ONS measures of well-being must reflect how internet access fundamentally underpins them all
By Martha Lane Fox
The ONS recently closed its consultation on the domains and measures that should be included to measure people’s feelings of wellbeing. I was alarmed to see that no reference had been made to digital capabilities within the entire piece.
Here’s what I wrote to David Halpern, Jil Matheson and Paul Allin, leading the consultation:
Dear David, Jil and Paul ,
Assessing UK progress against feelings of well-being affords a powerful opportunity to get a clear view of their fundamental underpinning by digital capability. With this information, government and charities can better understand both the opportunities of strong digital capability and the effects where it lacks, more strategically supporting the push toward Race Online 2012’s stated objective of a fully networked nation.
As UK Digital Champion and founder of Race Online 2012 I am greatly concerned that no mention of digital capability is made in the conceptual framework’s domains to directly measure subjective individual well-being. The ability to access and use the Internet and the digital products and services therein influences every domain: our social and family life, our financial situation and material living standards, our health, education and work – both what job we get and how satisfied we are with it – our ability to forge new communities and involve ourselves in our neighbourhoods. Specifically:
Relationships:
3.1 million over-65-year-olds in the UK don’t see a family, friend or neighbour even once a week (Participle.net)
51% of over 75 year olds live alone and just over 1 million (11%) aged 65 and over say they always or often feel lonely (Agenda for Later Life, Age UK 2011)
Internet access enables closer and more regular contact with friends and family, decreasing feelings of isolation and loneliness (Journal of Applied Gerontology (1999) and Journal of Instructional Psychology (1994)
96% of Internet users say the Internet has improved their life (UK online centres, Nov 2010)
The Internet has a direct positive impact on life satisfaction (The Information Dividend, BCS, September 2010)
Health:
39% of people aged 65 and over are estimated to have a disability (ONS)
Around half of those offline in the UK have a disability (ONS)
Mobility barriers are eased by online shopping, communication, travel-booking, banking and bill-payment
Internet users feel less concerned about health issues (Freshminds Research, 2009)
What we do:
Internet users report higher levels of happiness, self-confidence and overall quality of life than non-users (Freshminds Research, UK Online Centres, 2009)
Internet access enables lifelong learning opportunities, more choice and control of healthcare options and personal care budgets
Where we live:
HomeSwap Direct is a government scheme designed to increase the mobility of social housing tenants. HomeSwap can only be accessed online (Department for Communities and Local Government)
Personal finance:
Shopping and paying bills online saves the average household £560 per year (The Economic Case for Digital Inclusion, PwC)
People in 3.6 million low income and digitally excluded households (9% of UK adults) could be saving over £1 billion per year (The Economic Case for Digital Inclusion, PwC)
Education and skills:
Children in homes with Internet access achieve 2 grades higher (e-Learning Foundation, May 2011)
If the 1.6 million children in families not using the Internet got online at home, it could boost their total lifetime earnings by over £10 billion (The Economic Case for Digital Inclusion, PwC)
Internet users are 25% more confident of their skills to get a new job (Freshminds Research, 2009)
Estimated lifetime benefit of £12,000 for unemployed people getting online and increasing employment chances (The Economic Case for Digital Inclusion, PwC)
People with good ICT skills earn between 3% and 10% more than people without (The Economic Case for Digital Inclusion, PwC)
Digitally excluded employed people would increase their earnings by an average of over £8,300 in their lifetime by getting online (The Economic Case for Digital Inclusion, PwC)
Also relating to the contextual domain of governance, political voice is contingent on digital skills – we now express ourselves politically online and this will continue to be an area of rapid development. Furthermore, the proposed ONS Opinions Survey on subjective well-being are also intrinsically connected to digital capability, as above: personal relationships; physical health; mental well-being; employment; personal finance; locality; adequate time to do things you like doing; the well-being of your children.
I look forward to your thoughts.
Yours faithfully
Martha Lane Fox
UK Digital Champion
Give an Hour – make your opinions matter
A huge thank you to everyone who’s supported Give an Hour so far!
We want to make the campaign even bigger and better next time, and would love to hear your thoughts. We’ve created a quick (and anonymous) questionnaire that will help us make and shape future plans. It only takes a few minutes and will be invaluable in helping us to provide you with the time and assets you need in future.
Thanks in advance!
Last chance to nominate for the Adult Learners’ Week Awards
It’s awards season folks!
Before raising an eyebrow at the mere idea that our blog is about it play host to a discussion of Marilyn v’s The Iron Lady, never fear, for today, we want YOU to dust off your black tie and start practicing your speech.
Yesterday we highlighted the ISPA Digital Inclusion Award, which is celebrating projects, places and people (yes that means you digital champions!) around the UK that are helping beginners discover the wonders of the web.
And it’s not the only glitzy celebration either… The Adult Learners’ Week Awards are recognising and celebrating the achievements of adults who have transformed their lives through learning.
We hear fabulous stories every day about people who have embraced the web in later life and now’s your chance to help them win a gong. While you’re at it, please shout about the innovative and creative projects that are helping them.
Want to know more? Visit the website. Please hurry – the deadline’s on Friday.
The Citizenzone bus
Our project of the day – Preston City Council. We’re delighted to hear that its CitizenZone bus, which trawls the streets to give internet beginners a taste of the web, has just won a Public Sector Digital Award for ‘best use of IT to build a fairer society’. Congratulations!
Could you nominate yourself for an ISPA Award?
ISPA Awards 2011
To all you movers and shakers out there who are using your brilliant skills to help people and communities discover the wonders of the web, this is your moment to shine.
For the third year running, Race Online 2012 is partnering with the Internet Industry Association (ISPA UK), to judge the Digital Inclusion category at the ISPA Awards.
The award is open to all individuals, organisations or service providers that have gone that extra mile to engage the millions of people in the UK who have never been online. It also has a special focus on those who have actively targeted and helped the 4 million individuals who are socially and digitally excluded. The deadline is on Friday (27th).
Last year’s winner, Go ON Adopt a Care Home, was awarded for its fantastic community collaboration, helping to get people in care homes online for the first time with an innovative and yet sustainable model that utilises the brilliant skills of young digital champions.
An open request to UK social housing providers
If you work in social housing then I urge you to input into an update for Government. Feel free to pass this opportunity to a senior colleague if you feel they would be better placed to respond representing your organisation.
Our Digital Housing Report highlighted the critically low digital capability of the UK’s social housing sector, and inspired Grant Shapps to convene the digital housing summit. Mr. Shapps, myself, Grainia Long (CEO, CIH), David Orr (CEO, NHF), David Parsons (Chairman, Environment & Housing Programme Board, LGA) then wrote to housing association CEOs urging action.
Government has asked me to update on housing providers now embedding digital strategies and helping their residents to get online. To this end I would be extremely grateful if you would complete a very short questionnaire at http://bit.ly/MLFQblog before February the 10th, so I can represent your organisation’s thoughts and efforts.
Digital capability is core to every work stream. Residents with inadequate digital skills feel more isolated and socially excluded, are less employable, attain lower grades in education, and pay more for goods and services. Digital technologies also enable savings and improvements for your business (but only if your customers are switched on to using them).
I urge you to place the digital capability of your business and residents firmly on your Corporate Risk Register, and I thank you sincerely for taking the time to complete my survey.
If you are a UK social housing provider then please take a few minutes to follow this link: http://bit.ly/MLFQblog
With many thanks in advance for your help
Martha Lane Fox
Channel Shift in the Public Sector
With ever increasing demand on the public sector to increase efficiency while maintaining high standards of customer service, don’t miss your chance to attend ‘Channel Shift in the Public Sector’, a Capita conference focusing on the challenges and benefits of moving towards ‘Digital by Default’.
Taking place this Friday, the conference will highlight emerging and established best practice in the management and provision of multiple channel service delivery, including social media, while also tackling the critical issue of promoting our agenda in communities and the variety of models for successful channel integration.
The best bit? Race Online 2012 MD Leigh Smyth is only one of the fab speakers lined up. Delivering the keynote address, she’ll be discussing ‘moving towards a networked nation’ – motivating the transition to digital, making services available for all and cutting transaction costs through channel shift. Other speakers include Amanda Derrick from the Department for Education and Programme Director for ‘Connect Digitally’, and reps from police, housing, health and local government.
Yell champs help care home residents discover the wonderful web
Resident Alice with Emily from Yell
Last week, residents of Pembroke Lodge care home in Reading experienced the magic of the web for the first time thanks to five digital champs from digital services company, Yell.
Glenn Goodall, Sunil Kalsi, Chris Long, Emily Mulroney and Neal Thoms – all Yellsites website consultants based at One Reading Central, spent a morning introducing residents to the world wide web for the first time.
During the session, 90 year old Ruby Nash discovered YouTube and enjoyed listening to one of her favourite ’40s singers, Anne Shelton. Marguerite Ffennell strolled down memory lane online as she revisited an art gallery in Madrid that she frequented as a teenager. Some residents also learnt how to navigate a mouse, while others were delighted as they learnt how to ‘open a web page’.
Resident Marguerite Ffennell, said, “I don’t like computers – only because I don’t understand them. But now it’s marvellous, I can do and see so many things!”
Owner of Pembroke Lodge, Charles D’Cruz, said: “It was interesting to see the changes in the residents’ attitude from being reluctant to learning about the internet to being quite involved!”
Sunil and Audrey and Alice
Georgeanne Lamont, Co-founder of Caring for Care Homes, a social enterprise that helped facilitate the project between Yell and Pembroke Lodge, said: “For us, this is what it is all about – older people feeling part of the local and global community, connecting with others and able to communicate with relatives and friends. The Yell volunteers were brilliant – very patient, warm and kind with the residents. Pembroke Lodge and Yell are helping take Care Homes fully into the 21st century.”
Thanks to the donation of two laptops from Yell, the home is going to continue the work started by Yell champs, with a computer club to encourage residents to contact their relatives via email and Skype.
MLF – my personal reminder of why this work is so important
My uncle died recently. I felt privileged to have had him in my family as he was an extraordinary man in many ways.
Our lives had a deep point of connection – he was in a near fatal car crash in 1989 as I was in 2004. However, as a result he suffered from tetraplegia while I am lucky enough to be able to walk.
Whether, like me, his interest in the wider benefits of technology grew as a result of his accident I am not sure, but I did see first-hand what a staggering difference it could make to his life. He never let what had happened to him dominate how he approached the world. Despite his physical challenges he became a county councillor in Oxfordshire where he lived and ended up on the cabinet. He was also a director of Regain, a charity helping other people facing tetraplegia who want to enjoy more independence.
We talked often about how the internet and access to technology enabled people who could feel very isolated to feel more engaged and able to cope. We also talked often about how to nuke cumbersome paper from organisations and replace it with much more efficient digital distribution. He would wade through boxes of paper in order to conduct his council business. For years, he had a special attachment made by stoke mandeville that enabled him to slowly hit the keys of his pc. It must have been frustrating but I am sure he rarely complained and instead delighted in the fact he could Skype his beloved 7 grandchildren and 2 daughters and buy surprise presents for his wife, my aunt Dido – activities that would have been impossible for him through any other means.
However, it was the launch of the iPad that led to a dramatic improvement in access – quite by fluke he had enough movement in the knuckle of his little finger to be able to use it completely unaided and the app driven screen was perfect for his needs. He loved it and the services, games and news it provided.
Long before I founded Race Online 2012, he showed me that the internet was not just a fabulous tool for selling last minute holidays, but when I started the campaign he reiterated to me how vital it is that everyone is given the opportunity to benefit from the internet.
Race Online 2012 is a rallying cry to help millions more use the internet but it is also, I hope, a spotlight on how very deeply individual lives can be transformed. I am delighted to be a patron of AbilityNet, that helps many disabled people to use technology, and I am so happy to have known this brave man, Roger Belson.
Go ON BoltON
Shauney
The UK’s largest online kitchen appliance retailer Appliances Online, is spreading its love of the web by donating unwanted hardware to the local community.
The equipment, which includes a laptop and monitors, has been given to the UK’s largest youth club Bolton Lads and Girls Club, helping to increase access to the net for over 3000 young people every week.
According to Vicky Pritchard, Head of IT Service at Appliances Online, “as an internet retailer, we understand the endless opportunities the web can provide for young people, and were keen to encourage its use within our local community.”
The Bolton Lads and Girls Club is open 7 days-a-week, 52 weeks-a-year, for all those aged between 8 and 21. Member Shauney Nicholson, 18, from Deane says: “I have used the laptop today to complete my CV and make sure that I have all my achievements recorded and written down. This is really important as I am looking to apply for some volunteering work at the moment.
Shauney often utilises the computer equipment at the club; “I think that it’s really helpful to be able to come to Bolton Lads and Girls Club and use the laptops and internet as you can get staff to help you. I have also been to Job Club before and used the laptops to search for volunteering opportunities on the internet.
Karen Edwards, Chief Executive at Bolton Lads and Girls Club, believes the computer equipment will make a real difference: “The donation of a laptop from Appliances Online has boosted computer access for our members, enabling more of our young people to log online to look for employment, training or further education opportunities or to help complete their school and college work.”
- If your organisation has unwanted equipment, or you received a shiny new tablet, PC or laptop this Christmas, and the old one is sitting around gathering dust – click here to find a recycling scheme near you, or drop it off at your local Age UK
Betty – “I was the invisible woman”
Betty
“I called myself ‘the invisible woman”, says Betty, 78. “Nowadays, everything that’s interesting or anything that you want to know more about is all ‘www dot’! So if you don’t have access to the internet, you’re completely stuck.”
Until November last year, Betty, 78, from Ecclesall in Sheffield, was one of the millions of people across the UK never to have kept in touch with a loved one, explored their interests, or got a great deal online.
However, that all changed when one day, she accidently stumbled across an internet taster session run as part of the Go ON Sheffield campaign. Buoyed by her experiences, she’s now attending weekly 1:1 sessions in her local Wetherspoons.
“If you’re not online, you are limited in accessing an enormous range of information”, she says. “Plus, everything seems to be centred around computers in the modern world. For example, NHS leaflets, cinema listings, train times – the list is endless.”
However, life changed for her on the memorable day she attended a meeting of the Expert Elders Group at Sheffield Town Hall. In the room next door, Plusnet, together with UK online centres and Heeley Development Trust, were offering a free internet taster session and the chance to win broadband for a year. “It turned out to be my lucky day”, exclaims Betty. “I won one of the Plusnet broadband offers for a year! My friend gave me a laptop and with the help of Helen, Vic and Chris from UK online centres, I was able to send my first email to a friend in Canada.”
Crucially, Betty no longer sees herself as ‘the invisible woman’, and all because she feels she’s now able to “move with the times and join the modern world. I want to make sure that by this time next year I’m be clicking away and using it to its full advantage”, she says. “If there’s one thing I can say it’s that I don’t give up. It has been a fantastic learning journey and my advice to others is that regardless of age, make sure you try the fascination of the computer world!”
