Action Research carried out by Shipley Communities Online for the Policy Action Team 15 (Access to IT) of the Social Exclusion Unit

	There is clear support and enthusiasm within the community for access to IT facilities. People are interested in IT and want greater access. They want these facilities to be free, locally based, in a comfortable environment, and with flexible opening hours, including evenings and weekends, to accommodate the range of groups requiring access.

	People want access to IT for a wide range of purposes – not only for learning IT skills to gain qualifications but also for one-off applications such as sending an email, typing a job application, using the Internet to find out about a medical condition, making business cards.

	The provision of quality IT facilities in the heart of disadvantaged communities sends an important message to the community about how it is valued and what is its perceived potential.

	There are particular issues regarding provision for young people, for whom new approaches or additional support measures may be required. For some young people some existing community venues are not seen as either desirable or possible locations for access to ICTs.

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	ICTs have significant potential to assist with community development , to re-engage communities and build community identity.
	For this potential to be realised, IT centres are best provided as part of a wider integrated community facility. IT is thus a tool which can add value to people’s lives, but not an end in itself.
	To maximise benefit in disadvantaged communities, ICT initiatives are best undertaken as part of a wider strategic framework of regeneration and /or community development initiatives.
	Partnership approaches are needed to pool expertise and resources, to overcome organisational and structural barriers, single organisation inertia and ‘compartmentalism’, and to ensure that from the community’s point of view, there is a holistic approach.

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People wishing to access IT in the community will have a variety of support needs.These include:

childcare

support in accessing the technology

other forms of practical and personal help

They value the support, familiarity and welcoming environment of local centres which they may already be using for other purposes.

In disadvantaged communities the ‘human support’ at such centres is even more important.

People are buying or considering buying computers, often with their children in mind, yet their use is often limited to games. There is no independent,non –commercial facility currently to help people to either make sound choices when buying computers or to help them to find out how best to use them.

ICT Awareness Days in community venues are an extremely effective way of promoting interest, demonstrating the varied use of IT, and awareness of the range of uses of technology. This could not be achieved by people simply enrolling on courses and, in any case, would require a commitment people do not want to make. However, involvement in ICT days will, we believe, add to the take up of formal IT courses leading to qualifications.

ICT Days held on a regular basis would gradually attract more and more residents through word of mouth publicity.

ICT Days, resourced initially by a core of skilled staff, can also provide a model for staff development in that facilitators, key workers,volunteers at the event can learn new skills from each other, thus building capacity and providing a way of transferring skills within the community.

The provision of community-based facilities has implications for skills development of key staff, who will need to be available to support users. The question is how this is to be achieved and resourced. The range of skills needed to support users tends to fall outside the framework of traditional IT qualifications, which have not kept pace with emerging technologies. In addition the diversity of skills required to support the range of applications people say they want to use poses an additional challenge.

Flexible modular qualification frameworks need to be developed urgently to allow for the building of skills portfolios related to the new technologies , thus enabling residents, volunteers, community workers, college staff to accrue credits towards qualifications on a flexible ‘pick and mix’ basis, in skills as diverse as scanning images, creating sound files, Web authoring, downloading images from digital camera etc.

The FEFC Funding methodology is currently acting as a brake on the development of responsive qualifications, essential in the rapidly changing field of ICT. This needs to be examined if the significant potential of ICTs to widen participation is to be realised.

Online learning is clearly valued because of its flexibility, its convenience and the opportunity it offers learners to work at their own pace. It has the potential to reach out to groups who would otherwise be excluded because of geographical, physical or other barriers.

IT is clearly providing an entry point back into learning. Online learners are coming forward for IT courses primarily, rather than English or Maths. Yet , once engaged, early success with IT can encourage people to subsequently tackle revealed needs in communication skills and numeracy

Multimedia courseware has significant potential to address basic skill needs. Yet good software is still lacking for the adult market.This needs to be addressed if the significant potential of ICTs to bridge the basic skills deficit is to be realised.

BT Call charges remain a continuing barrier to sustainability for IT in the Community, draining project budgets and preventing the necessary move from project to mainstream.

Short term funding arrangements and the measuring of success in terms of ‘hard’ outputs of people into jobs and training, place a significant strain on community projects , skewing project development, and are an inadequate way of describing the ways in which ICT projects can contribute to social regeneration.