council Stockport Local Fund for Starting Point to set up Stockport’s first Digital Device Library – 120 devices loaned so far, providing device, data where needed and digital skills support (after loan period ends provide help to where to find a low cost suitable device)
  • Just setting up an exciting scheme now to recycle used council devices and by harvesting parts they can maintain digital library stock and refurbish devices to provide low-cost laptops to people on benefits.  We’ve provided a small amount of seed funding to the local Stockport-based charity called Renewal Northwest and will promote the scheme to businesses so they get a ready supply on donated devices to recycle
  • Joined Hubbub and 02 Community Calling scheme to distribute 50 smart phones to those fleeing domestic abuse and persecution
  • DigiKnow (Starting Point) worked with national charities including DevicesDotNow to distribute 18 tablets to families and older people (like Florence Mable in Bredbury short video) and with 02’s Connect 2020 and Age UK Stockport to distribute 27 smartphones to elderly Stockport residents  

Case Studies

  • Contact family: Jay – borrowed a tablet and data sim card from DigiKnow Library to keep in touch with her daughter in America
  • Look for work: Reza – borrows a laptop to apply for jobs as since lockdown, he and his whole family have shared one pay as you go phone between them
  • Improve wellbeing: Audrey – borrowed a tablet and with help from digital champion has started an online wellbeing course and is building her digital skills
  • Do schoolwork: Sarah – borrowed 2 laptops from DigiKnow as her children were struggling to complete their schoolwork to complete their schoolwork on a smartphone
  • Manage Universal Credit: John – borrowed a tablet to update his Universal Credit journal, apply for jobs and check his emails. He already has a job interview
  • View Mable’s story

The Members’ role

  • Using online services can be a challenge for some Members, just as it is for some residents. A sign of how far we’ve come is that since the pandemic, Council meetings are now held completely online
  • In order to help someone you first need to help yourself.  From the start of our digital transformation programme Members were asked what they needed to support them. There were bite-size sessions before council meetings so we didn’t have to go out of our way to see demos of digital solutions, briefings, aide memoires, toolkits and all Members are encouraged to ask for training if needed. As information is constantly changing, particularly during COVID, we get regular updates from officers on what support is available via the council website, what’s open and closed etc
  • We are ‘Super Users’ of council services and often act as a ‘front door’ to services. We can act on the resident’s behalf, but we should be digital champions, encouraging people to try to find information and services online if they have the means to do so
  • Even if you aren't confident enough yourself to help residents do things online, knowing where to signpost them to get help with their digital skills is vitally important (aide memoire)
  • We also have a role to play in growing the DigiKnow movement. We can use our contacts in the community to get organisations to sign up as a DigiKnow partner and have a proforma to make it simple to do this
  • Ongoing scrutiny – Members provide checks on direction and impact. During COVID we’ve reviewed the PPRA metrics – making sure we’re still measuring what matters and reflecting the change in performance stats to make sure it’s still relevant (number of individual supported, number of digital champions, number of orgs part of DigiKnow – but also getting casestudies to show impact and gathering insight so right help can be given in the right place)
  • Mine is a portfolio dedicated to Citizen Focus but all Members are the eyes, ears and voice of the residents and can provide feedback that will help the council redesign services through the eyes of those using it, in line with our user-centred design approach.

Top tips

  • Connectivity - connect with your business and VCSE communities and wider partners in your locality
  • Sustainability - use your community to help deliver and use seed funding to create a movement

Contact Details

  • If you want to find out more about the DigiKnow movement in Stockport and some of the wider issues affecting all of us, take a look at our blog at digitalstockport.info/di
  • Or if you’ve got any questions or any suggestions for ways we could collaborate and help each other get in touch with me by email or Twitter!
  • Digital Stockport's website
  • [email protected]
  • Twitter - @cllrkatebutler

Digital inclusion: discussion, resources and summary

Discussion

  • There was Q&A in each of the sessions and a breakout group discussion on this topic.
  • There was considerable interest in the Stockport MBC journey and how it had started.  Cllr Butler indicated that it has started in 2014 with a scrutiny review of digital exclusion which made the connections between exclusion, health and finances.  A body of work began from that which incorporated outside expert help.
  • A further point was made, reflecting on experiences of remote working over the pandemic, that a move to make remote involvement in council meetings better established in law and practice would have a positive impact on the diversity of potential councillors.

Key Resources

From Good Things Foundation

Resources to understand Digital Inclusion and its impact:

Practical Information and resources

Examples of Digital Inclusion Projects in partnership with Local Authorities

Other resources include:

Summary: Some Questions to Consider Asking

  • Do we have a detailed understanding of the impact of digital inclusion in our area?
  • Do we have an explicit strategy for digital inclusion?  Does it include
    • Web accessibility
    • Access to devices
    • Access to training and support
    • Connectivity

And does it go beyond simply thinking about access to the council’s own web services?

  • How are our services provided for those still digitally excluded and what are we doing to help them learn the skills to use our digital channels?
  • Which community groups are active in our area who are or could be a part of the solution to resolving digital inclusion?
  • Do our staff have an understanding of the problems encountered by the digitally excluded?
  • Do all of our staff have the right level of digital skills, themselves?
  • Is digital inclusion embedded in relevant strategies such as health, ageing well, employment, skills
  • Is there a cabinet member with specific responsibility for this (amongst other things)?
  • Is it clear which scrutiny committee owns this as an issue for attention?