News tagged 'tv switchover'

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.

September saw the final switchovers take place in the Yorkshire and Central B TV regions, including two of the biggest transmitter groups - Sutton Coldfield and Emley Moor. Friendly, approachable staff and volunteers were on hand at 34 advice points, ready to give tailored information and support to people who needed it.

During the whole switchover period, 46 advice points were held in the Central B and Yorkshire TV regions, with  volunteers assisting over 7,000 people in total.

During the run-up to switchover, our seven lead organisations working across Central B and Yorkshire carried out 67,455 one to ones between them, briefed 578 local organisations, and got information about switchover to core groups at 2,719 end user events. Your fantastic stories have brought this work to life, demonstrating the hugely positive impact of your work. A huge thank you to everyone in Yorkshire and Central, whose passion, commitment and enthusiasm has made switchover a success for thousands of people who might otherwise have struggled.

One of the people who was given support at a local advice point was Pauline, a former dancer aged 86. While Pauline was at the Imperial Rooms in Matlock for a ballroom dancing class, she noticed a poster for the advice point. She was pleased to see that she could talk to somebody face to face, as she was feeling confused about the switchover.

Pauline said she had bought two TV sets from a local retailer, who said at the time they would come and re-tune them when switchover took place. However, when she visited the retailer for help, they told her it would cost £21 per TV to re-tune.

The advice point staff showed Pauline how to re-tune on the demonstration digibox, and made sure she had the Digital UK advice line number and a number for a local handyperson service if she needed any assistance when she got home.

Pauline was grateful that the staff at the advice point had helped save her money and felt confident to cope with the re-tuning process herself.

Independent research carried out by i2 media research, a spin-off of Goldsmiths University of London has found that the community outreach programme, delivered by Digital Outreach in partnership with voluntary and community organisations across the UK, has made a big impact on levels of awareness, confidence and knowledge about the digital TV switchover amongst key target groups.

The research assessed the effectiveness of the outreach programme for engaging communities, communicating specific messages, and achieving real behaviour change.

It identified that the community outreach programme has:

• made a significant contribution in reaching and engaging audiences across the six core target groups (to see the list of target groups, click here)
• made a significant impact on levels of awareness, confidence and knowledge of the switchover programme among the key target groups
• reassured people in our target audience groups and enabled them to feel confident about managing the switchover in their own homes
• improved attitudes towards switchover itself, with a marked increase in positive attitudes, and
• worked effectively alongside the overall switchover campaign, increasing how receptive many individuals were to mainstream marketing materials.

Researchers attended five end user events in the Central and Anglia TV regions between January and February 2011, where 140 individuals completed a questionnaire immediately before and immediately after attending the event.  Six to 12 weeks after the switchover took place, researchers contacted some of these individuals again to assess the longer term effects of the programme.

Changing attitudes

The research found that the community outreach programme made a significant difference to attitudes about the switchover.  Before attending a community outreach programme activity or event, most respondents (81%) reported that they felt negative or apathetic towards the switchover.  This reduced significantly immediately after the event, and those reporting a positive attitude increased from 45% to 67% after an event.

Increasing understanding

After attending an end user event, the percentage of respondents who felt their understanding of the benefits of switchover was “good” or “excellent” increased significantly from 33% to 79%.  

And, 44% more people (78% of the total) rated their understanding of how switchover would affect them as “good” or “excellent” after attending the event.

The results showed that before the outreach event, 18% of respondents thought they were eligible for the Switchover Help Scheme. This grew to 36% immediately after the event.

Increasing confidence 

 The research found that the community outreach programme was reassuring and informative - 72% of respondents found the event informative and 62% felt reassured about the digital switchover.

Respondents were asked to rate how confident they were in managing different aspects of the switchover process. 

The proportion of people feeling confident about choosing the best way to receive digital TV increased by from 55% to 92% after attending an end user event.

The proportion of people feeling confident about getting their home ready for switchover on their own increased from 46% to 82%.

There was a consistent feeling amongst respondents that the end user event had given them peace of mind.  They felt reassured about managing the process and that it would be affordable.  In addition, they reported knowing whether their TV sets were ready for switchover – and those who were not ready for switchover were confident that they knew what needed to be done.

Another positive benefit was that many individuals said they were confident in being able to distinguish potential “scams” where unscrupulous individuals were recommending replacing adequate equipment.

Empowering people to help others

The proportion of people who had a “good” or “excellent” knowledge of how to help other people increased by a massive 59% - from 16% to 75%.  This demonstrates the strength of the community outreach programme model in reaching and motivating individuals to disseminate information and help others within their communities.

When contacting the respondents six to 12 weeks after switchover, the researchers found that the community outreach programme had reached into the wider community through the cascade effect.  Most people who had been involved in the programme passed on information to friends, peers, family or more widely into their communities.

The benefits of reaching people at existing events

The nature of the community outreach programme taking place within existing community events was an important factor in increasing people’s confidence and changing their attitudes. People felt comfortable in their environment and confident to ask questions.

Respondents commented particularly on how friendly and informal the sessions were; and that this fostered general discussion without anyone feeling judged.  Some even said they felt “special” that they had received this type of support.

This context was also seen as important in increasing people’s acceptance of mainstream marketing literature produced by Digital UK and the Switchover Help Scheme, especially amongst those who had previously ignored or rejected the material.   

Jude Palmer, Head of Operations at Digital Outreach, said: “We’re delighted with the results of this research. Since we began delivering the community outreach programme in 2008, we’ve received some really positive feedback through stories and anecdotes about the impact it is having on the ground, and this independent research further demonstrates that the programme is really making a positive impact on our target audience.

“This research really reinforces the importance of the role that staff and volunteers in the community have in building people’s confidence about switchover. As trusted and respected voices, they really make a difference to how positive people feel about this big change which affects everybody. I would like to say a huge thank you to all the staff and volunteers who have worked so hard on the community outreach programme to make sure those they support have a positive experience of switchover.”     

The report will soon be available to download from our website.

The London TV region is switching to digital TV in April 2012. The region, served by the Crystal Palace transmitter, is the largest to switch yet - covering 620 square miles and containing nearly 5 million households.

To help people in the city and surrounding areas make the switch, Digital Outreach is delivering four outreach programmes in partnership with local voluntary and community sector organisations.

We have appointed five local organisations to co-ordinate the community outreach programme in the region. The London CVS Network will co-ordinate the community outreach programme in Greater London, while Surrey Community Action, COVER, Voluntary Action Within Kent and Age Concern Slough and Berkshire East will co-ordinate the programme in the more rural Home Counties.

These organisations will be working with local charities and groups to prepare people for the TV switchover, starting in September this year. 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 on how to switch to digital TV and apply for the Switchover Help Scheme if they are eligible.

The community outreach programme is vital in getting the message out to local communities about switchover and the Help Scheme, but some of the most isolated people fall outside of these networks and are the ‘hardest to reach’. To reach these people, we are delivering the Communities Programme. This programme uses word of mouth to generate interest among those people that the most isolated people already know and trust most – such as local shopkeepers, hairdressers, carers, and community counsellors.

In London, the Communities Programme will be managed by Fin MacGregor and delivered by Circles Network and Greater London Volunteering (Greater London) and Community Impact Buckinghamshire (for the Home Counties).

Digital Outreach organised an induction day for the organisations which are leading on delivering the outreach programmes. Valerie Walwyn, Digital Outreach’s regional manager for London, led the session which was attended by staff from the lead organisations, Digital UK and the Switchover Help Scheme.

Jude Palmer, Head of Operations at Digital Outreach, said: "We work with Digital UK and the Help Scheme to ensure the induction session provides an opportunity for everyone to meet their counterparts so they can develop good working relationships and develop a solid understanding of the work ahead. This TV region is large and diverse, which is reflected in our Lead Organisations, who really enjoyed the day and are looking forward to their work in the run-up to switchover in April 2012."

Get involved!

If you're a voluntary and community sector group and you'd like to help spread the message about switchover and the Switchover Help Scheme, please get in touch with the lead organisation delivering the Community Outreach Programme in your area.

Greater London

East London CVS Network – covering Havering, Redbridge, Barking & Dagenham, Newham, Hackney, City, Tower Hamlets, Waltham Forest, Haringey, Enfield and Barnet
Contact Andrea Chott on 020 8519 9500 or andrea.chott@elcvsnetwork.org.uk

South London CVS Partnership – covering Merton, Kingston upon Thames, Richmond upon Thames, Croydon, Lambeth, Sutton, Southwark, Greenwhich, Bexley, Lewisham and Bromley
Contact Chris Burton on 07588 813189 or chris@slcvspartnership.org.uk

Ealing CVS – covering Hounslow, Hillinghdon, Ealing, Harrow, Westminster, Kensington & Chelsea, Hammersmith & Fulham, Wandsworth, Camden, Islington and Brent
Contact Antony Bewick-Smith on 020 280 2232 or antony@ealingcvs.org.uk

Home Counties

Age Concern Slough and Berkshire East – covering East Berkshire and South Buckinghamshire
Contact Rosa Petrucci on 01753 497880 or rosa@ageconcernsabe.org.uk 

COVER – covering Essex and Hertfordshire
Contact Rachel Farr on 01223 861760 or rachel.farr@i-trust.org.uk

Surrey Community Action – covering Surrey
Contact Libby Minto on 01483 447 127 or Lminto@surreyca.org.uk

Voluntary Action Within Kent – covering Kent
Contact Jon Weller on 01892 530330 or Jon.weller@vawk.org.uk



Households in Yorkshire, West Midlands Stoke-on-Trent and Newcastle-under-Lyme have now completed the switch from analogue to digital TV, bringing the UK total up to 17 million homes (63% of all homes in the UK ).

In a press release issued by the Government, Communications Minister Ed Vaizey said: “Switching to digital TV is the biggest project in UK broadcasting history and has been a real success. The project is on-time and has run brilliantly smoothly.”

Read the full article on the Telegraph website.