Smartline Research
Getting Online: Staying Connected
Life is moving increasingly online since the COVID pandemic, when face-to-face contact has become limited across all areas of our lives. Many people struggle to get online: how must it feel to be excluded from the digital world?
The Getting Online: Staying Connected project aims to understand the barriers to digital inclusion and evaluate Cornwall Council’s digital support programme.
Cornwall Council’s Digital Inclusion Team (DIT) offers one-to-one telephone support to help get people online and using internet resources with confidence. We are working with the DIT to evaluate their digital support programme.
Why is it important to research digital inclusion?
Digital inclusion is increasingly important. The social challenges of being digitally excluded have been heightened since COVID-19. With shopping, socialising, and health services all moving online, people without internet access have faced increasing isolation.
The aim of this research is to evaluate the support work carried out by the DIT, and help to bring the most excluded people into the online world. How can digital technology be used to keep the people of Cornwall connected? And how can we help people to feel better informed about online services to improve their sense of wellbeing?
What research has been carried out so far?
Participants are offered telephone support from the DIT, and complete a survey about their existing digital skills and wellbeing. This will be followed up six months after receiving the DIT support to monitor changes. Participants are also asked to take part in a telephone interview about their experiences.
4,465 Coastline Housing customers have been contacted and offered DIT support. Recruiting participants has not been easy, and this isn’t surprising: how do you reach a group that is excluded or hard to reach? We also asked about the reasons for participation and non-participation to help us better understand people’s barriers to getting involved.
To take part, the participants need access to the internet and an internet-enabled device: is this an immediate barrier to the most excluded groups?
What has the research shown?
The research indicates four main reasons why some people didn’t take part in the study: the individual is already competent or has a digitally competent friend or relative to help; people face health-related barriers; and some people don’t see the need for using technology or the internet.
The health-related barrier is significant. People who are either struggling with their own mental or physical health, or caring for others, are less likely to be connected. Digital engagement simply is not a priority when daily life is so demanding. Health inequality leads to digital inequality, and the two don’t help each other.
There are also more universal barriers to digital inclusion: fear of new technology and a lack of confidence also featured in people’s responses.
What happens next?
Ongoing research is looking into the procedure of recruiting digitally excluded people, and we will evaluate how people’s skills and wellbeing have changed.
The findings will help to inform the DIT and other digital inclusion services on how best to target and support people who want to know how to use and access technology.
Who is involved in the research?
The project is led by Dr Tim Walker, University of Exeter, working alongside Cornwall Council’s Digital Inclusion Team, Phil Gilbert and Adrian Ankers from Coastline Housing, Karen Spooner from Volunteer Cornwall, and Chloe Bines, Belinda Broughton and Prof Karyn Morrissey from the University of Exeter.
Related Research
How feasible and accepted is digital technology among social housing residents?
This research paper and accompanying research poster explores how Cornwall’s social housing residents use digital technology that aims to improve health and wellbeing. The findings uncover that people want and need to use technology to improve health, wellbeing and to feel socially connected.
Social cohesion, mental wellbeing and health-related quality of life: social housing in Cornwall
Research and policy have identified social cohesion as a potentially modifiable determinant of health and wellbeing that could contribute to more sustainable development. However, the function of social cohesion appears to vary between communities. The aim of this study was to analyse the levels of, and associations, between social cohesion, mental wellbeing, and physical and mental health-related quality of life among a cohort of social housing residents from low socioeconomic status communities in Cornwall, UK.
Reducing isolation during lockdown
Smartline researchers are developing a guide to using online devices to reduce feelings of isolation during COVID-19 lockdown.
Led by the University of Exeter, the Smartline project researches the relationship between technology and the way people live in their homes and communities. Launched in 2017, the study gathers hard data and insights from residents living in social housing in Cornwall whose demographic is proportionately older, in the South West of England, via sensors in their homes.