UK online centres & myguide

Acronym of the case:

UKOLM

Web address of the case:

http://www.ukonlinecentres.com

Country of the case:

United Kingdom

Posting Date:

5 June 2007

Last Edited Date:

07 January 2010

Author:

Ian Clifford (Telecentre-Europe)

empowerment | skills | digital-divide

Type of initiative

Project or service
Network

Case Abstract

The 6,000-strong network of UK Online Centres is a unique public asset in England, and could be a model for other EU states and regions. UK online centres support communities and regions in economic development and regeneration and provide outreach to the socially excluded providing them with support and skills that build independence. The network improves lives and life chances by opening up ICT skills, the internet and online government services to people who are not online at home or at work or who need support in using computers. The network provides community ICT access to close the â€˜digital divideâ€™.

Description of the case

Domain

eInclusion

Topic

Digital literacy and competences | ICT and Aging | ICT and community development | ICT and Cultural diversity

Sector

Education, Science and Research | Local/Regional Community Development | Other Social Services

Start date - End date

January 2003 (Ongoing)

Date operational

April 2003

Target Users

People with no or poor digital literacy

Target Users Description

UK online centres engage over 8.67m people every year, but often specialise in working with particular target groups. These include older people, people with disabilities, adults with mental health issues, young people at risk, families in poverty, minority ethnic groups, and refugees and asylum seekers.

Scope

National

Status

Operation

Language(s)

English

Policy Context and Legal Framework

As government moves away from face-to-face transactions, online public services reach and support people from all social groups. The aim is not to replace face-to-face services, but rather to become a bridge to support people to access services online. The UK online centres network is an indispensable national resource for tackling these policy challenges. Intermediaries are the â€˜missing linkâ€™ between citizen and state and play a key role in making services relevant to people, providing access, driving take-up, and empowering people to progress and eventually become self-sufficient users of ICT. Some 90% of UK government services are already available electronically. If for nothing else, being unable to use computers and the internet is now a significant economic and social disadvantage. Research in 2006 by UK online centres found that 13.6 million adults in England are 'digitally excluded', of which an estimated 6.6 million have two or more â€˜social needsâ€™ which require them to contact central or local government â€“ for instance living in local authority housing or being in receipt of government benefits. UK online centres are meeting this need head on. There are more than 6,000 centres, more than half of which located in Englandâ€™s 2,000 most deprived wards. They are rooted in local communities and/or targeted at specific disadvantaged groups. 95% of centres say they can offer users some form of one-to-one support. UK online centres have a range of significant social impacts on peopleâ€™s lives and life chances including, for example, physical and mental health improvements, family cohesion and community participation.

Project Size and Implementation

Type of initiative

Training and education

Overall Implementation approach

Partnerships between administration and/or private sector and/or non-profit sector

Technology choice

Not applicable/not available

Funding source

Public funding national

Project size

Implementation: €5,000,000-10,000,000

Implementation and Management Approach

The network has been managed since 2003 by the UK online centres team at Ufi Ltd, contracted by DfES. Along the â€˜digital journeyâ€™, UK online centres introduce their customers to other types of learning and help them take their first steps towards qualifications, training, careers advice, employment, and the use of online government services. The network is an outreach channel for government to support and complement the other channels; although it is a face-to-face service it acts as a bridge to online and other channels. Although is it resourced by a single UK government department at present, it impact is felt right across government. In addition to education, it impacts on those departments responsible for health, welfare, employment, local services, and taxation. In each of these services often supports citizens through a number of channels. UK online centres are involved in the early development stages of the package of support for socially excluded citizens in the â€˜switchoverâ€™ from analogue to digital television in the UK over 2008-12. UK online centres eventually hope to support those socially excluded citizens with the â€˜switchoverâ€™ itself.

Impact, innovation and results

Impact

UK online centres are innovative in a number of areas. Their partnerships, which are both horizontal and vertical, extend to government, public sector bodies, the third sector and industry at local, regional and national levels. These partnerships are vital to achieving success. At the heart of the innovation case is our recognition and approach towards the â€˜digital journeyâ€™. The journey is a series of stages which individuals pass through to become confident citizens. Along that journey, centres introduce their users to other types of learning, and help them take their first steps towards qualifications, training, careers advice, employment, and the use of online government services. To this end the UK online centres team have developed myguide (www.myguide.gov.uk). myguide makes someoneâ€™s first steps onto the internet easy, intuitive and unthreatening. While it's a simple idea myguide is not something that market forces would have created, and is based on extensive work with stakeholders and customers. It is seen as ground breaking by these groups, and has been described as â€œbrilliantly simpleâ€! myguide offers a free, easy-to-use email service and search tools from a simple, banner-free, ad-free website. myguide allows people to personalise and save their settings, change screen colours or font size, and even choose to have the text read to them without needing to use additional software. Because myguide is for absolute beginners, it's designed to be supported by centres so community members with community knowledge can ensure people's first steps on the digital journey are a positive experience. From its inception to the marketing, design and delivery, each stage of development has referred back to people who can't, won't or don't use computers. The service has been developed using their direct feedback and involvement, and with the input of a range of stakeholder organisations. Each year, UK online centres move around 1m digitally excluded citizens, from exclusion to becoming confident digitally literate citizens, so that they can, in a self-sufficient way engage with government how and when they want to. Thereby enable a channel shift away from face-to-face and towards online government services more quickly and in a supportive, citizen-centric way releasing potential channel shift efficiency savings for the UK government of a minimum of â‚¬44m per annum. UK online centres have a significantly positive economic impact. They increase GDP in the long term. Three models have been used to generate an annual estimate for the potential effect on GDP. The average is around â‚¬367m, but in reality the effect is likely to be a compound of all three estimates.

Track record of sharing

We share good practice among the network of centres itself, building it into the support and development work that we do for centres. We highlight good practice on our centre support website (www.helpisathand.gov.uk ), we encourage routine good-practice sharing sessions at regional events, and our Regional Managers build it into their routine visits to centres. During regional conferences in May 2007 a number of centres in each English region presented their successful approach to a range of operational challenges to the other delegates at the conference. Project activity is also often carried out in conjunction with stakeholders, which helps significantly in the sharing of good practice. For example, in the South West e-Government project in 2006, six government departments and agencies and four Local Authorities were brought together to demonstrate the benefits that working together with UK online centres could have in reaching digitally excluded customers. Since August 2006, we have significantly increased our efforts to raise the profile of UK online centres with external stakeholders and share the good practice that they demonstrate. Using our knowledge and expertise we have shared our good practice in the review of the UK Digital Strategy. We have been involved in the development of the UK's contribution to the Riga Declaration and conference, input to UK Digital Challenge regional showcases and the Digital Inclusion Network. We have championed UK online centres through a number of national awards programmes, raising their profile and celebrating their success. Finally, we hosted the UK National Digital Inclusion Conference in April 2007, where the subject of digital inclusion was explored by a panel of high profile speakers, and the work of centres and individuals were championed to stakeholders from across the UK and Europe.

Lessons learnt

Lesson 1- The power of community-based solutions and sense of ownership is critical to the sustainability of the network. The Voluntary and Community centres have an entrepreneurial spark that differentiates them from the Local Authority Library or Education sector centres. It is a powerful example of the benefit of trust in the capacity of the third sector to deliver a sustainable service. However it is only when that network encompasses the diversity of Local Authority, Education and Third Sector that it can become truly inclusive. Lesson 2 - The importance of central facilitation, support and knowledge transfer is essential to the coherence and impact of the network. Recognition of the significant role that centres play in building social justice is only possible because the network has been systematically managed and resourced. Ongoing management and resource is critical to the scale of impact of the initiative. Lesson 3 - Ultimately, assuming that groups like older or disabled people can be full â€˜e-citizensâ€™, benefiting and contributing to society both online and in their communities, is crucial to the realisation of transformational benefits. The impact on citizens is only beneficial to them, their communities and the state if they are helped across the two main barriers to ICT; fear and confidence.

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Karen Barnett

Using myguide.gov as a resource for teaching

20 May 2010 | 4118 Visits | Rating: 3.7 (maximum:5)

Hi,

I have started to use MyGuide to show my supported learnersÂ the benefits of email. I think it's an excellent product but it does have a few glitches, mainly 'timing out' and 'password' problems.

I have a class of 5 learners (with difficulties) and found the registration process frustrating due to time outs and errors. If an error occurs you pretty much have to go back to the begining of the registration process, very difficult to explain 'why' when you are teaching.

We visited the library recently and one of my learners had a problem logging on. Her username and password was typed in correctly several times by the user, myself and a member of the library team but we couldn't log on. I had successfully logged on the evening before and could log on back at learning centre using her assigned details. My other 4 learners all logged in successfully.

They all enjoyed using email for the first time and it was lovely to watch a new piece of the world opening up to them.

Have you any ideas what was going wrong?

Krisztina Smidt

not a clue, but..

26 May 2010 | 0 Visit | Rating: 3 (maximum:5)

Hi Karen,

I don't know what the problam is, but click on this page:

http://www.myguide.gov.uk/myguide/DisplayAboutUs.do?key=feedback

And choose Contuct us link on the right side. I'm sure they will help you.

Ian Clifford

Re: Using myguide...

21 May 2010 | 0 Visit | Rating: 3.7 (maximum:5)

Glad you are finding myguide useful Karen.

We are constantly working to make myguide easier to use for those with little or no experience of computers, registration is one of the harder parts for many. We reduced the number of screens involved earlier this year and in the next few weeks will make registration a single page, hopefully that will be even quicker and easier for your learners.

With regard to the password problem you have seen, it seems very strange that it worked from 2 other machines but not this one. This would point to something being different on the machine where the problem was seen, could the keyboard be set to a different language for example?Â If you continue to have any issues please screenshot them and send through to ukonlinecentres@ufi.com where our team will be happy to help.