Blueprint for digital inclusion: Strategic Recommendations for Effective Service Rollout

<p dir="ltr"><b>This recommendation-based report is informed by a benchmark analysis of digital inclusion strategies across various </b><b>regions and nations in the UK, conducted between December 2023 and January 2024. The analysis aimed to provide a better </b><b>understanding of the existing digital inclusion initiatives and services adopted at national, regional, and combined authority </b><b>levels.</b></p><p dir="ltr"><b>We analysed the national digital inclusion strategies for England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland, as well as the </b><b>strategies of the following combined authorities and regions: Greater Manchester Combined Authority, Derbyshire, South </b><b>Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority, North Yorkshire, West Midlands and West Yorkshire. We specifically looked at existing </b><b>digital inclusion activities that we recognised as innovative and unique. We were particularly interested in identifying good </b><b>practices that could be fed into our sets of recommendations.</b></p><p dir="ltr"><b>The benchmarking included: extraction, collection, and analysis of relevant resources. In terms of extraction, all of the </b><b>reviewed and analysed documents were retrieved from publicly available sources and included digital inclusion strategies, </b><b>reports, and articles of various digital inclusion activities and offered services found in a national databank with different </b><b>organisations. The process of analysis focused specifically on the existing, innovative, unique, and good practices happening </b><b>at national, regional, and combined authority levels. While doing so, we also took into account activities and services related </b><b>to digital inclusion that were not widely offered or prioritised.</b></p><p dir="ltr"><b>This analysis, together with reflections spurring from the authors’ 10+ years of expertise in the field of digital inclusion in the </b><b>UK and internationally, support the recommendations we present in this document. These recommendations are directed to </b><b>regions, combined authorities, and policy-makers. Six core recommendations for decision- and policy-makers were identified:</b></p><ol><li><b>Establish Robust Coordination Networks</b></li><li><b>Foster Strategic Partnerships</b></li><li><b>Focus on Strategic and Intentional Communication</b></li><li><b>Enhance Infrastructure</b></li><li><b>Recognise that the Digital is Not For All</b></li><li><b>Shift Funding Models</b></li></ol><p><br></p>