Equality, diversity and digital inclusion.

Complying with the law, providing better service…ensuring your tenants are included.

Presentation by Professor Richard Tomlins.

aims of the presentation…• to connect digital inclusion with the equality and diversity

agenda.

• to highlight the topicality of social value including the importance of the Public Services (Social Value) Act 2012.

• to highlight how quantifying social value can shape your organisation’s decisions on how to proceed with social value.

• providing the same excellent standard of outcomes for all.

• responding to individual needs.

• “fairness”.

“manifesto for a networked nation.”• over 10 million Brits not regularly using the internet.

• need to ensure that people aren't being left behind as more and more services and businesses move online.

• essential for a dynamic modern economy and can help to make government more efficient and effective.

• aim for every British citizen of working age to be the internet by 2015.

equality, diversity and digital exclusion.• use of the web decreases with age, 39% of those offline are

over 65.

• use of the web increases with income.

• 47% of those living in households earning less than £11.5k do not use the internet compared to only 4% of those with an income of over £30k.

• the unemployed, particularly those living in households without children are more likely to be offline.

• 48% of disabled people are offline, more than twice the national average of non-users.

Equality Act 2010 General Duty.

to have due regard to:

• eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation and other conduct prohibited by the Act.

• advance equality of opportunity between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not.

• foster good relations between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not.

access to the internet can create social benefits.• through higher educational attainment for children.

• access to employment opportunities for workless adults.

• improved standards of living for older people.

• increased democratic engagement and access to information.

• lifeline from social isolation for the 3.1m people in the UK aged over 65 who go longer than a week without seeing a friend, neighbour or family member.

• around four million of the non-users are among the most socially disadvantaged people in the UK.

• //.

role for the sector?• funding to get the poor, the elderly and the disenfranchised of

Britain online?

• hopes to see local "digital champions" in every local authority, public library and Jobcentre Plus office this year.

• social housing and residential care providers should provide internet access and some ongoing support as a basic utility for their residents.

• Government should close down publically funded websites that consistently fail to meet its own web accessibility guidelines.

re-engagement and connection.• public services are in the process of changing more radically in

our lifetimes than ever before. 

• we’re the recipients of the process.

• we should be building a fence at the top of the cliff, rather than having an ambulance waiting at the bottom of it!

social value focuses on the collective benefit to a community.

a journey to social value…• Lambeth regeneration masterplanning.

• Thames Gateway DCLG EqIA(!!!).

• Sandwell regeneration work.

• Lambeth commissioning work.

before the jargon…“I would be dead without the internet,”

a young man in Leeds told me on a rainy afternoon last October. He had rebuilt his life from a drug addiction by visiting a centre where he learnt how to use a computer and how to make and sell music online.

He is one of thousands of people across the UK who have found the internet an invaluable tool in helping manage extremely difficult personal circumstances.

Martha Lane Fox, uk digital champion. July 2010.

why is social value topical?• “responsible/sustainable capitalism”.

• sweating existing public sector budgets.

• Big Society and the community and voluntary sectors.

• Public Services (Social Value) Act 2012 – best practice becomes standard practice?

Media Planet Supplement (The Independent 21st March, 2012).

• "accounting for social value is one of the 10 most significant emerging environmental, social and governance (ESG) trends to watch" in 2012, according to MSCI, the global provider of investment decision support tools.

• for investors, companies that fail to generate consistent social value represent a clear portfolio risk".

Community Health Partnerships and LIFTCos.

support a healthy community

more use of space (revenue)

better use of space (value)

increased footfall and consumption

shifted health inequalities

Public Services (Social Value) Act 2012 (1 of 2).• requires public authorities to have regard to economic, social

and environmental well-being in connection with public services contracts; and for connected purposes where practical and proportionate.

• ie how what is proposed to be procured might improve the:– economic, – social and – environmental well-being of the relevant area, and how, in

conducting the process of procurement, it might act with a view to securing that improvement.

Public Services (Social Value) Act 2012 (2 of 2).• includes the commissioning and procurement carried

out by contracting authorities that have to comply with the EU procurement rules.– local authorities.– government departments.– NHS bodies.– police authorities and fire authorities. – housing associations.

Treasury Green Book.• the valuation of non-market impacts is a challenging,

but important element of appraisal, and should be attempted wherever feasible.

• simulate the market.

social return on investment (SROI)…

is an approach to understanding and managing:• social, • economic and • environmental issues.

it uses financial proxies to reveal the value of outcomes that do not have direct market values.

pedigree…• originated in the United States in the 1990s through

the work of the Roberts Enterprise Development Fund (REDF).

• 2005, the international SROI Network agreed a framework for the use of SROI.

• based on these standards, nef (the new economics foundation) published a guide for organisations and SROI practitioners in the UK, published by the Cabinet Office.

seven principles.• involve stakeholders.• understand what changes.• value the things that matter.• only include what is material.• do not over-claim.• be transparent.• verify the result.

SROI- evaluation or forecast questions.• who changes?• how do they change? (what happens)• how do we measure it? (show me)• what is it worth? (relative to other things)• what would have happened anyway? (if we

hadn’t been here)

the stages…• establishing scope and identifying key

stakeholders.• mapping outcomes.• evidencing outcomes and giving them a value.• establishing impact.• calculating the SROI.• reporting, using and embedding.

SROI calculation.total impact divided by total input.

in summary…• digital inclusion is our natural territory.

• a natural expansion of our equality and diversity and social inclusion work.

• our spending will produce social value.

• this can be measured and will provide us with business advantage.

Contact details:

Professor Richard TomlinsDirector, Cohesia Ltd.Mobile: 07941 129409Email: richard@cohesia.co.uk

Fiona HallPA to Professor TomlinsMobile: 07876 205898Email: fiona@cohesia.co.uk