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National Strategy for Neighbourhood Renewal:
Policy Action Team Audit - Information Technology |
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1. Foreword
2.
Recommendations and Progress (1-10)
3.
Recommendations and Progress (11-20)
4.
Recommendations and Progress (21-30)
5.
Recommendations and Progress (31-37) |
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Foreword by Michael Wills MP - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, DfEE
The PAT 15 report provided a comprehensive examination of a phenomenon that has come to be
called the ‘digital divide’. Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) are becoming
increasingly pervasive. |
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Every day more and more services like banking, travel, training and job seeking are delivered
online and for many, the Information Age is changing how we work, learn, spend leisure time and
interact with one another. However, the PAT found that people living in deprived neighbourhoods
face significant barriers - including poor skills, low confidence, unattractive content and cost -
that inhibit their ability to access these new technologies and the benefits they can bring.
My department has lead responsibility for responding to the recommendations made by the PAT and we
have been considering how they might be taken forward. The PAT argued - and we agree - that the
Government needs to adopt a more coherent and proactive approach to harnessing the new ICTs. The
Prime Minister has already committed the Government to ensuring that, by 2005, all those who want
it will have the opportunity to access the Internet. My department is at the forefront of the
Government’s efforts here, with a wide range of existing and planned initiatives, which together
will make a major contribution to the achievement of this target.
The PAT argued that lack of access to new technologies compounds other social and economic difficulties
faced by those living in deprived neighbourhoods. Closing the digital divide and narrowing the gap
between the technology rich and the technology poor are therefore key elements in our National
Strategy for Neighbourhood Renewal.
We are making over £1 billion available through the National
Grid for Learning programme for investment in ICT in schools.
Now 88 per cent of all schools are connected to the Internet.
Pupils- to-computer ratios have fallen to 8:1 in secondary schools
and 13:1 in primary schools. Our Excellence in Cities initiative
is tackling successive failures in our major cities, including
those associated with access to ICT. We are establishing City
Learning Centres within the programme to enhance and develop
teaching and learning across the whole curriculum through the
use of state- of-the-art educational technology. Taken together,
this will help ensure that in the future, pupils leave school
with the ability to benefit from new technologies and so do
not suffer from information exclusion.
But as the PAT pointed out, there are also adults facing difficulties. We are acting here too.
From early spring 2001 there will be over 600 UK online centres opening in the first phase of an
initiative to which we are dedicating £252 million from the Capital Modernisation Fund. Tailored
to meet local needs, they will be in the most deprived wards in England. They will add to the availability
of community-based facilities already provided through the People’s Network of libraries with ICT
learning facilities and access to the Internet. The first centres to receive funding range from a
shopping centre in Sheffield to a mobile unit driving round rural Dorset. And there are many other
exciting and innovative approaches to engaging people with different needs with the ‘ICT bug’. A
UK online/Big Issue centre in Brighton is giving homeless people access to new technology and
their own email address, helping them to find work. And the Foyer Federation, ICL and NTL are
creating 50 UK online centres in Foyers across England, giving access and support to disadvantaged
young people.
In July 2000 we announced our intentions to modernise the Post Office Network including developing
a role for Post Offices as Internet learning and access points. We are investing in the development
of learndirect, a new national e-learning network which uses ICT to open up access to learning for
large numbers of people. learndirect offers learning at home, at work or at local centres. From
spring 2001 there will be around 1,000 learndirect centres nation-wide. learndirect also provides
information and advice on the broadest range of learning opportunities via a telephone helpline
and the Internet.
The PAT recognised that cost may be a factor in excluding disadvantaged people from ICTs, although
for some forms of technology - like satellite TV - access levels in deprived neighbourhoods are
close to the average. For other forms of ICTs, particularly ownership of personal computers, the
differences are greater. Those on low incomes who want or need to access low cost ICTs should be
able to do so. Increasing home access in deprived areas will help. That is why we are piloting,
through our £10 million Wired-up Communities initiative, innovative, locally-driven approaches to
putting some of our most deprived neighbourhoods online. We have published a list of companies
which handle PC recycling. And we are introducing the Computers within Reach pilot scheme. In the
period up to the end of March 2001, we intend to provide 35,000 subsidised computers in pilots in
deprived neighbourhoods.
The PAT recognised that many individuals lack confidence or are sceptical about the value of using
new technologies. The UK online centres will help individuals acquire new skills in using technologies,
as will the 50,000 additional computer-training places available to jobless individuals through
the UK online computer training initiative. We will also be looking to use the new technologies to
the maximum extent possible in our national crusade to reduce the number of adults with problems
of basic literacy and numeracy.
As well as making Internet access widely available, the Prime Minister has committed the
Government to delivering its services online by 2005. As work proceeds we need to know how we are
doing against these targets. We have already commissioned research to track access and attitudes
to ICTs in deprived neighbourhoods. This will give us a baseline and allow us to identify benchmarks
against which the success of our policies and initiatives can be measured. As the PAT 15 report
said, there is already much good practice on ICTs and social exclusion. The trick is to ensure
that this good practice is widely available and that people can learn from and build on it. Over
the coming months, we will be looking at web-based ways of collecting and disseminating the
lessons that so many communities across the country have already learnt.
The PAT identified that language barriers compounded by other factors contribute to the low
take-up of ICTs and Internet services by minority ethnic groups. Technology may be an enabler,
but it can also be a barrier to information and access. There is a particular need for local provision
to reflect the cultural background of a neighbourhood. We agree that priority action is needed
here. We are already acting through our UK online centres, which are targeted at minority ethnic
groups among others. But more is needed and we are starting research to look at ways of promoting
ICT applications which operate in minority languages or use non-textual information. We will
also investigate ways of harnessing ICT to the teaching of English as a second language.
Taken together our current and planned activities represent a very positive response to the PAT’s
recommendations. In many cases we are not just meeting, but are going beyond what the PAT
envisaged to bridge the digital divide and ensure that everyone has the opportunity to benefit
from new technologies.
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1. Foreword
2.
Recommendations and Progress (1-10)
3.
Recommendations and Progress (11-20)
4.
Recommendations and Progress (21-30)
5.
Recommendations and Progress (31-37) |
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