Planning your digital inclusion support

This section gives you an overview to follow for any digital inclusion project. The remaining sections of our guide provide the detail about each area.

Starting your digital inclusion journey

Here are some key things to consider when planning your digital inclusion support journey: 

What do your services users need? Ask them along with your staff and volunteers too. Activities based on need and personal motivations are more likely to succeed. 

Is Senior Management bought-in? Leading from the top is essential to build confidence across the workforce. It also ensures resources are available.

Who will be your Digital Motivator and Digital Champions? Get the right people to drive and deliver your digital inclusion activities. It's vital to success!  

Where and how will you embed it? Embed it in your existing engagement work or weave it into new activities.

What will delivery look like? Weekly drop-in sessions or 1-to-1 appointments could work. An informal social approach or a focus on personal goals could be best. Having an appropriate safe space to meet (in person or online) is also important. 

What training do staff and volunteers need? Do they need to improve their own skills or need to build confidence on how to pass skills on? Our Digital Skills Toolkit can help to inform this.

What good practice is out there? Find out what others are delivering. Ask what's working for them and what isn't. Link up where possible. The case studies from our supported projects have lots of useful good practice. 

Could you link up with partners? You can share resources, expertise or help with referrals. They could help provide extra or niche support.  

How will you use the Digital Skills Toolkit? You could use the online version, the hard copy or use both depending on the user. You could adapt it to have more relevant examples for your users. Think about how you will use the data to inform your activities and as a support tool for your users.

What other resources will you need? This could be staff training, funding, equipment or digital champion resources.  

How will you let others know about it? Let your service users and wider networks know about your digital inclusion support.

How will you check success? What impact has it made for the user and your staff and volunteers? How has your service improved? Have you made any organisational efficiencies as a result?

“Don’t spend endless meetings discussing it. Jump in and embrace it. Celebrate the quick wins and success and learn from any failures, but don’t dwell on them. Not everything will work first time, perseverance and support are the key attributes to making it successful.”

Chris Morrison, Business Support Officer, Hebridean Housing Partnership