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Articles Changing the equation... In the third and final of Government IT's digital divide series, Helen Milner, managing director of UK online centres, looks at the future of the divide, and how to tackle it. When it comes to government IT, we've not always got our digital divide sums right. Technology doesn't automatically equal access, and access doesn't automatically equal use. So maybe it's time to change the equation. In trying to solve the digital divide problem, focus so far has been largely on systems and their availability. As a result, the audience has been left behind to count the cost. If we're to get any closer to a solution, we have to factor people back into our thinking. The crux of any equation is the equals sign, and there has been little sign of equality in the rise of information technology (IT) in general, and government IT in particular. A recent MORI/Microsoft poll found only 36% of the population ever use online public services, and the percentages only decreased for those out of work, over 65, or otherwise at a social 'disadvantage'. Technology has changed how we live, work and communicate - with each other and with the state. Those not using it are increasingly disempowered, the social or economic factors excluding them exacerbated by their non-use. Digital exclusion is now inter-twined with social exclusion, and those who stand to benefit most from IT and transformational government are those most divided from them. As plans announced in Sir David Varney's Review to migrate more services from face-to-face to online channels progress, the situation becomes more acute and more urgent. It's now only by getting the hardest to reach interacting with technology that we can make an impact on the digital divide. At UK online centres, we've been trying to re-balance the equation by looking at both systems of delivery and methods of engagement - the technology and the people it's targeting. The 6,000 strong network of UK online centres was originally set up six years ago to provide public access to IT. Based in the places and working with the people government most needs to reach, that role has developed to become more about exploiting IT to achieve social inclusion and create stronger communities. In early January, 20 new Social Impact Demonstrator projects were announced, to be led by UK online centres across England. The projects were first mentioned in last year's Social Exclusion Action Plan, and will support its objectives. Working with five key groups - older people, families in poverty, teenage parents, adults with mental illnesses and those supporting children in care, they will explore how connecting people to technology can reconnect them with society. Each was selected for its plans to work with community partners, its creative use of IT, and innovation in reaching its target audiences. The results will help us shape best practice across the UK online centre network, and across the wider field of digital and social inclusion. UK online centres are also the custodians of myguide - which began life as the Cybrarian project. Currently being tested in the South East and West Midlands, the myguide website is a simple, intuitive gateway to the internet, offering an easy-to-use email service and search facility. It was created to be usable, accessible and attractive to those excluded from technology by disability, age, income, education or even attitude. It's also designed to be supported by staff in local centres, providing users with both assistance and reassurance. Both myguide and the Social Impact Demonstrator projects have an e-government element. myguide has an interface to the Goverment Gateway, which helps people to register for many online public services, while participants in the Social Impact projects will be encouraged to use their new skills to find relevant local or central government information. The value of intermediaries in facilitating the use of government IT was further explored in a project which took place in the South West last year. It saw UK online centres working with selected government websites to support people in using them. Services included Directgov and NHS Direct, pension information, housing benefit and council tax. Users were also encouraged to make use of online job-search and course-search facilities. Results showed 97% of people felt reassured just by having staff around to support their first digital transactions. Those most in need of a helping hand had a 'social need' to contact government - for instance applying for pension benefits or housing services. Nationwide, the overlap between people who are both digitally excluded and have two or more 'social needs' is an estimated 6.6m people. While nearly half of participants followed up after six months had gone on to find useful government or local authority information, there were other consequences of benefit to both the individual and the government. 18% of people had enrolled on a training course, and 9% had actually gone on to get a new job. Closing the digital divide and creating digital citizens has an impact that goes well beyond the use of government IT. And it goes beyond the individual to their families, their communities, out to society and the economy as a whole. The impact of tackling digital exclusion is hard to quantify because it's a step towards social equality - of opportunity, of choice, of life chances. This is one case where the whole adds up to so much more than the sum of its parts. By continuing to make people central rather than peripheral to government IT policy, I believe we can start to reap some of these rewards on a national level. However, I would also sound a note of caution. The truth is the digital divide is not a problem - mathematical or otherwise - that has a quick or easy solution. Indeed, it may never be solved, because the terms will keep changing as technology and society evolve. The new challenge for government is to keep up, respond and even make sure it's one step ahead. To do so, the government will need to bridge the gap between technologists and policymakers, and bring together the currently independent agendas of digital inclusion, social exclusion and transformational government. People might be the key to the digital divide, but it's a simultaneous equation - only with a co-ordinated approach can progress be made on all three fronts. My second message is that customer-centric has to be a philosophy and not just a phrase. The recent Transformational Government Review talks about customer-centric services in its plans to rationalise e-government websites. It's a great start, but the fact is that's still more about the technology than the user. It doesn't matter how streamlined the systems are if people can't, won't or don't use them. In the words of the Prime Minister, technology can indeed be 'profoundly empowering', on so many different levels. Now it's time to put resources behind the rhetoric, and really empower the people who need it most. Helen Milner
Managing Director
UK online centres
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