The Policy Exchange report makes an interesting read especially for those of us who have been promoting digital inclusion and digital skills to older people for years. (It’s worth noting that this report also looks at NEETs – young people not in employment education or training – and how the government could use digital technology better to offer personalised support to them.)
The arguments and the evidence are oh so familiar and if you are interested in digital inclusion and empowerment you’ll know them. The idea proposed in the paper of the development of a network of ‘Technology Advocates’ is really the same thing as developing ‘Digital Champions’ and we have been pushing for that for a while at Digital Unite, hence the creation of our Digital Champion courses – one of which leads to a level 2 qualification – for those aspiring to take on this role.
The paper, it seems to me, is most interested in creating up to 1,000 mobile Technology Advisors who can ‘take the internet’ to people in their homes, and who are paid to deliver this service.
I would not say this is a bad idea, it’s a super idea, it’s just also quite an expensive one and the pragmatist in me says we need to find perhaps more clever ideas to realise our digital inclusion dreams. Waiting for a massive government subsidy to solve the problem in its entirety – while we may argue is up to a government committed to a ‘digital by default’ agenda to do just this – I think might be like waiting for Godot, and equally as discombobulating.
At Digital Unite we believe solutions lie in collaboration. I suggest that we all – public sector, private sector and individuals – have a role to play in supporting others to get online, such as older people, and moreover, that because it is also in our inherent interests we also have a part to play in delivering it. The Policy Exchange paper argues well that the government will save money long term by delivering more services digitally. Government knows this, this is the origin of the digital by default agenda. It also argues, as have many others, of the related benefits accrued in health and wellbeing as digitally empowered individuals establish and maintain better and new contact with others, feel less lonely (see also our recent Poll on this topic ), stay more independent, feel more informed and so on.
But these benefits are not limited to government. They are realised by anyone who delivers a product or service to anyone else as well as family members and friends everywhere. Would it not be better – or might it be even better – to have not just a peripatetic army of Tech Advocates/ Digital Champs/ Silver Sidekicks etc but to also stimulate the development of these folk as a matter of course within and across all organisations? The responsibility and the rewards are then shared. It’s in my interests – as a social landlord, a supermarket, a bank, a telecoms provider, a charity – to ensure the people who are my customers can use my services online and I have part of the responsibility of helping them do that.
What’s also helpful about this approach is that we can ‘catch’ people when they are already engaged with that potential Advocate or Champion – at a point of established need or interest – rather than ‘hunting them down’ in their own homes. As the report highlights, many older people are still not online because they don’t perceive a need to be. What that often means is they have yet to be shown there is an existing correlation between a need they already have and an online opportunity or solution. ‘I want to pay my rent, report a fault, see my statement, buy my food … how can you help me do it quicker, cheaper and more conveniently online?’
In addition, it allows older – or any other – people to choose where to get that support from – some might go to an Age UK, some might fold a session into a shopping trip, some might feel comfortable at the library. And it also socialises the experience and makes the activity more ‘participatory’. We have good evidence to support the assertion that many older people enjoy the social experience of learning with other people as much as the skills acquisition itself. See the take outs from our Get Digital project for example, You might then build the peripatetic home visit option in as almost a fall back option.
This report referred to a fragmented approach across a number of named (much larger the rosy rump of the unnamed, including DU) organisations or initiatives delivering in this space – Age UK, UK online and Go ON are mentioned. Controversially – or again, pragmatically – I would suggest that this is looking at the issue upside down. Rather than impose uniformity of behaviour and activities – because every organisation has its own priorities, audiences, next big thing that consumes it night and day - let’s provide a framework within which the broadest collection of service providers – and individuals – find guidance and structure to deliver and report on and evaluate and support each other in being Technical Advocates or Digital Champions or IT Buddies or whatever else they have the freedom and flexibility to develop.
Funnily enough, and timing’s everything, as the Chair of the Age Action Alliance Digital Inclusion Group with the input and support of over twenty very different organisations, we propose just such a solution in our paper, The Digital Champions Capacity Building Framework. It proposes a framework of resources and support and critically training for all the Digital Champions we’d like developed within organisations large and small all over the country with efficient, and useful, evaluation so we really understand the impact of this activity. Because the benefits of establishing such a framework are shared, then the costs can be too.
I also personally believe - and indeed this is what Digital Unite embodies by its very existence as an independent organisation whose self-appointed mission is to make using digital easy, fun and useful for as many people as possible and especially older people - is that we cannot continue to view digital inclusion and digital literacy as something (whether for older people or any other group of people) that it is just up to government to solve. Every business, every service provider (it matters not if they are cash strapped charities or cash rich business) every son and daughter of ageing parents has a vested interest in digital skills being a given, the norm. This is not digital by default so much as digital by choice, which is a massive difference. The only chance of getting to that sunny spot is with a commonality of mission and a sharing of risk and reward.
To find out more about the Digital Champions Capacity Building Framework or about joining the Age Action Alliance Digital Inclusion Group, get in touch with Emma at emma.solomon@digitalunite.com