News tagged 'digital outreach'

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.

The Hannington transmitter was the first in the Meridian TV region to switch to digital this year, with many households in Hampshire, Berkshire and Surrey being able to receive digital TV for the first time.

Lead organisation Community Action Hampshire organised advice points in easy to access community venues in Basingstoke, Andover, Newbury and Alton. They were held over four days – two at stage one of the switchover and two a fortnight later at the second stage.

Over the two switchover dates, staff and volunteers gave help and reassurance to over 550 people. Most of the enquiries were about re-tuning, equipment and TV signal, and the advice point staff did a great job of building people’s confidence, with several people coming back to the advice point delighted to report they had managed to re-tune successfully!  

Thanks to everyone who put in so much hard work during the first switchover of the year – here are some of the stories from the four days.

Mrs Pruden – Blue Onion cafe, Andover

Mrs Pruden, a grandmother in the Andover area, visited the advice point at the Blue Onion cafe on the first day of switchover.  The next day, she came back to the cafe and told staff that she had managed to re-tune her TV herself by following the advice they had given.

Later, Mrs Pruden received a call from her son, whose son had said to him: "Dad, I think you should call Granny as she has no idea how to re-tune and we should drop round and do it for her". When Mrs Pruden told her son that she didn't need any help as she had sorted it out herself, he asked how she could possibly have done it. She said "The man at the Blue Onion told me what to do". She returned to the advice point two weeks later to tell the advice point staff of her delight at being able to show to her son and grandson that she was quite competent.

Christine -  Newbury Library

In early January, the Community Council for Berkshire (CCB) visited the Eight Bells for Mental Health Drop In as an end user event. The drop in provides a place for people with mental health issues to meet for lunch and activities.  It was at the end user event that CCB met Christine, who is 58 and mobile but has learning difficulties and mental health issues which cause her to feel anxious about change. She attends the Eight Bells for Mental Health drop in four days a week and finds it provides great support to her. Christine told CCB that she was very worried about the switchover but did not have her Help Scheme letter with her at the time. CCB advised her to come to the advice point, which she did.

Christine has a digital TV in her living room but an analogue one in her bedroom which needs converting. She brought her letter to the advice point and the staff rang the Help Scheme for her as she was nervous of doing so. They arranged for an engineer to visit on 14 February. Christine was delighted and thanked everyone.

‘Sandra’ – Basingstoke Library

One lady visitor, ‘Sandra’, who can hear but cannot speak, saw the advert in the local paper and came in to the advice point with her TV manual and a picture of her remote control. Because of her medical condition, Sandra had not been able to phone the advice lines and she didn’t have a textphone, so she had previously not been able to communicate with anyone about the switchover.  She wrote down her questions to the staff, and they spent as much time as was needed working through her queries. She was very pleased to have been able to get some help at the advice point, and went home to re-tune her TV.

Pat – Alton community centre

Pat, an older lady, came in to the advice point to ask about retuning her telly. She was quite upset and not feeling confident to do it on her own. The Advice Point team gave her demo on the TV and talked her through the re-tuning leaflet. A short while later, Pat returned and was upset because the instructions in the booklet didn’t work for her set-up. The team advised her to either come back to the advice point with the manual for her TV so they could write down the exact instructions, or phone Digital UK so they could talk her through the process while she was in front of her TV.

The team noticed that Pat had only gone as far as the bustling community centre café, where she stopped to talk to another visitor, the mother of Miranda who was the lady on reception. One of team spoke to Miranda about their concerns for Pat as they were unsure she could confidently manage on her own and to find out if there were any local volunteers who could help her. It turned out that Miranda’s mum is a friend of Pat’s and is always helping her out, and the team could hear her in the café telling Pat that it wasn’t that complicated and not to worry.

We are very pleased to be working with a fantastic set of well known and trusted organisations in the Tyne Tees TV region to make sure everyone gets the support they need to prepare for the digital TV switchover, which takes place in the region this September.

North Tyneside VODA, Wansbeck CVS, Age UK County Durham (pictured below), Tees Valley Rural Community Council and North Yorkshire and York Forum will be engaging local groups to support them to provide information and advice to end users. They will offer free training, access to a small grants scheme and free materials to local groups, enabling them to give advice to their end users at existing events and activities in the community about how to switch to digital TV and what help is available.

To reach people who don’t have contact with community groups and who are eligible for the Switchover Help Scheme, volunteers from Tees Valley RCC and Circles Network will work with trusted individuals in local communities, such as local shopkeepers and mobile hairdressers, who are aware of the people in their community who might need some extra support to access the Help Scheme.

The organisations have had extensive training from Digital Outreach, Digital UK and the Switchover Help Scheme, and are ready to start spreading the word!

If you are supporting people in the Tyne Tees region, please get in touch with the organisation covering your area.

Contact details

North Tyneside VODA - covering Tyne and Wear
Lynne Craggs
lynne.craggs@voda.org.uk
0191 643 2633

Tees Valley Rural Community Council – covering Teesside and Darlington
Andrew Samuel
asamuel@teesvalleyrcc.org.uk
01642 201 096

Wansbeck CVS – covering Northumberland
Anne Kidd
anne.kidd@wansbeckcvs.org.uk
01670 856 587

North Yorkshire and York Forum – covering North Yorkshire
Claire Petty
claire.petty@nyyforum.org.uk
01347 825710 

Age Concern County Durham – covering County Durham
Mark Dunne-Willows
mark.dunne-willows@ageukcountydurham.org.uk
0191 374 6363



In July 2011, Digital Outreach’s new brand Convey delivered community outreach sessions as part of a pilot campaign in Peterborough to help reduce blockages in wastewater pipes and drains. The campaign – commissioned by Anglian Water and managed by social marketing company Corporate Culture - aimed to change people’s behaviour around the waste they put down sinks and toilets.

Blockages in water pipes cause 15,000 blockages a year in the area and cost over £7m a year to clear and prevent. The campaign was very successful, with blockages reduced by more than 60% over just a few weeks. It had a significant impact on people’s attitudes and actions, with the number of people agreeing that reducing blockages is a shared responsibility rising from 52% to 92%, and the percentage saying they were making an extra effort to get rid of waste rising from 51% to 72%. (Source: Street survey, sample of 200 customers)

Anglian Water is now rolling out the project to other ‘hot spots’ where blockages are an issue for local communities. A spectacular animated light show in Peterborough marked the launch of the campaign and explained to residents why the campaign is happening.

Case study – working with the Islamic community in Peterborough
The pilot campaign included a ward in Peterborough where approximately 60% of the population is Muslim. The messaging of the campaign linked in very well with the Islamic faith, which places a high value on water, its purity and cleanliness. Convey approached Peterborough Islam to see if they could help spread the message. The organisation was only too happy to help, and local Imams spoke to over 3,000 people at Friday prayers about the importance of keeping water clean and how residents could take action to reduce contamination in the water in their own communities. Peterborough Islam’s women’s workers were also able to reach Muslim women’s groups to talk to them about putting waste like cooking fat, baby wipes and other items into the bin rather than down the sink or toilet into the water supply.



Convey will be working with Southend Association of Voluntary Services to deliver outreach in the Southend area, and will soon be engaging more voluntary and community sector organisations to help deliver the programme in Northampton, Bedford, Lincoln and Norwich. Supported by training, literature, small grants and giveaways like ‘fat traps’ to make disposing of waste easier, these organisations will cascade the message to other local groups like community groups, children’s centres, faith groups, mother and toddler groups and pre-schools.

The outreach delivered by Convey will link in with activities provided by Anglian Water such as roadshows, engagement with local businesses street teams (to talk to local businesses) and traditional marketing activities like radio/press adverts and posters.

Encouraging results from the pilot project

The results of the pilot project showed the campaign had a big impact on attitudes and behaviours around the disposal of waste.

The chart below shows the rise in concern amongst domestic customers about blockages in wastewater pipes and drains following the pilot. (Source: Street survey, 200 customers)

The chart below shows very large increases in understanding, importance, responsibility and belief that it is easy to act among domestic customers.

If you would like to be amongst the first to hear about new projects such as these, update your details on our database.

Keep It Clear is part of Anglian Water's groundbreaking Love Every Drop sustainability campaign to bring people together to put water at the heart of a new way of sustainable living.

The Home Visit Service is provided by WRVS volunteers on behalf of the Switchover Help Scheme. This service offers support to eligible people in their homes to discuss their options under the Help Scheme, assist them to use their new equipment, or be there as a chaperone when the engineer calls.

Nicola Winson is a Local Service Manager at the WRVS and co-ordinates the service in the Meridian TV region. She has worked for WRVS for five years, starting off in the Meals on Wheels service, and first got involved in the Home Visit service during the run-up to switchover in the Central TV region.

Nicola says: “WRVS’s role involves recruiting and training volunteers and co-ordinating the visits, liaising with Digital Outreach and the Help Scheme contact centre.

“We train the volunteers jointly with Digital Outreach  – we cover what WRVS expects of them, health and safety issues and so on, and Digital Outreach gives them an insight into digital switchover. They don’t need to know all the technical information that the engineers do, but they need to know why it’s happening and what people need to do. An important aspect of the service is acting as a good neighbour and making people feel comfortable. I’ve trained about 200 people so far who are keen to volunteer. We’ve met some wonderful people - they’re giving so much to help others and I hope when I get that age, someone will come out and see me!”

People may need a home visit for a variety of reasons: “It could be that they don’t have family, or don’t hear very well – for example we had one lady who had tried to call the Help Scheme, but couldn’t hear what the person on the other end of the phone was saying,” says Nicola. “Some people have memory problems. A lot of older people just don’t like dealing with people over the phone. Our volunteers are comfortable working with people with these sorts of problems and are used to hearing “Who are you?” when they turn up at the door of someone they’ve arranged a visit with! But people soon remember the smiley face coming to the door.”

A home visit service is arranged when someone who is eligible for the Help Scheme gets in touch with the contact centre and requests one. The contact centre then contacts Nicola, who arranges a trained and trusted volunteer to provide the support.

Nicola says that people are happy when they know it’s a WRVS volunteer who will come and see them. “We have a big profile – older people and vulnerable people trust WRVS – they know who we are. It’s not just about providing the service, but about being a good neighbour and giving ongoing support.

“Sometimes, people have asked us direct for the help because they are too worried to ring the call centre, or a friend has told them about it. One lady rang and asked for a home visit, and was impressed with the lovely volunteer and told her neighbour, who thought “I want that!” and rang us direct.  When this happens, I ring the Help Scheme on their behalf and ask them to ring the person and confirm this with them.

The volunteers have built people’s confidence about switchover and the Help Scheme. “About 90% of our visits so far have been for a volunteer to talk the person through the Help Scheme letter and discuss their options,” says Nicola. “When they get that form through the door, some people think “oh help!” and are daunted by it, and feel they can’t do it. But when they get that face to face support and someone is talking them through it, it builds their confidence and they feel able to go ahead with the installation. Most people we have visited have felt able to deal with the Help Scheme direct after it has been explained to them.”

Being involved in the home visit service benefits WRVS and its volunteers as well as the people they support. Nicola says: “Working on this project is raising the profile of WRVS, which is an advantage to us and our service users. We have also recruited more volunteers and have been able to keep existing volunteers involved who are sadly without a role at this current time. People volunteer for different reasons but they all get satisfaction from the volunteering – the company, the feeling of being useful and helping others, all lifts morale and they see the difference they are making to people’s lives.

“We’ve got some wonderful volunteers. We have a young man – John - in the Meridian Region who has Downs syndrome and really wanted to help out. I rang his mum and had a chat and they both came along to the training session. At the end of it, his mum actually became a WRVS volunteer! They said that they would work in a pair. John had such a big smile on his face, like he had just won the Lottery, and was so happy that he could help somebody else.”

It also brings wider benefits to the eligible people that they support. “Through this service, we’re reaching people who we’ve never reached before - finding people who are really isolated but could do with some services. Recently, I visited a lady who told me she had an appointment at a hospital and was telling me how much it cost to get there. She asked if WRVS run a bus service and although we don’t, I was able to tell her there is an NHS bus where you just pay £5 and can be driven to any hospital appointment within that city.”

Volunteer profile – Norma and Ian Kennedy

Norma and Ian are a husband and wife in their 70s who volunteer for the Home Library Service, which brings books to people who are housebound. Norma says, “I do this with my husband Ian because I don’t drive.” They got involved with the Home Visit service when notes were sent round asking for volunteers to help. Norma said, “Having done the home visits through the library, we’ve got used to going to people’s houses and how to approach them. We’ve built up quite a relationship with the people we’ve supported.”

So far, Norma and Ian have supported three people under the Home Visit service, providing each of them with options advice. Norma said: “All of them had a basic idea, but wanted to be sure before they committed themselves. We’re in our 70s ourselves so we don’t talk about ‘older people’ – it’s more about the language, and talking it through. What seems to a technical person to be layman’s terms is still more than us ‘mere mortals’ understand!”

“One lady we went to see had a second TV and didn’t know what she was going to do with that. She was a very competent woman, but didn’t want to make the phone call, so we did that for her. The engineer came out and put a new aerial in, installed a digibox on her TV, and when we rang back she said that she was very happy and everything had gone fine.

“Another gentleman we visited was very agitated about the switchover. He had had a stroke, and had also recently fallen for a scam on his computer, which meant he had had to replace all his bank cards. The TV being switched over was the last straw. The gentleman was entitled to free help from the Help Scheme and my husband helped him and his family talk it through. His wife, grandson and daughter were there, so they understood how to help him sort it out. I rang back to check all was OK, and he had got it sorted.”

What Norma enjoys most about working on the home visit service is the difference she can make to somebody. “It’s the satisfaction you feel when people have come to a decision or if things are clearer for them when we leave than when we arrive,” she said.

Please can we take this opportunity to express our sincere thanks to all the volunteers who have been involved with this project.