Birmingham City Council has set up a digital inclusion team to help vulnerable and excluded citizens access online services.
The move derives from a report to the council’s cabinet on a city-wide digital inclusion strategy, which includes a recommendation that the authority work with the private and third sectors on the issue.
The cabinet is expected to adopt the recommendations of the report this week.
They include two years of funding for a team to identify what is being provided across the city and take various steps to rectify shortcomings. These include aligning the activities of partners, developing a digital champions framework for communities, working with libraries and businesses to establish a computer loans service with connectivity, mapping out places to provide free Wi-Fi and working with housing associations and registered social landlords to provide Wi-Fi access in communal areas.
It also involves working with care homes and day centres to give residents access to free internet services.
Birmingham has already brought together 40 organisations to help give people access to equipment, network connectivity and skills training. It has made about 1,000 devices available to vulnerable schoolchildren by working with the Digital Education Partnership – a local charity to support young people – and has identified a further 2,200 of its own devices that could be freed up and passed on within the next few months.
It has forecast that over 5,000 devices should be recycled over the next two years.
Easy access
Underlying aims of the strategy are that every citizen should have easy access to an internet enabled device within their home; that there city-wide, locality based online educational sessions; targeted intervention for end-to-end learning; the creation of simple digital solutions for people to access council services with the device of their choice; and that digital and data poverty is minimised.
Councill Brigid Jones, Birmingham’s deputy leader, said: “There was already a digital divide before the pandemic hit, but Covid-19 has exacerbated existing inequalities, meaning those who were already disadvantaged have become even more excluded. Digital exclusion speaks to some of the most profound inequalities in our society and now is the time to take collective action as a city to tackle the challenge.
“To tackle this we must work as a city – public, private, and voluntary sectors to ensure everyone has the confidence, capacity and skills to access online information and live their lives to their full potential.
“While the strategy will help more people gain the benefits of digital inclusion, we do recognise that not every citizen will have a preference for digital. As part of our customer service strategy, we will continue to support citizens to access services using alternative channels until they are ready to adopt digital opportunities.”
Image from iStock, Anyaberkut
