Renewing Scotland’s full potential in a digital world

SCVO Response to the Scottish Government's Digital Strategy

About SCVO

The Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations (SCVO) is the national membership organisation for the voluntary sector. We champion the sector, provide services, and debate big issues. Along with our community of 2,000+ members, we believe that charities, social enterprises, and voluntary groups make Scotland a better place.

Over the past 8 years SCVO has been delivering a dedicated programme of work supporting Scotland’s efforts to tackle digital exclusion. These efforts include managing Scotland’s Digital Participation Charter, supporting organisations to develop digital inclusion projects through the Digital Participation Fund and Developing a network of organisations across Scotland which have embedded Digital Champion approaches to reach the most excluded. More recently, SCVO has been delivering Connecting Scotland alongside the Scottish Government and a range of partners across the private, public and voluntary sectors.

Our Position

Part A) Digital inclusion

We welcome the updated vision and actions for the Digital Strategy, recognising the changed landscape in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic and the need to build a sustainable approach for the future. Our primary interest is seeing digital inclusion embedded across the strategy. We support a vision that tackles digital exclusion that takes account of:

• Motivation
• Affordability of appropriate kit and connectivity
• Skills to be able to use technology confidently and safely

Digital inclusion is not static. It is intrinsically linked to evolving technology. Our approach to digital inclusion needs to be dynamic so that no one is left behind.

We would welcome the overall vision for digital inclusion in Scotland to reflect the changing landscape of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR). As technology advances, so does the level of skill and confidence required from citizens to understand new digital products and services such as the Internet of Things (IoT) and Artificial Intelligence (AI). An ethical and confident digital Scotland needs to support citizens to understand the technologies they are interacting with and how they make informed decisions about this. Digital inclusion is therefore a dynamic concept that needs to evolve at a similar pace to these technologies. If we fail to keep pace, we risk allowing the digital divide to grow further. This reaches beyond the groups that we traditionally see as being digitally excluded, for example, older people. Looking to the future, we need to take preventative action to ensure that we don’t allow those that are currently digitally included to fall behind. Digital inclusion is lifelong learning.  

Our approach to this consultation

SCVO hosted two roundtable events on 3 and 5 November to take account the views of our stakeholders from both the voluntary and public sectors. These views have informed our response.

Embedding digital inclusion

Any effort to tackle digital exclusion should be embedded in existing activity to tackle poverty and social exclusion, and not viewed as something separate. Support to build motivation, address fears and support skills and confidence should be provided by a trusted individual, with an existing relationship and embedded within a broader package of support to tackle other issues, such as social or financial exclusion.

Building digital confidence and skills does not require a digital expert, it’s more important that the relationship is one founded on trust and within the context of the wider inequalities in that persons’ life.

To achieve this aim, we need to support the development of workforce digital skills in both the voluntary and public sectors, and ensure that this is adequately resourced. This will also require a culture change whereby frontline services understand digital inclusion as a core offering as part of service delivery and as a shared responsibility. Organisations we have consulted with have consistently raised issues about core public services providing digital service delivery with little or no resource committed to advancing digital inclusion of target users. We would strongly encourage the introduction of ‘Digital Inclusion Impact Assessments’ for any organisation, regardless of sector, outlining their approach to advancing digital inclusion in line with delivering digital services. To ensure organisations can conduct these Digital Inclusion Impact Assessments properly and respond to issues raised, voluntary sector organisations will need continued investment and support in their ability to deliver inclusive digital services.

One stakeholder from a community development organisation reflected on how supporting staff development helped them release new opportunities for engagement with people they hadn’t been able to reach previously, a sentiment reflected by many:

“We've had to upskill staff. Our services were always face-to-face but this has shown there is an appetite to engage online. We are now getting engagement from people who have never shown an interest before so it has grown our service user base.”

A Place-Based Approach

We also acknowledge an appetite for a more ‘place-based’ approach to digital inclusion in Scotland. This has been enabled to some extent through Connecting Scotland, and there is opportunity to build on this. On a local authority level, organisations from both the public and voluntary sector are more connected and embarking on a more coordinated approach to addressing digital inequality. This should include clear and consistent local pathways to address digital exclusion, with clear messaging and awareness illuminating these pathways. A placed-based approach can build on this localised approach, harnessing community assets and working collectively to address emerging need.

A place-based approach can also support emerging issues around trust. The theme of trust and fear of digital has been raised by multiple stakeholders:

“People are mistrustful/scared of digital - this needs to be addressed and time put into supporting these people to not be scared, otherwise we risk leaving these people behind completely.”

Opportunities for cross sector collaboration have been identified as a means of overcoming some of these trust barriers.

“The sector need to think about how to reach those socially excluded people more, we need to collaborate better with public services in order to reach these people and provide better services. The voluntary sector often have relationships with these people who are better suited to bring them online. This needs to be considered from board and senior management down.” 

There is also appetite for creating new structures and networks to enable collaboration within communities and share resources. This could include supporting organisations to better identify community assets and partnership opportunities to build capacity to provide digital skills support:

“We would welcome support from other local organisations. For example, to partner with another organisation who could provide volunteers or digital training as we currently rely a lot on our staff. For digital inclusion to work we need to look at different ways, one size doesn't fit all and different organisations have different things to offer. We need to support the people who are supporting the most vulnerable people in society.”

Connectivity

Connectivity has also been raised by our stakeholders as an ongoing concern. There are significant considerations around the affordability of connectivity and the recurring costs of this. This was also highlighted in Protecting Scotland, Renewing Scotland: The Government’s Programme for Scotland 2020-2021:

“The urgent need for increased digital inclusion has been thrown into sharp relief by the pandemic, which has accelerated digital adoption by many, whilst compounding the digital divide for others. Closing that divide is a clear example of where economic and social imperatives align – being connected is now a vital part of our quality of life as well as key to securing employment. Closing that gap now rests not only on the quality of Scotland’s digital infrastructure, but on the ability of people to be able to afford data and devices, and acquire the skills and confidence to exploit the benefits and opportunities of being digitally connected.”

We would welcome an approach that recognises internet access on the same level as essential utilities, thereby offering protections to vulnerable consumers. Going further, there could be a duty on public services and social housing to provide affordable access to the internet – and this could be strengthened in regulations or provisions for particular groups who are more likely to be excluded. Carnegie’s recent ‘Learning from lockdown: 12 steps for eliminating digital exclusion’ sets out a clear vision about ways we can innovate to overcome some of the barriers to affordable connectivity:

“…building on initiatives such as data donation, zero-rating, expanded social tariffs and trusted public WIFI; or by establishing home internet as an essential utility and giving vulnerable customers the right to greater protections, similar to the gas and electricity markets.”

User-centered

Our stakeholders have also highlighted the need for programmes aimed at tackling digital exclusion to be co-produced with those who are offline. This would be best facilitated through community groups that already have the reach and established trusted relationships with such groups. Key demographics highlighted include:

• People with literacy issues
• People with English as a second language
• Black and minority ethnic communities
• People with disabilities
• People living in poverty
• Older people

Accessibility of resources to support digital skills was highlighted as a factor that can hinder efforts to support people to build their digital skills and confidence. Different nuances need to be considered, especially where there are intersecting identities:

“Not everyone will be able to be a part of a digitally included Scotland. Digital is very important but it isn't accessible to all. Ethnic minorities struggle especially as a lot of resources aren't available in their own language and they are also scared to use the tech as they have never seen it before. They are also unable to access public services online. This is especially true for older adults in ethnic minority communities.”

These potential barriers were more pronounced when it came to accessing public services:

“So many people are unaware of how to access services and then makes them doubly disadvantaged. If someone has a language or literacy barrier then they won't know where to start. They also won't want someone to do it for them due to privacy concerns. They need to overcome those initial barriers first.”

Accessibility of public services also extends to the platforms being used. A flexible approach that reduces the number of different platforms and accounts a person needs to access core services in any sector is a hindrance to meaningful engagement. Services need to be flexible about taking their services to where people are in a digital context, rather than expecting people to ‘come to them’ on their preferred platforms:

“To really have collaborative working then services must be equally accessible via the same platform - universality is key. A lot of the bigger service providers will only use certain tools i.e. Local Authorities were all using Teams when most people prefer to use Zoom. Or the staff are unable to access Zoom and have to use Teams but the service users can't access it. In a way it almost pushes the community they are trying to reach further away. The user pathway needs to be simple and accessible to all.”

Digital identity

Stakeholders were also broadly supportive of a digital identity, but wary of certain groups being further disadvantaged or left behind if digital inclusion is not embedded in this journey.

“Who's responsibility is it to teach this? If we want to become a digital nation then we have to empower people to know what they're doing online.”

A primary concern is data privacy and the need for greater levels of trust and transparency about how data is being used. Greater public awareness around digital rights is a cornerstone of any approach advancing a digital identity.

“We need to empower people to be more trusting about being online - digital rights need to be clear so people can put these into practice, it's not just aspirational. The education has to be there, with clear policies and pathways in place.” 

“People are not receiving the right info on things like COVID, or it's not in the right language. They are relying on WhatsApp messages from friends and family who are often not giving the right information. What we have found is the community are trying to help each other online.”

Conclusion

Scotland has shown that it values digital inclusion by investing over time.  This longer-term foundation has enabled it to be in a leading light in terms of digital inclusion in the wake of the pandemic. Initiatives such as Connecting Scotland have the potential to provide a foundation for further sustained efforts to address digital exclusion. This renewed strategy has the potential to provide the leadership and roadmap to eradicate digital exclusion across Scotland and to build back a better and more resilient Scotland.

Part B) Third sector digital evolution (transformation)

SCVO’s role and reach

Many voluntary sector organisations are involved in the delivery of public services and as such they are on their journey’s to digital evolution or transformation.  The Scottish Council for Voluntary organisations has worked for over five years to discover, develop, and disseminate digital best practice to thousands of voluntary sector organisations of all sizes.

• Over 200 voluntary sector leaders have completed our six-month Senior Leaders’ Programme. This action learning programme with peer support equips voluntary sector leaders to be confident advocates and enablers of digital change.
• Almost 400 organisations have completed our Digital Checkup, giving them a holistic view of their digital strengths and weaknesses and suggested next steps. Over 100 organisations have received followup support in the form of a detailed 1-to-1 discussion of their checkup result.
• Through our cyber grants programme, we have supported 200 organisations to achieve Cyber Essentials, a recognised cyber resilience standard.
• During Coronavirus, SCVO engaged with over 2,000 organisations through 40 ‘DigiShift’ community calls – live discussion and exploration of digital priorities, ambitions, tools and barriers.

While we have not held dedicated workshops on the theme of the Digital Strategy, real-time insights from the above-mentioned programmes have informed our response to this consultation under the theme of third sector organisational development.

Context

SCVO use the term ‘digital evolution’ in preference to ‘transformation’, because digital development is a continuous, iterative process. It is also not ‘one size fits all’ – digital progress can be shaped by different contexts. Digital evolution also has a ripple effect beyond organisational boundaries, while traditional ‘transformation’ can be siloed within an organisation or sector.

A key feature of the voluntary sector in the context of digital change is organisational scale. Third sector organisations are delivering vital public services at community and national scale, but many are effectively micro SMEs in terms of budget and organisational capacity. At their best, voluntary sector organisations can rival tech start-ups in their ambition, energy and agility.

But the small scale of many voluntary sector organisations can also mean that they lack spare budget to invest in their development, and often lack crucial digital knowledge and expertise. This means that much of the sector needs strategic support to help set priorities and map their way forward.

In recent years, overall demand and user expectations on the third sector have soared. And in 2020, many service users experienced voluntary sector services remotely and digitally for the first time. Now, they will rightly wonder why this cannot happen all of the time. This means the third sector needs to continue to be ambitious, and move further, faster with digital evolution. That said, digital tools and services are becoming more and more accessible, often at very low or no cost to voluntary organisations.

During the summer of 2020, 66% of voluntary sector organisations were delivering all their work remotely. There is now a critical need to turn this ‘digital duct tape’ into sustainable, embedded ways of working. Otherwise the sector faces a dual risk: lapsing back to ‘pre-digital’ ways of working and losing gains when the immediate crisis subsides, and the risk that services built at speed in the short term are not resilient and responsive over the longer term.

Our work on Cyber Essentials and cyber resilience more generally has shown that the third sector is keen to do the right thing when it comes to cyber resilience and information security, but organisations often lack awareness of how to configure and monitor their digital systems.

Lessons learned from the pandemic

The impacts of the pandemic on the voluntary sector’s priorities, capacity and practice are still unfolding. But we can draw a number of insights from the first 9 months:

• Voluntary sector organisations of all sizes are adept at ‘making things work’ and demonstrated an impressive level of agile working and willingness to try new techniques when the situation demanded it
• The rate at which voluntary sector organisations implemented new ways of working and simple digital services was very rapid – in many cases, a matter of days or weeks
• Because organisations were operating in crisis response mode, many of the new services and ways of working were ‘easy wins’ – using off-the-shelf products in recognised ways to operate digitally
• This has led to a bit of a backlog. In the months to come, organisations will need to catch up and optimise bits of their back office or tackle more challenging digital services to make their digital offering more complete and resilient
• Voluntary organisations did not have time or capacity to conduct their own digital research, but valued receiving advice and support from a trusted sector voice such as SCVO
• Service Design, agile working and cyber security remain critical skills themes

Priorities beyond 2020

Our ambition for Scotland’s voluntary sector

Although digital evolution is an incremental process, we do have a vision for where the sector should be in five years’ time:

• ‘It’s for everyone’ - any third sector organisation, of any size, should be able to deliver digital services to a high standard.
• Agile, responsive and impactful: reaching and supporting service users digitally will mean that the third sector can deliver substantially more impact from the same resource, and digital services will ensure that the sector is more agile and responsive to changing needs.
• Organisations right across the third sector are confident and discerning investors in digital and technology.
• Digital ways of working have been embedded as a default, core capability rather than something additional that is deployed in exceptional circumstances.
• The voluntary workforce are confident users of responsive, reliable technology.

What is needed to make this happen

In order to sustain progress on digital evolution the Scottish voluntary sector needs:

1. Continued support for strong digital leadership, in particular a focus on agile and iterative working, strategic use of data and embedding service design
2. Signposting and light touch guidance, encouraging organisations to make their own exploration of digital rather than following tightly specified ‘road map’;
3. Tailored and proportionate cyber resilience advice and support which is focused around accessible, actionable advice for end users and senior management
4. Training and support so that voluntary sector users can continually develop their digital skills, both across the general workforce and within specialist roles
5. Embedding service design and user-driven digital service development right across the sector
6. Ongoing research, engagement and monitoring work to track progress and evolve new interventions where needed

Conclusion

The pandemic has shown that the voluntary sector has the willingness and ability to rapidly accelerate its digital evolution when needed. Recent months have also highlighted the many benefits of increased used of digital within the voluntary sector. However, as noted above, many voluntary sector organisations are essentially micro and small SMEs in terms of their size and capacity. Therefore there is a clear need for ongoing responsive support to ensure the voluntary sector keeps developing its digital capacity.

For further clarification or comment please contact

Aaron Slater – Digital Inclusion lead - Aaron.slater@scvo.scot

John Fitzgerald – Digital Evolution lead - John.fitzgerald@scvo.scot

Sally Dyson – Head of Digital and Development - Sally.dyson@scvo.scot