Sarah Fink is the Digital Government Research Fellow at the think tank Policy Exchange and the author of the report 'Simple Things, Done Well: Making Practical Progress on Digital Inclusion'.
Follow Sarah on Twitter: @SarahFinkPX
If the Government plans to benefit from online public services, it's time to get serious about getting people online. Recent research from Policy Exchange points a way forward.
As the Government transitions to a "digital-by-default" delivery of public services, they are faced with the challenge of ensuring the 5.4 million people aged 65 and over who have never used the internet are not left behind. For a primarily digital government to actually happen, more weight must be put behind digital inclusion. Our research finds that universal internet take-up won't be achieved overnight, but nevertheless, investing in the digitally excluded has long term benefits for both citizens and government.
Getting people online can be especially difficult, and barriers to internet use range from cost to ability and interest. Therefore, it is important that the benefits to getting online are presented in a compelling way. Telling people they have to go online to access a public service can create more scepticism around technology, and making it more difficult or costly to use non-digital channels only puts a burden on some of the most vulnerable people in society. Instead, people who are offline should be integrated into digital channels in a way that is beneficial for both the digitally excluded and the Government.
Creating a paid position to fill the role of a silver sidekick allows the government to reach more people who are digitally excluded in a shorter period of time than could be expected by volunteers alone. On a day-to-day basis these silver sidekicks would take the internet to the digitally excluded in their homes or other convenient locations in the community, using a mobile device as the platform to help people complete digital transactions with government, such as applying for their pension.
In the first instance, we recommend that a programme of this sort be piloted on a small scale to establish the principle and help inform the design of a full-scale programme. Considering the savings from cheaper Government transactions, we expect the programme to deliver a modest £120 million cost saving over a five year period. This is in addition to the multitude of social benefits of getting more people online, as a recent report from Nominet UK suggests.
It is important that these sidekicks are able to understand the particular needs of someone who has not used the internet before. Those who have worked with this group point out that seeing their peers use digital channels and learning from them can be especially effective. This suggests that finding silver surfers to become silver sidekicks is an ideal way to bridge the digital divide.
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