News tagged 'digital inclusion'

In recent years, there has been a steady shift in local and central government towards the use of behavioural change techniques in marketing and communications in order to achieve outcomes. Both public and private sector organisations are increasingly using social marketing techniques to achieve positive behavioural change results on issues like healthy eating, getting online or saving energy.

A good marketing and communications campaign will begin to persuade target audiences to think about changing their habits, but some audience segments can be more resistant to change or may be difficult to reach through traditional communications campaigns alone. For example, despite a wide range of initiatives to encourage people to use the internet, many people who do get online still only use it for a small number of activities and not, as the behaviour change aim intends, to access services and benefits and integrating ‘being online’ into daily activities. How do we ensure that we engage these audiences in a meaningful way that creates sustainable changes in behaviour?

Delivered alongside a wider marketing campaign, outreach could help to reach and engage those people who are not responding to the campaign – for example, if metrics show there is a lower response in certain postcode areas or amongst particular groups. As part of the campaign around the switch to digital TV, outreach programmes were used alongside their other communications tools to engage six specific audience groups identified in research as more likely to struggle with this change, and provide practical and personal support to enable them to take action.

Our experience of delivering outreach has found that one of the most effective ways of achieving behaviour change outcomes is to engage the voluntary and community sector to reach the target audience. This is driven by needs on the ground at a very local level, harnessing organisations which have the knowledge about what works within individual communities to really engage them.  In this way, someone known and trusted by the audience can convey the message face to face. In a recent project to raise awareness about breast cancer amongst women over 70, this made people sit up and take notice of the campaign message:

“Being given the information when you are just sat comfortably and relaxed, you tend to absorb more, you take more in… We’re not afraid to ask questions. We all know each other and we’re not afraid to ask things we want to know - even if they’re a bit more intimate… To be honest if I get a leaflet through the letterbox very often I’m quite annoyed and I think “Oh, some more rubbish,” whereas being spoken to personally, we all listen – it’s as though it’s delivered personally to you.” – Lily, Bainbridge Hall

Tapping in to peer to peer communication and social norms is very important in effecting behaviour change - for every person reached directly, we reach at least two more through the message being cascaded on. When a message is delivered by a trusted voice, it is better received and people are more likely to act upon it: in our Get Connected, Get Online project to encourage older people to use the internet, 75% of participants reacted positively to the sessions when the session leader was known to the group, whereas only 15% reacted positively when the session leader was not known to them. This support from a ‘trusted voice’ can even inspire individuals to pass the message on to others – in the same project, 1 in 10 participants went on to teach someone else how to use the internet after attending a session themselves.

It is a difficult task to achieve sustainable behaviour change amongst people who face multiple barriers to making that change.  Our outreach model gives an opportunity to provide longer term support for people’s on-going journey towards that change. The ‘Get Connected, Get Online’ digital inclusion project, for example, involved training session leaders and the sessions were integrated into existing regular activities and events. This embedded the knowledge and support within those groups so that participants know where further support is available. This longer-term support will be critical to encouraging people to take up many of the services which will be offered online and do more than just use Skype to talk to their grandchildren.

As well as helping to change attitudes and behaviours that have economic and social costs, outreach can improve corporate image by demonstrating a meaningful commitment and social responsibility to communities. This is especially important at a time when funding to many voluntary and community sector organisations is being cut. The financial investment and training brings vital lifeblood to some of these organisations which in turn sustains the sector, builds capacity and strengthens networks.  It is a clear commitment to the most vulnerable households in ensuring they don’t get left behind.

For more information about how outreach can add value to your social marketing campaign, please click here to read more about how it works or watch our short film for the views of commissioners, voluntary and community sector organisations and target groups on outreach.

Ellen Helsper, London School of Economics

Is the UK a digital leader?  Or are we leaving behind the most vulnerable members of our society?  As many services become digital by default, we risk  excluding those who need services the most. 

It’s time for a rethink. Policies and initiatives that take digital by default as a starting point ignore the complexity of the field they manoeuvre in. Worse, they carry a real danger that a large part of the population will become digitally excluded by default. That should not be acceptable in a country that wants to be Europe’s information society frontrunner.

As the government plans to make public services ‘digital by default’ these individuals will be unable to access them, not because of a lack of infrastructure but because of a lack of effective take-up of the available connections.

As the Race Online initiative comes to an end, circa 24% of the UK population remains digitally excluded of which about half is also deeply socially excluded.  Continued focus on rolling out superfast broadband is ensuring that many more of us are able to benefit from high quality infrastructure.  These technological improvements are being supported by promotion of employment-related digital skills.  However, initiatives are being driven outside the social, cultural, educational and political sphere which provide the critical context in delivering real engagement with, and benefit from, the internet.

Those who need access to services most, from where the biggest cost savings of making services digital are supposed to come, are the least likely to take these up online, even when access to the internet is available.

This can be partly explained by examining reasons for not being online, evidenced by a significant shift over the last 7 years: in 2005 only 50% of non-users indicated a lack of interest as a reason for not being online, while in 2011 disinterest was a reason for 88% of non-users. Simultaneously, the other reasons (lack of access, costs being too high and lack of skills) did not decrease significantly in importance (69%, 44% and 78% respectively in 2011 versus 68%, 52% and 74% in 2005). Source: Non-users of internet (Oxford Internet Survey Data 2005 – 2011)

There is now a much higher proportion of non-users who are excluded for compound reasons.  The policy implications for this are that initiatives and interventions that focus on providing access are less effective in 2011 than they were in 2005. While in 2005 organisations that provided training might have been able to ‘lure’ people into their centres by offering free computer use and free digital skills classes, this offer is now less likely to sufficiently motivate those who are excluded to engage with the internet and online services.

The digital by default policy implicitly assumes that once services and content are online, people will (have to) use them and that, at the point of ubiquitous and uniform access, the level of take up will be equivalent for everyone. If this assumption is wrong, the policy is likely to be costly both in economic and social terms. Those currently excluded lack not only high quality access but are also less motivated and skilled individuals and are therefore unlikely to take full advantage of the range of opportunities available online. Extra support for a group of individuals who need services the most will be needed if aspects of inclusion other than infrastructure and skills are not built into digital inclusion policies.

This is not the first time this argument has been made, but the changing landscape, in which the digitally excluded have become more entrenched in their exclusion and are facing multiple, cumulative barriers to exclusion unlike those faced by previous generations of digitally excluded individuals, means that the argument needs to be made even more forcefully than before.  It is incumbent upon government and local authorities to ensure that the digitization of services does not leave our most vulnerable members of society behind.  Provision must be made to provide motivation and support to engage those with multiple barriers in the digital world and to ensure that those who do not engage are not marginalized further in our society.

Ian Agnew, Digital Outreach

Digital Outreach has been providing support to (mostly older or disabled) people to engage with digital technology for more than four years now, primarily through our outreach work for the digital TV switchover and Switchover Help Scheme, but also through digital inclusion initiatives, helping older people to learn about the internet. Of course, we are a small part of a very big effort from a lot of charities, businesses and public sector bodies to promote digital inclusion and to help get the remaining 8 million people to go online in a meaningful way.

There is a growing push for public services to become “digital by default”; meaning that the primary way to access information and services will be online – whether it is claiming benefits (the new Universal Credit will be accessible solely online), renewing car tax or making a complaint. Commercial services and products are also increasingly available primarily online – insurance services, gas and electricity tariffs, train tickets – although consumer pressure is likely to keep other channels, such as call centres, going.

There are a number of issues that come to mind when thinking about the approach to getting non-internet users online.

There is still disparity in views on the statistics, with some academics estimating up to 24% of the population are still offline with 12% deeply excluded. As this number reduces (slowly), those remaining will become increasingly difficult to reach. They will include the very socially isolated, the very poor and marginalised in society and the “refuseniks”. It will be necessary to disaggregate these groups, devising strategies to get them online that are tailored around the specific barriers that each group faces. Just talking about a single group of 8 million will not work.  

At the moment, and for some years to come, public service providers have to keep multiple “offline” channels open for those not online – call centres, printed materials, staffed local offices and so on. The time will come when these offline channels may be totally withdrawn; the question is, when this will be? At what point do we as a society, and public service providers in particular, draw the line? When we are at 2 million, one million not online?

There is the important issue of security for those going online. The more that people are pressured into using the internet to access services, buy goods and so on, the more vulnerable they become to fraudsters. This also raises the question of how we define whether a person is online or not. There are millions of people who “use” the internet, but who may never actually transact through it. They never enter personal details or use a credit card online. There is a fear factor around this. Browsing information is one thing, but pushing the Enter button once you have typed in personal or bank details is another thing altogether. Yet this is exactly what is needed to achieve the ‘digital by default’ agenda. People will need to transact with service providers through the web, not simply look up information and then use it to fill in paper forms.

Finally, we need to think about how we persuade people to want to use the internet and educate them on how to use it. I think that one the first things we should work on is freeing up the internet from PCs. It’s daunting enough getting used to a new way of accessing information and services, but to also have to master a computer, keyboard, mouse, operating system and so on, doubles the challenge. With the new wave of mobile computing – tablets, smart phones, interactive TV, video consoles – that can be used to access the web, we need to get more imaginative about how we help and support people to use these. We need to get better at taking the internet to the people, not just insisting that they sign up to a class or go to where the computers are (usually in a library or community centre). We need to get better at embracing the various technologies out there and making it as easy as possible for people to access them. And we need to take the jargon out of the language we use; de-mystifying the web for those we are encouraging to access it.

We will get there, but it will be a long journey.



In March 2012, the House of Lords Select Committee on Communications called for evidence from interested organisations and individuals on the Government’s superfast broadband strategy. Digital Outreach responded to the call for evidence, alongside other public and private sector organisations such as Arqiva, BT, Vodafone and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. Our submission focused on the need for social as well as technological aspects to be considered when developing and implementing strategies for the roll-out of superfast broadband.

The Select Committee has now published the evidence, which you can download from their website. 

In March, three more transmitter groups in the Meridian TV region switched to digital – Midhurst, Whitehawk Hill and Rowridge.

Lead organisations Action in Rural Sussex, Community Action Hampshire and Age Concern Isle of Wight ran 12 advice points over 4 days during the two stages of switchover. Friendly, knowledgeable staff and volunteers, together with colleagues from Digital Outreach and Carillion, helped over 1,500 people with enquiries, giving them reassurance and practical support.

A big thank you to all the staff and volunteers who helped support so many people, and congratulations to the lead organisations on organising such a fantastic set of advice points.

The photo above shows Mrs Ayles practising re-tuning with volunteer Rowena Tyler at the Chichester advice point.

Here are a couple of stories from the advice points.

‘B’ is thrilled with support received

'B' was having problems with her TV, and her friend recommended that she pop down to the advice point, as she had been in herself the day before and said the team had been very helpful.

Hollie Watson (Community Action Hampshire) sat with B while she explained what her problem was. She had brought her remote control with her to show what buttons she had been pressing and talked Hollie and the volunteer through
what she thought she had to do, but she said nothing was working. She had mentioned that as she was on the verge of paying someone to come and do it for her as she was convinced she was doing something wrong!

One of the volunteers supporting the Romsey Advice Point, Roger, is also an Age Concern volunteer and had been conducting home visits to help people with re-tuning and other things around the home. He could see that B was quite distressed and offered to go home with her to do the re-tune. The volunteer wrote down very clear instructions for B, and when the second stage of switchover came, she was able to re-tune by herself.

B was thrilled. She had worked as a volunteer herself in the past and appreciated the support she had been given so much that after the switchover, she sent a letter to of thanks to Hollie to thank Roger, saying “I cannot tell you how much I appreciated his help and time, given so generously”.

Roger gets advice so he can help re-tune friends' TVs

Roger visited the Lymington Advice Point to enquire about the help he had given to a friend in adjusting and re-tuning her televisions. He had managed the main TV, but was baffled by the second. A different brand of television make and range of cables had confused him; he eventually found the re-tuning menu but was unable to complete the process even though he had tried several times.

Asking Roger a few questions, the advice point staff found that his friend had a main TV aerial and a separate Sky dish which was acting as an aerial for the second TV. The team suggested that Roger could look to see if it was possible to connect the TV using a normal aerial cable and connectors and then convert it with a digibox. They reassured Roger that he could also phone Digital UK if he needed further advice. Roger was very enthused and said he wanted to try and do it himself and would come back and let the team know.

Roger returned at the end of the day to share his success – just as the team were helping their last customer of the day, who turned out to be another friend of Roger’s! This lady had been in twice before about re-tuning and had been unsuccessful – so he offered to help her too.