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Digital Inclusion

  • Digital Inclusion: The Facts

    10 million people in the UK have never used the Internet. Of them, 4 million are also society’s least advantaged: the long-term unemployed, the elderly and isolated, people on low-incomes, people facing the challenges of everyday life. Martha Lane Fox is the Champion for Digital Inclusion. Her role is to act as a voice for 4 million socially-excluded people who have never enjoyed the benefits of being online.

  • Why does digital inclusion matter?

    Most of us take the internet for granted: it saves us time and money, lets us keep in touch with family and friends, search for jobs, access a world of entertainment and fun and contact government services. Fairness, and hard economic sense, demands that everyone, especially those in difficult circumstances, has access to the many benefits of being online.

    ‘It is often the people facing the toughest times who have the most to gain from what technology has to offer and as the internet is rapidly becoming a tool for everyday life, we should work together to make sure everyone can benefit.’
    Martha Lane Fox - Champion For Digital Inclusion

  • What is Race Online 2012?

    Race Online 2012 is a nationwide call to action to inspire people to do more to tackle the United Kingdom's digital divide: by raising awareness of the issue, by amplifying the voices of those who'd otherwise struggle to be heard, by sharing people's stories of change and by linking people, funders and projects that might otherwise fail to meet. Many statutory agencies, private companies and charitable organizations are already working hard to deliver a more equitably digital Britain: at Race Online 2012 we will do everything we can to encourage these bodies to do more, and especially in providing more support to local authorities and charities that have strong existing relationships with our target groups.

  • Who is Martha Lane Fox?

    Martha co-founded lastminute.com, Europe’s largest travel and leisure website, in 1998, then went on to co-found and chair the private karaoke chain, Lucky Voice. In 2007 she set up Antigone, a grant-giving foundation that supports education, health and criminal justice charities. She is a non-executive director at Marks & Spencers plc, Channel 4 and Mydeco.

  • Who are our target group?

    Our target group is the 4 million adults identified in the PWC report (The Economics of Digital Inclusion, 2009) who are socially and digitally excluded.

    Of these 4 million adults:

    • 39% are over 65
    • 38% are unemployed
    • 19% are families with children

    We will focus on activities that will deliver specific social and economic benefits to these three core target groups.

    As part of our focus on these three core groups, we will explore the specific barriers to benefits of being online for those who are over-represented in our target groups, e.g. lone parents in families with children, or people with disabilities within the unemployed group.

  • What will we do to help?

    In June 2009 Lord Carter asked Martha Lane Fox, the Champion for Digital Inclusion, and the Digital Inclusion Task Force to be a ‘critical friend to government’, to review existing and planned activities to ensure they are coherent and have impact, and to provide Ministers with regular reports. This is an important role as Government has a key role to play on digital inclusion but industry and the third sector play important roles too. The Champion and Task Force previously agreed an initial one-page vision which suggested that key roles should be: awareness raising, supporting and challenging government, and building opportunities for access, training and skills.

    Building on this vision, we propose three main areas of future activity:

    1. To support and challenge government, industry and the third sector on programme development and delivery
    2. To use Race Online 2012 to shine a light on partner activities and provide an intelligent hub of information and resources
    3. To join and leverage new and existing activities to ensures ‘face to face’ support is available to all socially and digitally excluded adults.

    For further details please see our latest Strategy Paper

  • What are our campaign objectives?

    Race Online 2012’s campaign objectives are to challenge central and local government and partners in the private and charity sectors to work together to ensure that:

    • All low-income families with children who want it will have home access to the internet by 2012
    • All unemployed adults who want it will have personal access to the internet, an email account, and the ICT skills to find vacancies and apply for jobs online by 2012
    • Internet use by those over 65 is at least 50% by 2011, 60% by 2012, and that older people at risk of social exclusion can benefit from the internet as part of mainstream health and social care provision.

  • How are we funded?

    Digital Inclusion is a government-funded but independent organisation set up by Martha Lane Fox to support her work as the UK’s Champion for Digital Inclusion.

  • Who are our partners?

    Our partners come from a range of backgrounds including not-for-profit, government and industry. All our partners are committed to the digital inclusion agenda. Together we aim to inspire real change: our first step is to work as an intelligent hub of information and resources, to match-make people with the skills and resources with those that need their knowledge and funds. We’ll work with some core national and local partners to ensure improved quality, and sufficient scale, of free or low-cost access and training in disadvantaged communities.

    To become a partner will require a real commitment to reach the 4 million. We will also seek support for the volunteering programme that will be a key component of our campaign. We’re also keen to hear from other organisations equally committed to helping us to reach the 4 million digitally and socially excluded people by 2012. If you're interested in becoming a partner get in touch.

Become a Partner

  • How can I become a partner?

    Please fill in the Join Our Network form.

  • How can we help you?

    Can the Race Online 2012 campaign shine a light on your work? Please contact us with information about local or national initiatives you believe warrant more media attention or that you believe policy-makers should be aware of. Our team travels the country to find out about what works and why and we welcome the opportunity to hear from grassroots practitioners, local authority staffers, educationalists, technologists, academics and businesspeople who could be potential partners.

  • How can you help us?

    Time is short and the scale of the challenge is large: we need skills, knowledge, money and volunteers.

    As an organization or an individual, please help us:

    • Lobby for digital inclusion to be embedded across all government departments and provision of social care
    • Encourage all Local Authorities and MPs to match the best local efforts at promoting digital inclusion
    • Use all your media and communication channels to support and raise awareness of the campaign
    • Support the launch of a national inter-generational and peer-to-peer volunteering and mentoring programme by promoting it within your workforce and opening up your infrastructure.
    • Support existing and new programmes helping digitally and excluded adults.
    • Support grassroots charities and community organizations’ use of technology in their provision of social care.
    • Encourage the uptake of innovative tools and applications to help our target groups.

  • I have a commercial product which may be of interest to the Race Online 2012 team, what should I do?

    We are a small team and are unable to test or endorse specific products but please feel free to use our network to inform others in the field about your product.

  • Is there any funding available?

    There are a number of commercial organizations, government agencies and charitable foundations that currently award grants for projects related to digital inclusion: at Race Online 2012 we will do everything we can to encourage these bodies to do more, especially in providing more support to local authorities and charities that have strong existing relationships with our target groups. Please check our network pages for details of these partners and their projects. We will also feature details of current grants on our blog, Twitter feed and Facebook group.

    Last December the Government's Putting the Frontline First: Smarter Government report identified the dramatic savings to the public purse and improved experience for the customer that moving more government services online will represent. The report also acknowledged that Government needed to do more to boost digital literacy among those not yet online: the Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced £30m of new funding for UK online centres to help a further million people online over the next three years.

    Most of this £30m funding will go directly to grassroots UK online centres in the form of grants. The first call for bids will be announced in January 2010, but grants will only be available to members of the UK online centres network. If you work with digitally and socially excluded people but aren't part of the UK online centres network, now is the time to think about becoming a member.

    See our network page for more info on UK online centres or visit the UK online centres website.

    For more information about funding sources, the below links should get you started:
    Nominet aims to support distinctive and inventive Internet-related projects that can make a difference to people, primarily in the areas of education, online safety and inclusion. For further information please call 01865 334000.

    Sustainable Funding Project is a first-stop shop helping voluntary organisations explore a full range of funding options to develop a sustainable funding mix. It is part of NCVO. It promotes thorough organisational planning, grant diversification and income generation as three key means of enhancing organisational financial stability.

    Fit for Funding, from the Charities Information Bureau, provides advice via the web for community groups and voluntary organisations who are seeking funding.

    Directory of Social Change publishes independent and well-researched books for the charity and voluntary sector covering charity fundraising, campaigning, finance, charity law, management, media and marketing.

    ACF (Association of Charitable Foundations) gives details of member sites

    Open4Funding works with local council web-sites to provide facilities for charities and community groups to find relevant funding sources.

    Funders with useful web sites:
    BT Community Connections is a UK-wide awards scheme to e-enable local community projects. Awards of internet-ready computers are made to individuals or groups who wish to make a positive impact in their community. There is an online application form.

    The Community Foundation Network promotes local 'endowment funds' by pooling donations that will generate ongoing income, for local grant-making.

    Esmée Fairbairn Charitable Trust makes grants in five sectors: arts and heritage, education, environment, social and economic research and social welfare.

    Lloyds TSB Foundations application forms can be downloaded from the website, which also has application guidelines. Also see Lloyds TSB Foundation for Scotland; Lloyds TSB Foundation for NI.

    Voluntary Action Fund, an independent grant making trust, gives grants to, and works with, local voluntary organisations in Scotland.

    Governmental/agency:
    CDF is the leading source of community development expertise and delivery. As a public body and a charity they bridge government, communities and the voluntary sector.

    The Voluntary and Community Sector Funding Portal, also known as the Government Funding website has been developed by the Directory of Social Change. The DSC is a registered charity which provides a wide variety of information and training for the voluntary and community sector. This site aims to provide 'a common point of access to Government grant funding for the voluntary and community sector and includes funding guidance.

    Welsh Assembly Government grants guide are available via voluntary sector pages. Some of the Assembly Government’s money is made available by way of grants to fund schemes and initiatives that are in line with the Welsh Assembly Government’s agenda. Each grant will have its own set of criteria which applicants must meet in order for applications to be considered.

    Visit the Government Funding Database for Northern Ireland governmental grants for further information on grants available to voluntary and community organisations.

    Lottery related:
    Big Lottery Fund can be a good funding source for certain groups – its main aim is "to help meet the needs of those at greatest disadvantage in society and to improve the quality of life in the community".

    The Department of Culture, Media & Sport's Lottery site has info on the distributing bodies and an awards search facility.

    Lottery Good Causes is an umbrella site for all the lottery funded grant schemes.

  • I work for a Local Authority. How can I get involved?

    The digital divide is rapidly increasing social, economic and educational disadvantage. It must be addressed if take-up of online public services is to reach near 100 per cent by 2014, as set out in the Smarter Government White Paper.

    There are some simple and practical steps that can be taken in the short term that will have immediate and growing impact. The DCSF, Communities and Local Government, DC10plus, the Digital Inclusion Team, the Digital Inclusion Advisors and Martha Lane Fox's Digital Inclusion task Force have compliled a list of actions Local Authorities could take. Click here to find out more.

How to Volunteer

Getting Online

  • How can I get access to a computer / training / the internet?

    UK Online centre
    UK Online is a network of 6000 learning spaces across England, which gives two million people access to computers and training every year from computer suites in centres in 84% of England’s deprived wards. UKO was set up in 2000 as one wing of the government’s University for Industry. Call UK Online free on 0800 77 1234 to find out the address and phone number of your nearest centre, or use the easy online postcode search facility in the right-hand column of their website.

    Union Learn
    Union Learn exists to teach low-paid workers, shift workers, isolated workers and rural learners and delivers the internet communications technology course developed by LearnDirect. It has 20,000 trained union learning reps, and is also using mobiles and palmtop computers in its teaching. To contact Union Learn please call 020 7079 6920 or visit their website.

    The Workers Education Association (WEA)
    The Workers Education Association (WEA), the largest voluntary sector provider of adult education in the UK, delivers a raft of first-steps ICT and social media courses and from December 2009 will get 100 unemployed adults to participate in a volunteering campaign to inspire communities in the East Midlands to engage with technology. To contact the WEA please call 020 7426 3450 or visit their website

    Digital Unite
    Digital Unite specialises in helping people over-50 use IT - from internet and email to social networking and blogs. They work with everyone from learners and trainers to public sector and private enterprises. Digital Unite can help you learn new digital skills, setup award winning training schemes for your community, teach and engage older users, and take part in the digital debate. To contact Digital Unite please call 0800 822 3951 or visit their website

    The Home Access Programme
    Home Access is a new government programme targeting families that do not have access to a computer or the internet at home. If you are a low income family, you could qualify for a grant to buy a Home Access computer and/or at least one years’ internet access to help your child learn at home. To qualify, families must have a child in school years 3 – 9 who is entitled to receive free school meals which normally means the household having an annual income of less than £16,040. Children who are in foster care may also be eligible for a grant but must apply via their local authority. Families that do not qualify for a grant, are still able to buy a Home Access package from a range of well-known high-street retailers and approved firms. To find out more call 0333 200 1005 or visit their website

    Local Libraries
    Follow this link to book internet access at your local library.

    Set up a internet connection in your home
    There are two government-accredited companies to give you impartial advice on getting the best deal on fixed line, mobile broadband and digital television services:
    1. Simplify Digital
    Further information is available on 0800 542 4704 or at their website
    2. Broadband Choices
    Further information available at their website or by emailing enquire@consumerchoices.co.uk

  • Are there any useful internet guides that will help me get online?

    Yes – lots! Here’s a handful to get you started:

    How to Buy the Best Laptop – Which Guide

    Don’t have a Phone Line – Choosing and Using Mobile Broadband – Which Guide

    Internet Buddy Guide – Getting a friend or relative online – Royal Mail

    Help for Beginners – Digital Unite

    Introduction to MyGuide – UKOnline Centres

    Open University Guide to the Web

  • I cannot get broadband access where I live, how can you help?

    The Government's broadband Universal Service Commitment is designed to ensure that virtually every community has access to 2Mbps connections by 2012.

    In the short term, you may be interested to know that there are other ways of receiving broadband. For example, a growing number of consumers are taking up wireless and mobile broadband services. If you would like further information on these services, or would like to compare prices, you can visit the Ofcom website.

  • My broadband speed is too slow, what can I do?

    There are a number of reasons why broadband speeds can vary. One main reason is that for most broadband customers the maximum speed available declines the further you are from the telephone exchange. Other factors which can affect broadband speeds include the quality of the customer’s line, the capacity of the ISP’s network, the number of subscribers sharing the network, and the number of people accessing a particular website.

    The Digital Britain report also addresses the next generation access of super-fast broadband. Next generation access will replace existing telecoms networks meaning broadband speeds can be significantly increased. A monthly 50p charge on all landline users to finance super-fast broadband is something the Government will consult on. It is proposed that those on low-incomes will be exempt.

    Further information on the Digital Britain report can be found here.

    For more information on broadband speeds, take a look at Ofcom’s consumer guide. Ofcom will not respond to individual complaints, however they will record and monitor complaint levels. If they identify an area of concern they may then raise the matter with the management of the company directly.

  • I’m worried about safety and using the internet, what can I do?

    Get Safe Online is a joint initiative between HM Government, the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) and leading businesses, it aims to help individuals and micro-businesses to be safe online, and protect themselves against Internet security risks. It is a neutral, unbiased and objective source of information and expert advice for everyone.

    Follow the three simple steps below to help protect yourself and others by being safe online today:
    1. Protect your PC
    Install up-to-date protective software. The website contains links to some free versions to help you protect your PC.
    2. Protect yourself
    The website contains independent, easy-to-understand information to increase your understanding of potential threats before they happen.
    3. Keep monitoring
    To stay alert keep your software and operating system updated, scan regularly for viruses and spyware, and watch out for new threats.

    Get Safe Online has more information.

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