London's recovery starts with you

I think that improving digital services for people who already have access to these services is acting prematurely. We need to ensure everyone, even in vulnerable settings, has access to WiFi. This means care leavers, looked after children, people in council housing or from a low economy background. The UN declared WiFi a basic human right in 2016. It's been four years and a country as developed as the UK shouldn't have people in their communities still denied this basic right due to means of a lifestyle that is usually beyond their control. 
 

As well as Wi-Fi, I think it's important to also consider access to computers for people in these communities. It's naive to think everyone has access to a laptop or tablet or computer at home, it's this lack of consideration that seems almost classist when talking about digital access for all.

Also, creating more paid women apprenticeships or opportunities within the tech sector is super imperative to balance out the gender imbalance in this sector. 

Something that I am keen not to see in London is what happened on the Isle of Wight Coronavirus app trial. 

They were only guaranteeing a home testing kit to those who had downloaded the app, for a time. Meaning those without the app could possibly have to travel to test, putting them at risk of exposure. 

There were many people who could not download the app, due to ability or means. The lack of digital access put their health at a disadvantage, by design of a system. 
 

It is critical that these types things are avoided in the future  

I think that the most important part is full fibre coverage for faster internet speeds, as this would help people get online at home. I think 5G is less important as mobile data is mostly used when someone is outside of the house, and there are a lot of places with free wifi in London. During lockdown, in nearly every online lesson or meeting I went to, there ended up being some problem with at least one person's internet, so I think improving coverage at home is a really good idea.

The priority should be to roll out fibre optic broadband universally, particularly in London (but also other large cities) and densely populated areas. I live 20 min walk away from Canary Wharf and there still isn't fibre optic in the area, even though it's very densely populated. While fibre optic has been introduced withing buildings, the external link is not optic. Why are individual houses more important than apartment buildings??? With more people working from home, stable WiFi is critical.

5G can wait - or perhaps that should be prioritised for rural areas where fibre optic is not easy to connect. Not crucial for London.

More broadly, I completely agree that digital education should start early and extend to older generations. However, I also think that there need to be non-digital options for those that are simply at odds with digital technology (let alone physically less able to use it). The young may want super-fast streaming on their mobile devices, but as some have pointed out, over 70s stuck inside should get access to TV. If there was beter connectivity, TVs can be big screens for interaction with socially distanced friends and family instead of trying to manipulate a tablet or mobile while speaking.

I believe some basic broadband connection for eg 10 Mbit/ssec should be provided free too all low income families on request. 

This has been one of my goals for a couple of years but reality is very different. During covid it has been impossible to bring digital to the elderly in sheltered units or those isolating at home.

Mobile screens are too small for people with diminished eyesight and limited dexterity. Tablets and touch screens cause unnecessary anxiety and almost impossible to hold while interacting.

Add to this, visitors not allowed. I discovered this after visiting a sheltered unit with a hotspot so a resident could join a zoom conference. A bit of enquiring around revealed that most sheltered units have closed communal areas to residents so even bringing in internet access and equipment could not get the isolated online.

One thing coming out of decisions made over the last 15 to 20 years is that suppliers have chosen the internet because it is so cheap for them. No one is considering the users of those "cheap" services who are being priced out of the market at the same time as face to face access is diminished or gone completely.

Businesses can no longer do VAT by post, income tax is online, DWP and pensions is online. GPs are going online with the AskNHS app.

If we can't get free TV for the over 75s what chance that this society will do anything to franchise the "poor" with digital access. Doing so would wipe out all the savings made by business, government, charities, etc who have invested so heavily in "going digital".

I would love to be able to bring the internet to the disadvantaged. Maybe by campaigning for this one day I won't be spending as much on connecting to the internet as I do on food every month.

Bandwidth speed is certainly important but it is not the MOST important aspect for increasing digital skills.
Giving a child an iPad (or much better an Android) with broadband does not mean allowing them to develop the required skills on their own!

The "increase digital skills" passes first of all through the school and teachers and then the first step is the training of teachers in the correct use of technologies in teaching and training.

It is necessary to invest in the training of teachers by also providing financial incentives to participate in compulsory training courses carried out by highly qualified and well-paid teachers.

In Italy this has been done for some years with the training of up to 80% of teachers in all schools and the results are being seen in the quality of the students' preparation, who obviously are very interested in technologies but used by "producers of knowledge "and not by mere "stupid" users.

Despite all the regeneration and repairs in council estates, the need for connectivity remains problematic. I work with vulnerable families. Recently a family were moved from a damp flat to another one which has recently been refurbished in the same building. Due to scaffolding, no provider is able or willing to bring in broadband. There are 3 children (one in Year 10, another in year 8 and one that will be moving to secondary school in September. This is bound to impact on their educational outcomes and one small example of the obstacles to give young people the tools to make it in their future education attainments and employment opportunities. 

Agree with comments about free/ affordable IT to give all access to education, jobs, public services (including health) and democracy. 1 in 6 people have limited literacy. Support will have to be available and in some cases non IT communication channels used so they are not marginalised or excluded.

 We need to consider those who are not in work, either because they are unemployed or because of age,disability etc. Nearly all local authority consultations and information provision is online.

It needs not only training and educational help but ensuring that public facilities for hardware , software and access to the internet are available to all. it may mean increasing public library provision of these. it is essential to ensure that everyone can participate in and be heard as part of our democracy. Not everyone can afford the computer and internet access contracts.

Business tends to take care of this for themselves.  Government has to take care of those who will otherwise be excluded from our civic life.

So much to be done. Priorities need to be set. Mine would be: (a) for both business and private purposes, ensure fibre optic connexion to all premises; (b) equip public libraries with computers for use by the public who have not got them, and with staff who can educate and assist people who have not yet learnt how to use them.

Your questions seems to be directed towards up skilling and jobs which is important but something more crucial is that the GLA, TFL and local councils are all doing they "consulations" online now so it is important that everyone has on line access otherwise we cannot call ourselves a democracy.  Decisions are just being made from sites like this -we need to go to the people without access and ask them what they need

I think we need to be helping old people who do not have computers or any skills to operate them . .  There must be numbers of old people that are just existing on very little food and little or no company and only a TV as company  that dsperately need interaction  and previously had some wider contact pre covid with now closed old persons clubs .

I live c.500m from the Openreach Exchange and have fibre to cabinet about 2metres from my wall.  Maximum download rate is 4Mbs and average 2Mbs which is regarded as within the acceptable range.  Just changing the infrastructure doesn't resolve the delivery of digital services!

More generically my concern is that individuals are excluded by digital mandation.  There will never be a situation where every person is willing and able to use IT solutions to every aspect of daily life.  I have no problems with "digital by design" provided it is recognised that it is not (and will never be) appropriate to a significant number of people.  Whether this is 5% or 10% of the population it is still a very large number of citizens.

We really appreciate the position of many funders in supporting the costs of tablets for vulnerable people. However, the reality of offering someone a e.g. £150 tablet is just the beginning as many of the older people we support need time to help them get to grips with it, use it confidently and eager to continue using it independently.  It often takes a whole days worth of time to  just get a person to use a tablet but of course when they see the benefits then it is worthwhile. My point is that please don't overlook the resource required to help people to fully benefit from IT. 

There are a lot of people on low incomes who cannot afford computers or smartphones let alone pay for wifi access, and they are gradually being disenfranchised as it becomes impossible to use certain services if you do not have online access.

I worked as a volunteer in a library for a while, and the free PCs were the most popular service. But many of the older people who had left school with few qualifications needed a lot of help, as they were not familiar with computers. You really need trained, dedicated, staff full time to help, and given that local authorities are closing libraries to save money, I doubt if they could afford this.

It is essential for a healthy society for everyone to know how to use online services and have access to them. Ideally, to also have alternatives to online for those who struggle with the technology.

Whilst 5 G may be the next move in mobile communications it is not as important as ensuring the full completion of connecting all homes,businesses and other premises to a fibre network.The lockdown and continued working from home has shown how bad the internet is in London. Some areas only 10 minutes from Tower Bridge do not have fibre.Not only for work but if nothing is done then it will also have a major impact on childhood development and damage future generation life chances.More services are only availible on line and without decent broadband London will not remain the best Greatest City in the World.

It can be done before 2025 it must be done for London to remain as the best place to live and work.