Digital Inclusion Innovation Programme

Last week, there were four major developments with our GLA-funded work to tackle digital exclusion in London as part of the Digital Inclusion Innovation Programme.

Mapping Digital Inclusion with Data

LOTI’s Mapping Digital Exclusion project has been shortlisted for the Smarter Working Live awards. The pan London collaboration between Barnet, Brent, RBKC, Southwark and Westminster has been nominated in the ‘Inclusive Collaboration and Communication’ category. Congratulations to all involved! You can view all the nominations and find out more here.

Research on London’s Digital Inclusion Initiatives

On Wednesday 6th October, we held a Show and Tell in which freelance researcher Will Bibby presented the findings of his research for LOTI into the scale and nature of >100 digital inclusion programmes taking place across London. The purpose of the research is to better understand how digital exclusion is being tackled across the capital and identify key challenges and opportunities for London-wide action. In the video below, Will discusses his key findings and recommendations.

Supporting Dementia Care project

Following a workshop on 28 September, we worked with our partners in the Helix Centre team at Imperial College London to plan the next steps of the discovery phase of this project, which aims to design digitally inclusive services for people affected by dementia and their carers. We’re planning to hold a series of mini-workshops with interested boroughs where we’ll further develop three potential concepts to test.

Digital Inclusion in Temporary Accommodation

We’re pleased to announce that we’ve appointed FutureGov to conduct an 8-week discovery to explore the nature of digital exclusion experienced by residents living in London temporary accommodation (TA) hostels. This discovery will produce a set of recommended interventions to support our overall goal of ensuring that no one is digitally excluded as a result of living in TA. LOTI will follow up this discovery by implementing practical measures to address digital exclusion in this context. The first sprint of the project begins today.

If you’d like to get involved in any of the Digital Inclusion Innovation Programme projects please contact the LOTI team via Basecamp (our project engagement platform).

Future Workplace

Last week we kicked off our research into the Future Workplace, starting with interviews with the Chief Digital Officers from our LOTI member boroughs. The purpose of these interviews is to understand the current challenges facing boroughs’ workplaces following all the disruption of the Covid crisis, to explore what solutions and policies are currently being put in place to address them, and identify common pain points where further action is required.

Beyond that, we also see the move to more hybrid ways of working as an opportunity to explore how changes to the workplace could help address more long-standing issues, such the challenge of recruiting for certain high-skilled roles in London. We’re starting to contact external experts so we can ensure that our findings and suggestions to boroughs are truly grounded in cutting edge thought and practices. You can follow our research on our newly launched webpage.

How to old inclusive online meetings, workshops and events

Given how many meetings, workshops and events now take place online, it’s vital to ensure that they’re as accessible and inclusive as possible. Last week, LOTI completed the first draft of a guide into doing just that. You can read it here.

Taking accessibility and inclusivity seriously is not just a good thing in itself. The practices outlined in this guide are also key for ensuring online sessions are effective and achieve their objectives. The guide points to excellent advice from the NHS and AbilityNow on how to ensure online sessions are accessible for those with a range of different needs or disabilities. It also covers good practices for putting all participants at ease and encouraging their involvement according to different personality types. We hope you find the guide useful and welcome feedback.

Coming up this week

This week we’ll be:

1. Meeting with the main representatives of all LOTI boroughs to update them on our progress against our Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) as we reach the end of our first quarter.
2. Finalising the design of our next Digital Inclusion Innovation Programme workshop, which takes place on 20 October.
3. Assessing applications from candidates who have applied to join the LOTI team as our new Communications and Engagement Manager.

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