The role of councils in tackling digital exclusion
Recognising that digital exclusion remains an important issue for many local communities and in the delivery of council services, the Local Government Association commissioned DMS Research and Consulting to explore the links between various types of disadvantage and the availability and usage of digital infrastructure, and to consider the role of councils in tackling digital exclusion.
The research itself comprised of two parts. First, the Ofcom Connected Nations datasets for coverage (fixed broadband and mobile) and for performance (fixed broadband) were combined with several socio-economic datasets to explore the correlations between thousands of pairs of connectivity and socio-economic variables and how connectivity has changed over time.
Following this a series of consultations were conducted with a range of organisations including the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT), Building Digital UK (BDUK), the Digital Connectivity Forum, Good Things Foundation, Bolsover District Council, Devon County Council, Gloucestershire County Council, Leeds City Council, Norfolk County Council and Nottinghamshire County Council. The discussions explored the role that councils can play in tackling digital exclusion and how central government could better support and leverage councils in this.
Drawing on the study’s findings from the quantitative analysis of the links between digital infrastructure and disadvantage and the qualitative findings from consultations, the following recommendations for the Government, for the LGA and for councils have been developed:
For the UK Government:
It is widely recognised that tackling digital exclusion effectively can make an important contribution to various national policy objectives, including improving economic activity rates, improving the efficiency of public service delivery, reducing pressures on the health and social care system and improving health outcomes, and widening the pool of talent available to digital industries.
However, it is an issue that spans several different departments and it is not currently clear who, if anyone, at ministerial and senior officer level has responsibility for coordinating the UK Government’s approach. Clarifying this leadership would be helpful in ensuring that the resources applied to digital inclusion efforts are used as effectively and efficiently as possible.
The current UK Digital Inclusion Strategy dates from 2014 and does not now appear to be actively shaping local approaches. However, the fundamental nature of the barriers to digital inclusion are similar throughout the UK and national-level frameworks and guidance could and should play a part in optimising the effectiveness of digital inclusion initiatives.
Councils are well-placed to help tackle digital exclusion and are keen to continue playing a major role in doing so, but severe funding pressures make it difficult to protect non-statutory activities. They need support from central government to ensure that local digital inclusion initiatives are continued and enhanced.
A new framework could objectively assess and provide guidance on best practice in this area, for example in partnering approaches, how best to 0BThe role of councils in tackling digital exclusion A report to the Local Government Association 35 integrate digital inclusion with other local strategies, and how to leverage PSTN switch-off as a digital inclusion opportunity. Alongside national charities such as Good Things Foundation, it could also provide a means through which councils could easily draw on nationally-provided resources such as skills development materials, agreements with suppliers for software licensing on refurbished council equipment, special connectivity offers for disadvantaged groups etc.
Departments with an active interest in improving digital inclusion include Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) (e.g. in digital infrastructure coverage and take-up, and skills supply for digital industries), Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) (e.g. in improving the use of digital channels for access to health services, and exploiting telecare and telehealth), Department for Education (DfE) (e.g. in digital skills and resources for children and adults), Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) (e.g. in digital skills and resources for job-seekers and benefits claimants), Department for Levelling Up Housing and Communities (DLUHC) (e.g. in improving efficiency of council service delivery and council support for vulnerable groups), and Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) (e.g. in digital upskilling for small businesses).
Developing more explicit and effective mechanisms for coordinating departments’ efforts in these areas should help to reduce duplication and to improve the synergies between activities (for example ensuring that initiatives around improving access to devices and/or connectivity are complemented with help on digital skills).
For the LGA:
The LGA’s Digital Inclusion Network and the ADEPT digital connectivity working group already provide useful channels for sharing good practice between councils. However, there remains scope for ensuring that the information from events is disseminated as effectively as possible, and for engaging more people from more councils in digital inclusion knowledge sharing (potentially including the greater exploitation of interactive and searchable online collaboration tools such as channels on Slack or Microsoft Teams).
LGA provides access to many datasets relevant to councils through its LG Inform platform. We would suggest that the LGA should review what digital-related metrics are included in LG Inform (bearing in mind the quantitative analyses presented in section 2 of this report), consider whether a ‘Digital’ or ‘Digital Inclusion’ key topic should be introduced to make accessing digital-relevant metrics easier, and consider whether providing a visual depiction of a selected council’s position relative to its peers across a curated and normalised set of key metrics would be helpful (similar to Office for Health Improvement & Disparities’ local authority health profiles or the regional digital tech ecosystem box plots presented in a recent report for DCMS).
For councils:
In many councils there is no clear single lead on digital inclusion at cabinet and/or senior officer level. Where this is the case, clarifying this leadership would be helpful in driving forward the development of the council’s digital inclusion approach and in facilitating improved coordination in this area across the relevant directorates (see below).
In two-tier areas, councils should ensure that there is clear agreement on the respective roles for district and county councils regarding digital inclusion, and ensure effective information-sharing between the councils re their current and planned initiatives.
The development and maintenance of an explicit digital inclusion strategy (whether standalone, or as part of a wider digital strategy) can be helpful in stimulating discussions between council directorates and with external partners on areas of mutual interest, in ensuring that limited resources are targeted as effectively as possible on the area’s digital inclusion priorities, and in identifying and securing external funding.
Given the respective roles of the different types of councils we suggest that the development of such a strategy may best be led by county/unitary councils or combined authorities, while closely including district councils, Integrated Care Partnership stakeholders and other partners in the strategy development process.
The point was made in our consultations that digital inclusion efforts need to be woven through the core services of councils and their partners (including VCS organisations and Integrated Care Partnerships) for them to be truly sustainable. Critically, digital inclusion should be positioned as a means through which the intended outcomes of these partners and strategies can be better realised, rather than as another ‘ask’.
This should help identify opportunities for leveraging existing funding sources from various areas in tackling digital exclusion.
While improving digital inclusion is a priority, recognition also needs to be given in these strategies to the importance of ensuring that local services should not become impossible or very difficult to access for the minority who choose not to use the internet.
The front-line staff of councils and their VCS partners have day-to-day contact with people who may be digitally excluded, and initiatives to tackle digital exclusion can be woven into these interactions. However, this requires capacity-building to help staff recognise situations where digital exclusion may be an issue for a service user, and on how they could most effectively be helped.
Aspects of digital exclusion are typically being addressed to some extent in several different functional areas across a council, but there is not always much or any coordination between these, to optimise the effectiveness and efficiency of their collective efforts. As with our above recommendation re improved inter-departmental working at central government level, improved coordination and information-sharing across 0BThe role of councils in tackling digital exclusion A report to the Local Government Association 38 council directorates would help improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the delivery of digital inclusion activities.
Various relevant national-level resources are already offered by the Good Things Foundation, government departments, and industry players such as telecoms operators and equipment providers; and this study calls for the UK Government to develop a new framework with national-level guidance, resources and tools that support local digital inclusion initiatives. Councils should seek to ensure that they and their VCS partners are fully aware of what national-level resources are available to support digital inclusion, and that they leverage them appropriately. For example, councils could help raise awareness amongst eligible service users of the low-cost ‘social tariffs’ now available from many broadband providers.
