Agenda item

Report CSD23065

At the meeting of the full Council on 12^th December 2022 a motion was submitted for debate by Councillors Chloe-Jane Ross and Julie Ireland on the subject of digital inclusion. The following motion was referred to this Committee for further investigation and report back:

“Council notes:

·  At a high level, the digital divide is the gap between those with Internet access and those without it.

·  As access to some public services is moved online some Bromley residents may have difficulty accessing them. In some cases, this may be an inconvenience and in others it may impact their quality of life.

·  It has previously been estimated 18% of Londoners lack basic digital skills (ONS 2019), with at least 9% not having any (Lloyds 2019). Analysis also shows that 10% of Londoners do not own a smartphone (Ofcom, 2020). This could mean tens of thousands of Bromley residents are digitally excluded from accessing online services.

·  The main reason people lack digital access is older age (Bromley has a higher-than-average older population). Disabilities, learning difficulties, ethnic origin, location, culture and language, and low income are also important factors.

·  Some residents will always need an offline option to access services.

Council believes:

·  Bromley must be a fair and inclusive borough for everyone” (Bromley’s Equality Policy)

·  Digital services have been beneficial to both the Council and local people as they are efficient, accessible and trackable.

·  Increased accessibility and usage of digital services is desirable.

·  There must be an alternate offline option for those unable to access digital services.

Council therefore calls for:

·  The creation of a Digital Exclusion Champion to ensure there is support for local people who do not have digital access.

·  The development of a Council Digital Inclusion Strategy which will help reduce the digital divide in Bromley.

·  A review of non-digital service provision to ensure it is robust and accessible to those that need it, including scenario mapping for critical services.

·  A commitment to use information the Council delivers to every house in the borough to include information that will improve digital inclusion and support those that are digitally excluded.

·  All council policies to give specific consideration to people without digital access. 

·  All Council contractors and service providers have policies in place to improve the accessibility of their digital services and offline access to their services for residents that cannot access them digitally."

Councillor Ross addressed the Committee highlighting her passion for and personal commitment to improving digital inclusion.

Members of the Committee recognised the issues around digital inclusion and the impact that a lack of digital inclusion could have on peoples’ lives.  A Member of the Committee highlighted that there was a duty on everyone to address the issue of digital inclusion and suggested that there could be a role for Ward Councillors in supporting the use of apps used by the Council and sign posting residents to the support that was available.  Members also highlighted the support that was available from libraries.

Another Member reported that nearly 20% of Londoners had been found to lack basic digital skills.  Age Concern had expressed alarm around the impact of a lack of digital inclusion.  It was suggested that it would be beneficial for the Council to have a strategy for digital inclusion and someone championing the issue. 

The Committee recognised that the use of IT and technology was only going to increase over time and there was a need to ensure that all residents were included.  There were different demographics across the Borough and therefore the impact of digital inclusion would be different depending on the part of the Borough in which residents lived.

The Chairman proposed the following motion which was seconded by Councillor Kira Gabbert:

“That the Committee requests that Chief Officers review their directorates and take reasonable steps to review digital inclusion within existing policies and report back to the Executive, Resources and Contracts PDS Committee by September 2023 if any deficiencies are identified.”

In response to a question, the Chairman confirmed that every service should be included in the review and there should be a meaningful attempt to identify and address deficiencies in digital inclusion.  Once Chief Officers had reported the outcome of the review back to the Committee issues could then be referred to other PDS Committees where appropriate.

The motion was put to the vote and CARRIED.

RESOLVED: That the Committee requests that Chief Officers review their directorates and take reasonable steps to review digital inclusion within existing policies and report back to the Executive, Resources and Contracts PDS Committee by September 2023 if any deficiencies are identified.