Blueprint for digital inclusion: Strategic Recommendations for Effective Service Rollout

This recommendation-based report is informed by a benchmark analysis of digital inclusion strategies across various regions and nations in the UK, conducted between December 2023 and January 2024. The analysis aimed to provide a better understanding of the existing digital inclusion initiatives and services adopted at national, regional, and combined authority levels.

We analysed the national digital inclusion strategies for England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland, as well as the strategies of the following combined authorities and regions: Greater Manchester Combined Authority, Derbyshire, South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority, North Yorkshire, West Midlands and West Yorkshire. We specifically looked at existing digital inclusion activities that we recognised as innovative and unique. We were particularly interested in identifying good practices that could be fed into our sets of recommendations.

The benchmarking included: extraction, collection, and analysis of relevant resources. In terms of extraction, all of the reviewed and analysed documents were retrieved from publicly available sources and included digital inclusion strategies, reports, and articles of various digital inclusion activities and offered services found in a national databank with different organisations. The process of analysis focused specifically on the existing, innovative, unique, and good practices happening at national, regional, and combined authority levels. While doing so, we also took into account activities and services related to digital inclusion that were not widely offered or prioritised.

This analysis, together with reflections spurring from the authors’ 10+ years of expertise in the field of digital inclusion in the UK and internationally, support the recommendations we present in this document. These recommendations are directed to regions, combined authorities, and policy-makers. Six core recommendations for decision- and policy-makers were identified:

1. Establish Robust Coordination Networks
2. Foster Strategic Partnerships
3. Focus on Strategic and Intentional Communication
4. Enhance Infrastructure
5. Recognise that the Digital is Not For All
6. Shift Funding Models