In this webinar, hosted by the Good Home Inquiry, we examined how a digitally connected home supports  and enhances a good home and how we can ensure more people are connected in ways that work for them in their existing homes. Find out more: https://www.ageing-better.org.uk/events/good-digitally-connected-home

1. Centre for Ageing Better
ageing-better.org.uk
How does digital
connectivity support and
enhance a good home?
In this webinar, hosted by the Good Home Inquiry, we will
examine how a digitally connected home supports and
enhances a good home and how we ensure more people
are connected in ways that work for them in their existing
homes.
Thursday 12 August 2021

2. ageing-better.org.uk
David Orr CBE
Good Home Inquiry
Chair

3. ageing-better.org.uk
Emma Stone
Director of Design and
Research Good Things
Foundation

4. Digital inclusion
August 2021
Dr Emma Stone
emma.stone@goodthingsfoundation.org

5. Overview
● About Good Things Foundation
● Digital inclusion - UK overview
● Fixing the digital divide together
● Over to you

6. Our vision is a world where everyone benefits from digital

7. Our outcomes: We enable people to be digitally able, safe and equal
so they can be happier, healthier and better off

8. About Good Things Foundation
● We are the UK’s leading digital inclusion charity
● We help people to improve their lives through digital
○ More equal access to devices and data
○ More local support with digital skills
● We support a UK network of community organisations
and other local partners - providing free resources to
them, so they can support others in their communities
● We collaborate and campaign for change
○ Fix the digital divide
○ End data poverty
● Any group or organisation can join our network - 100%
free - if they support people to be digitally included

9. |Digital inclusion means...
● Access & affordability
● Skills & safety
● Confidence & motivation

10. Economic
Jobs
Education
Social
Participation
Communities
Money
Benefits
Payments
Health
Housing
Wellbeing
Digital exclusion widens inequalities

11. | Data on digital access & internet use
Digital Nation 2020 compiled by Good Things Foundation

12. | Digital exclusion: most excluded / non-users

13. Limited Users
Those most at risk are:
○ Aged 65+ (18%)
○ From DE households (11%)
○ Financially vulnerable (10%)
● Left education earlier
● Live in rural areas
● Live with a health
condition or disability
● Only use social media

14. | Digital inclusion - extensive users

15. | UK’s digital divide is also a north/south divide
Map: Analysis by Prof. Simeon Yates for Good
Things Foundation of latest Ofcom data
(Adults Media Use & Literacy Survey; 2020).
Yates’ analysis segments the population into
non-users and six types of internet users.
On the map, green is for ‘extensive users’; red
is for ‘limited users’ combined with non-users.
An overview of Prof. Yates’ analysis is here.
Signposts: Lloyds Bank Consumer Digital
Index 2020.

16. In the UK
2.6 million people are
still offline
1.5 million households
have no internet access

17. ● Digital exclusion is not just about older people - many younger people
face digital exclusion, whether access or skills
○ 10% of those offline are under 50 years old
● Digital exclusion isn’t a problem that will just go away because of
demographics - it is heavily driven by poverty, and affects all ages
○ 55% of those offline earn under £20,000
● Digital exclusion won’t be solved just by leaving it to friends and family -
there are motivational and confidence barriers & fears
● Digital skills can be learned easily at work - only 23% of employees say
they’ve had digital skills training from their employer (FDN 2021)
Some common myths

18. | Together - we need to fix the digital divide
A national priority and a shared responsibility
● Access - sustainable solutions to end data poverty
● Skills - essential, everyday skills for everyone
● Support - in our communities - social infrastructure
Risks we face
● Everyone’s problem and no-one’s problem
● A significant minority face even deeper exclusion
● Lose momentum - yet pace of change accelerates

19. Working together...

20. Advocating for change together...
http://www.goodthingsfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/blueprint-for-a-100-digitally-included-uk-0.pdf
Get Online Week 2021 - October 18-25
Campaign to #FixtheDigitalDivide

21. Supporting everyone to play their part

22. | Designing solutions together - Data Poverty Lab
Data Poverty Lab
Seeking sustainable solutions to
end data poverty by 2024
“Individuals, households or
communities who cannot afford
sufficient, private and secure
mobile or broadband data to
meet their essential needs.”
(Lucas et al. 2020)
Designing solutions together...
Data Poverty Lab supported by Nominet
www.goodthingsfoundation.org/data-poverty-lab/

23. … a foodbank but for data. We’re working with Virgin Media 02 to distribute
£12.5m of data - now we need other industry partners to come on board. Free
mobile data will be allocated to local people in need by partners in the Online
Centres network.

24. Over to you!

25. ageing-better.org.uk
Helen Burrows
Content and Services
Policy Director, BT

26. Digital connectivity and a good home
How technology can improve older people’s lives
August 2021
26

27. What are the contributing factors to digital inclusion
27
Infrastructure
• - 99.4% of UK premises have access to a ‘decent’ broadband connection
if they want one (fixed or FWA)
• - Superfast broadband available to c. 96% of UK premises
• - Mobile coverage - 98-99% of premises outdoors, 90-95% indoors
(individual operator coverage between 79% and 85% of UK geography)
Connectivity
- 96% of households have internet access (including mobile) – age is the
biggest determining factor of whether someone is online
- Ofcom affordability study (Dec 2020) found 19% of households
reported some affordability issues
- Lloyds Consumer Digital Index 2020 estimates average monthly
broadband cost at £30-35 – of the offline population 53% may not have
disposable income above this.
Devices
- Ofcom estimates 11% of households do not have internet access at
home on any sort of device, and 19% of households do not have a PC,
laptop, netbook or tablet
- 9% of all children have no home access to laptop or desktop or tablet
Skills and motivation
- Ofcom found 77% of non-internet users said nothing would encourage
them to go online in next 12 months. 61% not online due to a lack of
interest or need.
- ONS found 34% of households said a lack of skills was the reason for
not accessing the Internet.
- Lloyds Consumer Digital Index estimates 11.7 m (22%) people lack
digital skills for everyday life.
Digital inclusion

28. Groups needing help to be digitally included
28
Skills and will
Affordabili
In data
poverty
No of households: 2.6m / 10 -13% (Ofcom / ONS)
Key characteristic: older
Key driver: lack of skills and will
No of households: 0.5 -1m / 2 - 4% (Ofcom / ONS)
Key characteristic: mobile only households, or no IP
connectivity at all
Key driver: cost, unstable living situation, willingness
to have direct debit
No of households: 1.3m / 5 - 6% (Ofcom)
Key characteristic: has broadband
Key driver: cost (struggles with existing bill)
There are currently 4.5m / 16% households claiming Universal Credit (DWP)

29. Digital exclusion: a challenge with three interrelated aspects
Super fast internet coverage currently exceeds uptake by 40% points
• NHSX estimated that of the 1.4m most vulnerable to Covid 50% - 700,000 were not online
• Further investment in infrastructure required to ‘level-up’ affordability – 10/15% have cost issue, but lower prices alone wont solve
• Risk of ‘digital poverty’ were some citizens cannot access key public services – i.e. health, education3
• Push initiatives are required to move the final cohorts
IMPACTS
18% / 5m of UK households (27.9m)
are do not have fixed BB (7% are
mobile only)
8% / 4.5m of UK adults
have never been online
Source / Note: remove if not required
Connectivity
29
Devices Skills and will
This group are older: 90%
are over 55 yrs.
In the over 75s, 50% of people
(43% of households) are not online
18% of UK adults do not have a
smart phone
58% of adults have a smart TV,
57% a laptop, 52% a tablet
34% of adults only use devices other than
a computer, and 11% of adults only use a
smartphone, to go online
A recent ComRes study of non-internet
users found that
‘most (70%) have no prior experience of
using the internet, or a device’
33% of over 60s either feel that getting
online is too complicated or wouldn’t
know where to start
Most not online are older… Many others lack devices…. Never used a computer…
Compared to 12% that considered it
too expensive or a waste of money

30. BT’s new social tariff
30

31. Public Sector Broadcast (PSB) renewal could be a vehicle for inclusive digital
transformation in the UK
- especially for older people
31
1. PSBs: Face a set of challenges that calls their long term viability into question
2. Network rollout: The Government and Ofcom are seeking to incentivise investment in new networks and their rollout
(both Fibre and Superfast broadband), to deliver further and faster than the market alone
3. Uptake: The urgency of solving digital exclusion has been exposed by the 2020 pandemic and now sits at the top of the
policy agenda
Our proposal is that, by bringing these three strands of policy together, the Government and Ofcom
create the opportunity to solve all of them better, generating much greater positive externalities for the UK
Private and confidential

32. Existing broadcast technology is not sustainable, as consumers increasingly move
to viewing TV online (and advertisers follow)
32 Private and confidential
PSBs and commercial FTA channels have
largely fixed content delivery costs due to
the DTT model
Viewership / profitability under
steady downward pressures
In a ‘do-nothing’ scenario, we see declining revenue but fixed
costs of DTT putting pressure on content budget
We expect that DTT will become uneconomic in next 5-10
years
Some viewers may not want to
switch to online viewing, but we
expect the PSBs to seek to exit
DTT as costs per viewer rise
Time (speculatively between 2020-2030)
Costs
/
revenue
(£)
1
2
3
4
5
Ad revenues in steady decline (e.g. -16% YoY for ITV)
Live TV fell to <50% of viewing time (only c.20% for young adults)
SVOD on the rise; expanding to older cohorts during lockdown
TV license fees under long-term scrutiny by government
An illustrative view of the direction of travel for PSBs and commercial broadcasters in the UK
Surplus goes to create the
best content for the UK !
While the exact timing of this ‘trigger point’ is unclear, we believe that the time to think about a managed transition to IP is now
Cost
Revenue /
relevance
Source: ITV, Company reports, Ofcom

33. 33 Private and confidential
The PSB review offers an opportunity to better address these three issues
together and deliver material benefits for all stakeholders
- but this requires a plan for IP distribution too
Delivering benefits for all across the content and network industries, UK citizens, and UK Government as the digital
transformation of public services (healthcare, social care and education)

34. ageing-better.org.uk
Ceri Roberts
Strategic Funding Manager
E.ON

35. Homes for Living
(UKRI Trailblazers under the Healthy Ageing Programme)
Partnered
with:

36. Background
Housing Health Budgets
Over half UK homes are >50 y/o
10% of UK homes - Cat 1 hazard
Poor housing stock costs NHS
£1.4b
Main problem; Excess cold,
damp & mould, slips, trips, falls
Main areas; stairs, door step,
kitchen and bathroom
Public…
(reactive spend)
CCG £3.65bn
Disabled Facilities Grants £468m
Improved Better Care Fund
£1.12bn
Private… (more proactive spend)
ECO £640m >2022
WHD initiatives £50m
Warm Homes Fund £150m >2022

38. A ‘whole home ECO system’ approach
Basic
needs
‘Homes for
Living’
Aspirations
‘helping people to live better for longe

39. How? - Collaboration
Partners
In close
collaboration
with
Community Partnership
Trailblazers

40. Centre for Ageing Better
ageing-better.org.uk
How does digital
connectivity support and
enhance a good home?
In this webinar, hosted by the Good Home Inquiry, we will
examine how a digitally connected home supports and
enhances a good home and how we ensure more people
are connected in ways that work for them in their existing
homes.
Thursday 12 August 2021