Most of us take using computers and going online for granted, but for many social housing tenants, internet access is an alien concept. According to the Online Centres Foundation (OCF), which co-ordinates schemes across the UK aimed at tackling digital exclusion, around 50% of all social housing tenants never use the internet.
These digitally excluded tenants suffer in a number of ways – they are financially worse off, children may lack resources to help them with schoolwork, they may feel socially isolated being less able to keep in touch with friends and family, and they are also at a disadvantage in the job market. So how can social housing providers boost their tenants' digital skills?
Charlotte Holley, resident and community involvement officer at Northamptonshire-based Spire Homes, acknowledged that there are a number of barriers to improving tenants' digital skills. "They may live in a rural area with poor transport links, which means they can't go to the library [to use a computer] or they can't afford to pay for a computer or internet access," she said.
Holley added: "There can be a lack of perceived benefits and tenants may feel it is too much effort to find locations that offer internet access." Consequently, she said it is important to promote internet access training to tenants via newsletters or flyers and participate in Get Online Week. The latter is a campaign run by UK Online Centres, an organisation that co-ordinates a network of 3,800 online training centres across the UK.
Holley said that Spire Homes recently conducted a "community audit", with a view to identifying locations in the local area that offer internet access and which could help the association train its tenants in digital skills. As a result, Spire Homes will be running pilot digital training schemes in partnership with libraries and community centres.
Helen Milner, chief executive of the OCF, which operates UK Online Centres, said there are numerous benefits associated with getting tenants online. "Tenants who are not internet users miss out on finding out about work and applying for jobs and benefits such as Universal Credit, while children with access to the internet do better in education," she saids.
Milner added that people who are online can save £200-£300 a year because they are able to shop around and find the cheapest way to buy things, as well as save money on utility bills. She urged social housing providers to "embed digital skills" in all their activities and give tenants' and residents' associations the training and kit they need to get tenants' digital skills up to speed.
How should the process of embedding digital skills work in practice? Milner cited examples such as training tenants taking hairdressing courses on how to set up websites promoting their business or showing members of gardening clubs how to search for information about plants online. She added that resources that may be useful for social housing providers include UK Online Centres' Digital Housing Hub, a forum for sharing ideas and best practice, and its Social Housing Providers Digital Inclusion Strategy Group, which meets quarterly in London and Sheffield.
Sarah Sims, resident involvement officer at Daventry and District Housing, said that tenants lives can be transformed by learning digital skills. "You get people who were scared [of computers], who now have their own laptop and are doing shopping online and saving money with price comparison sites and booking holidays," she said. "They are also able to contact friends and relatives using Skype."
Carol Jenkinson, a 59-year-old grandmother from Sheffield, who now does all her banking online after learning about using computers at a local UK Online Centre, admitted that computers used to frighten her. "It sounds daft but before I started the course I honestly didn't know much more than how to switch a computer on," she said. "I'd just never needed to use one in my day to day work. I used Facebook on my phone and that sort of thing, but computers were a completely different world far as I was concerned."
Jane Ellis, area head of adult skills at IT training provider Learn Direct, said digital skills can play a key role in building tenants self-esteem. "Some people may not be confident in a school or college because of past experiences," she said.
But Ellis acknowledged that providing computer training for tenants can be an expensive undertaking. She said: "Associations can't always keep training viable due to staff costs, for example, but Learn Direct has worked with housing associations – they can contacts us, we can identify a local training supplier and then we will broker that relationship."
Ben Cook is a freelance journalist
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