Agenda and minutes

To approve as a correct record the Minutes of the meeting held on 25 November 2014.

RESOLVED – That the Minutes of the meeting of the Panel held on 25 November 2014 be agreed as a correct record, subject to the deletion of “such as the Citizens Advice Bureau” in the seventh bullet point to Minute 4 ‘Digital Inclusion – The Local Context and Baseline’

Councillors and Officers to declare any interests which they have in any of the items on the agenda for the meeting.

Councillors and Officers were invited to declare any interests which they had in

any of the agenda items for the meeting.

The following interest  was declared:-

Personal Interest

A number of the Council’s partners will attend the meeting to give their views on the barriers to people accessing digital services in Stockport.

Stockport Homes

Tanya King, Social Inclusion Manager with Stockport Homes, gave an overview of that aspect of the  organisation’s Social Inclusion Strategy which related to digital inclusion. 71% of Stockport Homes’ tenants over the age of 65 were without digital access.  The cost of broadband and smartphones was prohibitive for those on low incomes and without internet access tenants could not find the best offers. Credit checks prevented some tenants from being able to enter into contracts. In addition, 48% of disabled tenants did not have digital access (from the December 2014 STAR survey) and 25% of tenants in the ‘Three Sisters’ blocks of flats in Brinnington had no internet access (frpom face to face survey December 2015).

The Council and Stockport Homes had made efforts to help tenants overcome the barriers to digital access. The Council’s Public Wifi project would see eighteen Council buildings installed with wifi access in 2015. For the last year Stockport Homes had been running a Digital Heroes course. Approximately 150 people had currently completed the course and funding had been provided for a further year. Stockport Homes had also undertaken a lot of work with Starpoint, a digital inclusion social enterprise company in Woodley.

Stockport Homes had embarked on a project to provide free wi-fi access in the ‘Three Sisters’ blocks of flats in Brinnington by having a transmitter in the middle block of flats. It was anticipated that this project would be in place nby the end of April 2015 and was operating as a pilot to see if lessons leaned from the connectivity, equipment and training offered could be ‘rolled out’ to other locations. It was scheduled to run for two years, but would be reviewed after six months. Stockport Homes had completed a ‘mapping’ exercise to see which of its housing stock were not within a ten minutes walk of a building with digital access and was using this to plan the location of future projects.

The following comments were made/issues raised:-

·         Access to the internet was now like a utility and the ability to use it a life skill.

·         There were eleven volunteers who had trained the 150 people who had attended the Digital Heroes course. Another 250 people were scheduled to attend the course in the forthcoming year.

·         The Digital Heroes courses were financed partly from Housing Revenue Account (HRA) monies from the Council, from HRA underspend from Stockport Homes’ management fee and from the water surplus.

·         As a result of the project to provide digital access to the ‘Three Sisters’ blocks of flats in Brinnington, Stockport Homes had received a number of enquiries from local people. Consideration was being given to providing dongles if necessary and upgrading facilities in the local community centre. Training would take place and the concept of having Community Champions in the blocks of flats was being explored.

·         Measures would be in place to block or control access to certain websites as part of the ‘Three Sisters’ project. The uses of the digital access would be monitored, although there were other objectives such as reducing social isolation and increasing employment.. Using the free wi-fi for non-work reasons could act as a ‘gateway’ to accessing Stockport Homes digitally or the Universal Credit scheme.

·          Stockport Homes may also be able to work with schools to explore the use of their IT equipment out of school hours.

·         There could be benefits to businesses of greater digital access.

·         As one of the key barriers to digital access was cost, Stockport Homes would explore working with the Credit Union in this regard.

·         Stockport Homes was sharing its expertise with the Council and the voluntary sector, for example through the Citizens Advice Bureau.

Voluntary Sector

Tony Shield, Chief Officer at Anchorpoint, outlined the barriers to digital access which his organisation had identified, namely a lack of understanding of the importance of having digital access, a  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.

To consider a report of the Head of Policy, Performance and Reform

The report examines the Council’s role in helping to remove any barriers that may prevent people accessing services through new digital channels.

The Panel is invited to comment on the report.

Officer Contact: Steve Skelton on 0161 474 3174 or email:steve.skelton@stockport.gov.uk

The Head of Policy, Performance and Reform submitted a report (copies of which had been circulated) examining the Council’s role in helping to remove any barriers that may prevent people accessing services through new digital channels. Appendix 1 to the report contained information on Web Accessibility and Appendix 2 was a note of the Partnership Digital Inclusion Seminar held on 22 January 2015. Anonymised information was also provided from the Citizens Advice Bureau on clients who were unable to access information or enter into negotiations with third parties because they did not have digital access.

The Head of Information and Communication advised that the Council was currently re-designing the front end of the website, which had been launched in October last year. The content pages were currently being redesigned and should be comleted by the end of March this year. A comprehensive review of the website would follow after that.

The following comments were made/issues raised:-

·         The information on web accessibility concentrated too much on people with disabilities and needed reference, for example to elderly people, young people and people who did not have English as a first language.

·         One of the isssues about the redesign of the website was about ensuring that information was stored when, for example, a resident was filling in a form on-line and had not completed it.

·         The Council needed to have a secure system which would alleviate residents’ anxiety about inputting confidential, personal information on-line where, for example, credit card details are stored. A lot of residents paid their council tax by direct debit so that could be a useful starting point.

·         Members of this Panel should have been invited to the Digital Inclusion Seminar.

RESOLVED – (1) That the report be noted.

(2) That an annual Digital Inclusion Seminars be held in future years.

To receive a presentation from the Head of Information and Communication.

Officer Contact: Paul James on 0161 474 5430 or email: paul.james@stockport.gov.uk

The Head of Information and Communication made a presentation on Assisted Digital by Design. This was one of the six Digital Solution themes, the others being intelligent information provision, customer portal, community hub, mobile applications and platforms, and data sharing and predictive analytics. Assisted digital was about empowering more people to access more services digitally, whilst also providing a safety net for more vulnerable users through assistance where necessary.

RESOLVED – That the presentation be noted.

Future meetings of the Panel will be held on 24 February and 24 March 2015.

RESOLVED – That future meetings of the Panel be held on 24 February and 24 March 2015.