Addressing digital poverty : Mapping the Bath Digital Divide

At the opening of the festival, our first event will be an interactive workshop event bringing community together to collectively map the Bath Digital Divide -

• What do we know about the problem - where is it, what is it, and what do we want to do about it?
• What is already happening and what can we do to accelerate what is already there?
• What can we do now, and for the longer term, and where do we need to influence?

This is a call to action for our teachers, local businesses, tech and charity sectors, local government and philanthropists to come together as a community to apply ourselves to addressing the digital divide in Bath.

Our particular focus initially will be on the impact for young children in our schools and their longer term outcomes.

You’re far less likely to have access to the online world if you’re living on a low income. In fact, the lower your income the less likely it is. That means – increasingly so – not having access to the fundamentals of life. From social security, to healthcare, education and training, to finding work and applying for jobs – critical services are more and more online.

So digital inclusion is no longer something that’s ‘nice to have’ – it’s an essential. And being cut off from digital isn’t just an inconvenience – it compounds and exacerbates poverty. That’s no longer something we can ignore if we’re interested in a just society. (Digital Poverty Alliance (DPA)).

In May 2023 the DPA launched the National Delivery Plan, which “outlines an initial roadmap for ending digital poverty by 2030”.

Mission Six of that plan is “Increase local capacity to provide joined-up digital inclusion support to individuals and communities”; while we now have a national plan that aims to fix this issue in our society, it is on us locally in the tech sector to step up and play a part in acting on and delivering the outcomes of that plan.

Bath is included in the affectionately coined “Silicon Gorge” (Wikipedia, 2019) which describes our region’s high density of technology expertise and innovation. Bath and North East Somerset Council (BANES) is ranked in the 2019 Indices of Deprivation as one of the 20% most affluent areas in the country (BANES, 2022).

However this average measure disguises the fact that Whiteway and Twerton West are among the 10% most deprived areas in England. In Twerton, 35% of children live in poverty (BANES, 2019) and the cost of living crisis is expected to result in 4,000 more people in BANES entering poverty in 2023 (BANES, 2022). 52% of people surveyed in BANES complained about their broadband connection (BANES, 2022).

As employment requires more digital skills, and access to key services moves towards digitisation, these statistics indicate a significant likelihood of persistent exclusion for many of Bath’s citizens.

At the opening of the festival, this first event to address the Digital Divide will map the problem and make sense of what initiatives already exist.

We will next kick-off a hackathon, bringing our tech community together to address an aspect of our digital divide challenge. One challenge we know exists already is access to the internet at home via an affordable, reliable and appropriate connection varies across our area. Sign up to take part.

At the end of the week, we will be in discussion with Wera Hobhouse to present a call to action to address this city challenge, sign up here.

Together we can bridge the digital divide.

The newly formed Bath Digital Divide Collective is comprised of representation across the following founding members, of course welcoming a much wider community to address our city-wide challenge:

Bath BID

Bath Bridge

Bath Unlimited

BCS Digital Divide BCS Bristol & Bath Branch

Digital Poverty Alliance

Dot Project

Future Ambition Board - Connectivity Working Group, and Opportunity for All Group

Mayden

Tech for Good South West

The House

St Johns Foundation

Host or Publisher Tech for Good South West