Council helps win funding to help more go online

Around 1,000 more people in Plymouth will be helped to get online as part of the city’s continuing mission to get more people – and services – internet savvy.

Plymouth City Council is one of four councils nationally to be awarded £112,000 from the Big Lottery Fund as part of a ‘test and learn pilot’.

The project has two strands – to get more people comfortable using the internet as a way of accessing services and to encourage local services to work together to make things easier for this to happen.

Here in Plymouth, the initiative is led by Citizens Online, a national charity the Council has been working with for some time. It involves partners such as Jobcentre Plus, housing associations, health, private businesses and the voluntary sector.

In Plymouth, three digital champions will be employed to continue providing support to those who lack the confidence and skills to use online services and the project will support others who want to act as digital champions. This innovative approach makes Plymouth one of the leading locations for actively tackling digital exclusion.

Council leader Tudor Evans said: “All public service providers are being encouraged to put more of their services online. It is much cheaper, efficient and means we can spend our resources where they are most needed.

“However we are very conscious that many people in Plymouth are still not comfortable using computers. We are changing this. We made a pledge that we would look at ways to reach those not on the internet as we wanted to make sure no Plymouth residents were left behind.

“With Citizen’s Online and local partners we have helped over 3,000 people to become familiar with the internet – not just so they use our services, but also to improve job prospects or help connect people with each other.”

An estimated 10.5 million people in the UK lack the skills to go online – almost 49 per cent of disabled people and 42 per cent of people with a household income of less than £12,500 a year do not use the internet at all.

The project will also look at where the Council and other partners need to make changes to ensure that people using the internet to access services will be able to do so easily.

It will include information, training and support to the teams across organisations charged with delivering online services to make sure they are up to the mark.

The Big Lottery Fund has provided £112,500 with match funding from the Council, Plymouth Community Homes, BT, JCP and Plymouth Community Health.

The project is part of a wider consortium called One Digital, led by Digital Unite and including SCVO, Age UK, AbilityNet and Affinity Sutton.

The One Digital consortium focuses on people with disabilities and accessibility needs, young adults seeking work, over 65s, and charities and the people they support, so they are able to access essential online services, search and apply for jobs and stay in touch with friends and family.

The charity Citizens Online received £466,981 to work across four local authority areas – Brighton, Plymouth, Gwynedd and Highlands Council - to train, recruit and deploy digital champions to improve the online skills of 4,000 people. Citizens Online will deliver a project that aims to support the uptake of digital skills and services in each area by creating a sustainable and supportive partnership network.