The London Office of Technology and Innovation (LOTI) has recommended that boroughs use more dedicated staff and build further capacity for triaging residents in their digital inclusion efforts.
It has published a report on the issue based on resarch on four pilot projects – in Barnet, Kensington and Chelsea, Southwark and Westminster – taking in data from interviews with practitioners and a phone questionnaire of residents.
It culminates in four recommendations which could be relevant to local authorities outside of London.
First is that boroughs should consider having dedicated digital inclusion staff to triage people on their needs, and second that they should not use triage models that rely on frontline staff carrying out the task in addition to their existing roles.
Thirdly, they should focus on improving the capacity of existing digital support to meet needs, and fourthly that they should explore other means of reaching digitally excluded residents, such as building the capacity of the local voluntary and community sector.
Variations and problems
Among the findings of the research was that there are significant variations in how the triage process is delivered, there are sometimes problems with practitioners being poorly trained and resourced, and there is a lack of capacity for frontline staff to triage residents.
In its introduction to the report, LOTI says: “We hope that the lessons learned and recommendations will help boroughs design future services that help identify digitally excluded residents when they first engage with council services and signpost them to locally available digital support.”
