Digital inclusion mapping
What was the goal?
This project picked up on a particular thread of the Digital Landscape Review: how accessible digital public services are to all residents of Wales.
What problems could the project solve for people?
Digital transformation in Wales will fail to the extent that it leaves some people behind.
The digital strategy for Wales defines digital inclusion as “equipping people with the motivation, access, skills and confidence to engage with an increasingly digital world, based on their needs”. Indeed, that goal forms part of CDPS’s remit letter and is central to our reason for existing.
The goal of this project was to produce a directory of digital inclusion activity across Wales. The directory would give us an opportunity to spot similar inclusion activities and see if they could be joined up. Geographic and demographic analysis of that activity would reveal how Welsh regions differed in the amount they spent on digital inclusion and whether they were targeting different groups of people.
Who was involved?
The project’s main stakeholders were the Welsh Government Prosperous Futures and the Welsh Government Digital Inclusion Programme Board. The project also worked closely with Digital Communities Wales and the Digital Inclusion Alliance Wales.
The Welsh Government Office of the Chief Digital Officer commissioned this work.
What did CDPS do?
CDPS mapped digital inclusion activities in Wales across each area making up the project’s scope:
- broadband
- data
- devices
- accessibility, including affordability
- basic digital skills
- confidence
- motivation
We then created a single directory covering digital inclusion activities in Wales, within the project’s scope, over the past 2 years.
We highlighted the geographic and demographic trends surrounding these activities.
Other project outputs included:
- a digital inclusion map, showing the number of people targeted for digital inclusion activities, and associated spending, in each Welsh region
- a report covering the project’s methodology, analysis of the data it collected and international comparators
How did this project help to deliver the digital strategy for Wales?
The project helped to deliver upon three of the strategy’s missions:
Mission 1: digital services
Deliver and modernise services so that they are designed around user needs and are simple, secure and convenient. We hope this will be an outcome of digital inclusion mapping.
Mission 2: digital inclusion
Equip people with the motivation, access, skills and confidence to engage with an increasingly digital world, based on their needs.
Mission 4: digital economy
Drive economic prosperity and resilience by embracing and exploiting digital innovation.
Blog posts
Bridging the digital divide in Wales – published 7 April 2022
