Digital Inclusion Advisor

This briefing provides information on this developing issue. The first part of this briefing provides an outline of the digital inclusion work that One Nottingham is engaged in and the exercise carried out by the Digital Inclusion Advisors during June/July this year which included them meeting with One Nottingham's partners. The second part will deal with the broader background information to the Digital Inclusion initiatives.

Part 1 - Digital Inclusion- ON's part in the Government's strategy
"As technologies develop it is not only inequality of access to the internet that creates a digital divide. Wider information communication technologies (ICTs) also offer considerable opportunities for those able to take advantage of them; and increased exclusion for those who cannot." - CLG Understanding Digital Exclusion Report Oct 2008.

Accelerate Nottingham and ON are seeking to keep pace with the changing technological and communication behaviour of our residents. The gap of the digital "haves" and the digital "have nots" (the skilled and the unskilled) appears to be growing at an increasing rate.

As a start ON engaged two Digital Inclusion Advisors funded by the East Midlands Regional Improvement and Efficiency Partnership (RIEP). The RIEP's digital technology ambitions are to improve:

• leadership and partnership development
• performance management
• digital inclusion
• and to support improved local public services.

In summer 2008 One Nottingham (ON) hosted the regional launch of the government's digital strategy at Bio City in Nottingham and digital technology featured in the Science City strand of the recent ON partnership week

Accelerate Nottingham leads the way in placing Nottingham at the fore front of the Government's digital agenda:

• As a member of the DC10 group of cities
• The LAA was designated a Digital Inclusion demonstration LAA.

Objective Of the DIA work.

Our earlier stages will be ambitious but will nevertheless lead the way in Nottingham and in England. The Digital Inclusion Advisors worked with ON for 7 days in order to provide a report which will identify a baseline position in Nottingham, including good practice examples and any perceived gaps, good practice examples from elsewhere and some recommendations for activity or improvement.

Ultimately the DIA research will aim to contribute to the delivery of the Sustainable Community Strategy and the Local Area Agreement.

In particular this project will highlight:

• Specific communities at risk of both social and digital exclusion, those that might be a priority for action, and potential opportunities for action. This information will be left in a book of community maps with community insight data and pointers for possible action.
• Opportunities for inclusive use of technology to help to deliver against each local area agreement target based on a comprehensive database of activities and projects tried elsewhere - proposals of projects and ideas for action.
• A 'checklist' profile of digital inclusion activity in the area and pointers for activity derived from what beacon and other local authorities are doing including potential opportunities for action.
• Issues and problems that partners have raised that might lend themselves well to a second assignment

Key partner engagement

The DIAs met with key partners in order to:

• build a profile of digital inclusion around the LSP
• understand relevant projects and good practice in the area
• gain information and pointers around relevant research and resources e.g. digital inclusion profiling research etc.
• identify any key problems/issues of particular concern that may need further investigation
• present any opportunities for further investigation
• provide views around digital inclusion and its relevance to the area

Digital Inclusion Report

The final reports by the Digital Inclusion Advisors can be downloaded at the right hand side of this page. The reports provided for ON include:

• A short summary of findings with opportunities for action and recommendations around themes/ issues/ opportunities for a potential follow-on assignment.
• a book of community maps with community insight data and pointers for possible action
• a LAA table with an 'digital opportunities column' added, populated by projects and ideas for action
• a digital inclusion beacon 'checklist' of activity in the area with a list of potential opportunities for action
• a short one page case study to share with other area and partnerships.

Conclusion

The conclusion of this work will be an understanding of how digital inclusive in Nottingham is and be the beginnings of our understanding in how to address exclusion. This may lead to an action plan and further activity

We should gain a better understanding of how technology excludes some people and, how it can be used to address broader areas of exclusion and underachievement in areas such as skills, education and employment. This activity provides potential for improvement in the delivery of our SCS and LAA priorities.

Part 2 CLG activity in addition to the Digital Inclusion Advisors

Communities and Local Government (CLG) lead the national digital inclusion agenda and national policy development. CLG has recently announced a number of initiatives and has launched its Digital Inclusion Action Plan.

The Digital Challenge winner, Sunderland is due to report back on the outcomes of its 3 year digital inclusion programme by March 2010

The DC10plus Network is the spin-out partnership from the Digital Challenge competition which consists of the 10 national Digital Challenge finalists:- Birmingham, Bristol, Ealing, Hull, Manchester, Milton Keynes, Norfolk County Council, Nottingham, Stratford-Upon-Avon and Sunderland

In addition to general digital inclusion work the network has a number of workstreams, with leads, looking at how technology can tackle social exclusion:-

Theme Lead

• Worklessness Nottingham
• Community Capacity Building Birmingham
• Next Generation Broadband Manchester
• Digital Switchover Hull
• Independent Living Stratford
• Environment Bristol

Accelerate Nottingham has led the network on Marketing, Communications and Conferences.

Between Sept 2009 and March 2010 CLG has given additional funding to the network of £238k to "productise" the outcomes of the themes and target local authority CEOs, RIEPs, SOLACE, LGA etc to raise the profile of digital inclusion issues.

Nottingham is working to align the DC10plus work with that of the Digital Inclusion Team and the Beacon Councils up to March 2010.

Beacon Councils were recently announced for councils to demonstrate innovative use of ICT to tackle exclusion: these are:

• Sunderland (DC winners)
• Solihull (use of ICT in social housing stock)
• Stratford-Upon-Avon (Independent living)
• Staffordshire Moorland (Isolated Communities)

One Nottingham is the first LSP to make use of the DIAs and is being regarded by CLG as the test bed for developing the services it wants to provide for other LSPs through the RIEPs. It is hoped that the work in Nottingham will produce a template for other LSPs in terms of accessing the DIAs, the work and methodology they undertake and the reporting mechanisms.

The County Council is interested in the work to be undertaken and are monitoring it to see how replicable it is to their activities.

Eurocities Knowledge Society Forum (KSF)

Nottingham is a member of the Eurocities KSF which has two working groups which Nottingham actively participates in:-

• eInclusion
• Next Generation Broadband

A sub-group of the eInclusion workstream including Nottingham, Birmingham, The Hague, Ghent and Bologna have approached the Commission for funding to carry out peer reviews of each others eInclusion activities and strategies.  The participating cities are keen to begin sharing experiences and Nottingham's experience with the DIAs is attracting considerable interest as it mirrors what this group is trying to achieve.

ADD-ME! Project (Activating Drivers for Digital eMpowerment in Europe)

A European wide eInclusion project which Nottingham has been included in as a result of its lead in the DC10plus marketing activity.

The project has 21 partners ranging from Local Authorities, Universities and the private sector and is about establishing a repository for best practice case studies in the field of eInclusion). There will be a number of conferences over a 2 year period which the project will organize and Nottingham will be expected to participate in.

Our role has yet to be clarified and guidance is sought from the project team in Rome, it is anticipated that Nottingham will lead the DC10plus network and the Beacon Councils in identifying best practice and to promoting any good practice in Nottingham.

EU Network of Living Labs

Nottingham has been awarded EU Living Lab status for the work in Next Gen Broadband in the Lace Market. However once awarded the Living Labs methodology and status can be applied to all our activities including eInclusion activities.

Connected Nottingham The Connected Nottingham marketing and branding campaign, delivered by Accelerate Nottingham, is a vehicle for disseminating eInclusion policies, a Digital Inclusion event will take place in late July.

The nature of this event-agenda, invitees etc are still up for discussion and it is hoped that lead partners such as the City Council and LSP will shape the agenda for the day.

Accelerate Nottingham

Accelerate Nottingham is the lead body on most of this activity , it is a nationally recognized partnership for ICT issues including eInclusion and is funded by the City and County Councils, emda, GNP

Further information:

The main documents from CLG on Digital Exclusion can be found at

http://www.communities.gov.uk/communities/digitalinclusion

For further information please contact

Nigel Cooke, One Nottingham nigel.cooke@onenottingham.org.uk tel: 0115 9151222

Peter Goodwin, Accelerate Nottingham peter.goodwin@acceleratenottingham.com