Social exclusion, ‘joined-up government’, public libraries and the Internet

It is almost a truism now to point out that the information and communications technology revolution that we are currently experiencing will change the pattern of people’s lives, as fundamentally as the industrial revolution transformed society two centuries ago. Many would argue that the process has only just begun and that the rate of change will continue to accelerate for the foreseeable future. This certainly seems to be the case in Western developed countries where large investments are being made in the development of a digital communications infrastructure. In other less developed regions, digital technologies delivered by means of satellite have the potential to provide communications to regions hitherto lacking a reliable telephone service. Whether this is a good thing or not is almost beside the point, for it is impossible now to turn back the clock, and increasingly the Internet will be an important component of our lives in terms of education, employment, leisure and even social interactions.

Is the Internet primarily a tool whereby the ‘information rich’ can better exploit their already advantageous situation in society, or could it also be a means of assisting the ‘information poor’ to make up some ground, overcoming physical and other barriers, by providing access to masses of information at very low cost? There is of course no single answer to this question, depending as it does so much on different situations. When we refer to the information poor, are we speaking of whole countries, or identifiable groups within societies (such as the old, ethnic minorities, the disabled, the unemployed) or about individuals with their own unique problems? Access to computer networks might appear to be of questionable relevance in those communities where the majority of the population do not have sufficient food to eat or clean water to drink, and where there is no access to reliable electricity supplies. Yet, access to information technologies can indeed assist those working to help those societies to develop their own economic and social infrastructure.

Even if we restrict our consideration to the underprivileged within developed Western societies there will be a multitude of answers. Hitherto it has been the middle classes who have gained most from the conveniences and economic advantages of on-line shopping or banking, with the effect only of reducing still further the level of face-to-face provision for the remainder of users. Likewise, the increasing use of computers and electronic information products and services within education has tended to advantage the children of the middle classes who have access to the equipment in their homes, at the expense of the those from poorer families who now find it more difficult to keep up in class. So far developments have tended to increase the social divide.

A Social Exclusion Unit was set up by the Prime Minister in December 1997 with a remit to help improve Government action across traditional departmental boundaries to combat the problem of social exclusion. This is defined as:

what can happen when people or areas suffer from a combination of linked problems such as unemployment, poor skills, low incomes, poor housing, high crime environments, bad health and family breakdown. In the past, governments have had policies that tried to deal with each of these problems individually, but there has been little success at tackling the complicated links between them, or preventing them from arising in the first place (Social Exclusion Unit, 2000).

A number of Policy Action Teams (PATs) have been set up to address the variety of individual issues such as truancy, rough sleeping, neighbourhood renewal or teenage pregnancy which together constitute the overall problem. PAT15 was set up to advise government how best to help people living in deprived urban areas, and has focussed upon ‘the broader spectrum of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), due to the convergence of telecommunications, computing and broadcasting through the use of digital information.’  Their report Closing the digital divide: Information and Communication Technologies in Deprived Areas, was published in March, and announced a £252 million initiative to create 1,000 new technology training centres in local neighbourhoods, with centres based in sports clubs, pubs, schools, houses and churches. Every jobseeker will be offered a voucher for free computer training, People in every deprived urban neighbourhood should have access to computers, the internet, email and other emerging information and communication technologies. All neighbourhoods should have at least one public access point, located in places where people feel at ease such as local community centres, libraries, religious centres, post offices, bus and train stations and shopping centres.

Introducing the report, the Minister of State at the Department of Trade and Industry with responsibility for Small firms, e-commerce and the information society said:

To prosper nationally and compete globally we need to empower all our people to play an active part in society. That it why it is vitally important that everyone has access to new and emerging technologies like the internet and email. We cannot risk leaving behind people living in our poorest communities. We must close the digital divide so everyone can reap the benefits of living in an e-nation. Government, business and voluntary and community organisations must work more closely together to help achieve this aim. (Closing the UK’s digital divide, 2000)

The report highlights several ways in which ICTs can help people in disadvantaged communities: These include:

§         New employment opportunities for those who develop IT skills, and the creation of on-line jobs clubs,

§         Access to on-line banking to those communities where there are no longer branches or banking services;

§         On-line shopping for those who have to look after young children;

§         On-line health services such as NHS Direct, to ease the pressure on traditional health care facilities

§         On-line Government disseminating information about benefits, and simplifying the process of dealing with large bureaucratic governmental institutions.

Whether such developments will truly make people’s lives easier, or whether they are relatively cheap technological fixes to a more fundamental problem of lack of investment in the provision of traditional face to face services, is however open to debate.

What are the barriers that will prevent sections of society from taking advantage of digital technologies? It is no longer merely a question of access to computer equipment and the telephone network, as developments in digital broadcasting will ultimately mean that the Internet will soon be available in all households where there is a television set. However the telecommunication costs involved is still an important factor hindering the growth in use of the Internet. Lack of skills training is also an issue at present, but to some degree is being addressed as computers feature increasingly as part of the education process, and social inclusion programmes. The National Grid for Learning initiative will shortly have provided access to the Internet by all UK schools, although among the socially excluded are those who have been excluded or truant from school.

Perhaps of more fundamental importance is that many people lack an awareness of the potential value of the Internet, or indeed of the benefits of information technologies generally. This is in part due to the lack of suitable and attractive content of relevance to local communities. Some deprived neighbourhoods have large numbers where English is not the first language, and so there will be a need for special language facilities. Also women have been generally less likely to be interested in ICTs than men, although this is often due to educational or cultural reasons rather than any innate difficulties in coping with new technology. Indeed my own impressions and anecdotal evidence from colleagues suggests that young women tend to use ICT and surfing the Internet more thoughtfully and effectively than young men, who sometimes associate it primarily with computer games, or dubious web sites. However special arrangements such as home outreach, childcare provision, and women-only groups may be needed. However the principal barrier is seen as a ‘lack of a joined-up approach: there is no clear policy or strategy locally and nationally’. This is an unfortunate phrase, for it encapsulates that main criticism that can be levelled at this report and the accompanying initiative.

‘Joined-up government’ is a phrase that has come into vogue during the last three years that the British Labour Party has been in power. It describes attempts at developing policies and dealing with issues irrespective of traditional departmental or ministerial boundaries – such as social exclusion. The Internet is seen as an important means of delivering joined-up government.

Departmental sites have an important role to play in demonstrating relationships between different areas of policy and service delivery and in contributing to the coherent presentation of Government policy. (Joined up government, (http://www.cabinet-office.gov.uk/champions/guidelines/websites/joinedup.html)

Indeed the government seems to have a growing faith in potential of new technology to offer cost effective solutions to all kinds of social, economic, and governmental problems, demonstrated by a proliferation of official web sites and electronically delivered press releases.

Given this faith in the importance of a co-ordinated approach it is singularly unfortunate that PAT15 did not apply their own rhetoric and consider some of the recent initiatives involving public libraries and social exclusion. There is only the briefest mention of the People’s Network initiative to connect all 4700 public library service points to the Internet by 2002, which has £50 million allocated for content creation, and £200 million to create the Lifelong Learning Centres. This is most unfortunate for where there is a lack of co-ordination and focus, then the available funds will inevitably be wasted, or opportunities missed.

On 1 April the Library and Information Commission (LIC), which is overseeing the People’s Network, is due to merge with other bodies into an enlarged Museum Libraries and Archives Council. No doubt the members have been slightly less constrained to criticise central government than they might otherwise have been, for shortly after the release of the DTI report, the offered two valedictory challenges to its political masters to implement their own rhetoric for joined-up government and to ‘Stop investing in new institutions to do what libraries already can do’.

 In Libraries: the essence of inclusion the LIC makes clear that public libraries have always contributed strongly to social inclusion and calls upon government to

Locate libraries at the heart of programmes for the planning and delivery of public information, health and well being, community safety, education & learning and economic regeneration

Combating social exclusion requires an integrated approach to tackle personal and social as well as structural issues ... Libraries epitomise inclusion in their values and activities, and by their presence in local communities.

Likewise, Keystone for the Information Age: a National Information Policy for the UK identifies the urgent need to implement a co-ordinated national information strategy.

There are many other reasons for thinking of this as a decisive moment in the development of the information society. Many of the Government's initiatives have a significant information element. Failure to get the information right will reduce the impact of individual initiatives. There is much to be gained from a co-ordinated approach to information across the board.

Some of my departmental colleagues were commissioned in 1999 by the LIC to formulate and offer a specific scheme to assist the socially excluded unemployed (defined in the widest possible sense) through public libraries in areas suffering various kinds of social and economic deprivation. Now that the project is nearing completion it is clear that public libraries have a clear role to play, reinforcing the value of the accessibility of their service points, their technology and their staff – the latter in particular. Nevertheless making contact with the socially excluded in an appropriate manner, and disseminating the gospel of inclusivity, is a considerable challenge, but it is clear that society is already relating access to technology and competence in its use as an important indicator of both social exclusion and inclusion.

The recent LIC report and on-going research is of course concerned with the work of libraries in general, whereas the DTI initiative was specifically focused upon the use of networked technologies, but there the two are now irretrievably interlinked.  The apparent lack of awareness of the role of libraries in combating social exclusion by the Social Exclusion Unit, and its Policy Action team is perhaps an object lesson in the need for truly ‘joined-up government’, and a fully co-ordinated information strategy.

David Stoker

With thanks to Professor Hywel Roberts

References

 ‘Closing the UK’s digital divide’. 2000 [Central Office of Information press release, 28 March] http://195.44.11.137/coi/coipress.nsf

‘Joined up government’. 2000 (http://www.cabinet-office.gov.uk/champions/guidelines/websites/joinedup.html)

Library and Information Commission. 2000. Keystone for the Information Age: a National Information Policy for the UK

Library and Information Commission. 2000. Libraries: the essence of inclusion

Policy Action Team 15 (2000) Closing the digital divide: Information and Communication Technologies in Deprived Areas, Department of Trade and Industry http://www.pat15.org.uk/consult.htm

Social Exclusion Unit, 2000. http://www.cabinet-office.gov.uk/seu/index/march_%202000_%20leaflet.htm