A message from Martha Lane Fox the Digital Inclusion Champion in News and Events
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03 March 2010
" As the independent Digital Inclusion Champion I wanted to update you on our work with local authorities in addressing the digital divide.
With its world-class creative and digital industries, the UK has an opportunity right now to be the most highly-connected developed country in the world.
This has massive potential for the way public services are delivered. But while 75% of households are connected, obstacles persist for the remaining 25%.
The Digital Inclusion Taskforce has an ambitious work programme to improve the lives and life chances of millions of people in the UK who are both socially and digitally excluded, by enabling them to reap the benefits of being online by 2012.
Local government is central to this task. Today with the joint challenges of tighter public spending and the Smarter Government and Total Place agendas, public services must strive to both improve services and find cost savings. I firmly believe that neither can be achieved without a concerted effort at addressing the digital divide and increasing access and accessibility. In this, as in other fields, the leadership of local government is not just desirable, it is essential.
Working with established leaders such as DC10plus, we want to explore both what is working well and what is preventing faster progress towards increasing the online delivery of services to disadvantaged groups in local government.
We are aiming to do this in a number of ways:
· An important part of this work is identifying and celebrating good practice: so this is an opportunity for you to put your local success stories on a national stage. We want to hear about what projects you have developed to help socially excluded groups get online so that they can realise the economic, educational and social benefits of technology. It is by raising awareness of all the amazing work that is already being done in this area that we will encourage our partners - be they authorities, private sector, central government or voluntary or community sector - to move faster towards a more equally digital Britain. My team documents these projects so we can share best practice and inspiration via our website, at events and in the media. I also find it personally very inspiring to meet and talk to people who have benefitted from their access to technology: please forward any candidates for stories or project visits to Annie Dare in my team
· Engagement with local government leadership - we are arranging a series of regional roundtables and visits to best practice projects. Roundtables have been arranged this year so far with South East, the North West and Yorkshire and Humber with more to come. This will develop a specific ‘ask’ of local authorities - whether to engage as corporate citizens or to drive forward work in their corporate plans. We are also developing plans to engage councillors in our work, developing a campaign to champion digital inclusion in authorities and drive the agenda forward among political leaders.
For more information please contact Theo Blackwell
I hope this sets out the ambition of our plans to engage with best practice and drive forward the digital inclusion agenda. Please do get in touch to find our more about how your authority can be part of our challenge to reduce the digital divide. "