Why we don't support a Digital Inclusion Alliance

One specific action the Scottish Government have promised was the establishment of a Digital Inclusion Alliance. 

Over the past two years, there have been countless meetings regarding the Alliance, but it remains a vague concept with no evidence that it will result in meaningful action.

While an overall aspiration to “coordinate activity, support cross-sectoral collaborations, and remove barriers to furthering digital inclusion across Scotland” might be laudable, we have significant concerns that it will introduce bureaucracy and complexity, rather than enabling practical action to tackle digital exclusion.

Our key concerns include:

• A mischaracterisation of the landscape – there is an assumption that a ‘digital inclusion ecosystem’ exists that can be better co-ordinated. However, the reality is that there are very limited dedicated resources for digital exclusion work. Much of what does happen is driven by local community organisations responding to need with minimal funding.

• The establishment of a new ‘operational hub’ at arm’s length to Government - creating a new structure risks duplicating or cutting across existing work, while potentially diverting limited funds from frontline delivery to sustaining the hub itself.

• A reliance on private sector investment – a key driver for the establishment of the ‘operational hub’ is to enable management of private sector investment. However, there is little evidence that private sector partners are prepared to bring significant new resources to this work in Scotland.

Ultimately the creation of the Digital Inclusion Alliance risks offloading responsibility and confusing accountability for what Government and the wider public sector should be doing to tackle digital exclusion, particularly as digital transformation of public services continues.

We agree that digital inclusion is everyone’s responsibility. However, the last thing Scotland needs is yet another talking shop. It needs leadership and delivery.

The bottom line

SCVO does not support the creation of a Digital Inclusion Alliance.

Scotland’s digital exclusion crisis won’t be solved by creating new structures — it requires political will, funding and a delivery plan.From what we have seen, our concerns have been so great that SCVO has withdrawn its support and turned down funding. On principle, we cannot take funding which implicitly supports a direction of travel we fundamentally disagree with.