To EURIM Modernising Government List

From Emma Fryer

ICT and Social Exclusion

28th January 2004, 14.00 - 17.00

Kindly hosted by IPF at 27 Queen Anne's Gate, London SW1

Meeting to review the group's work to date in the light of current CIPFA research and agree the forward EURIM programme.

Putting Social Inclusion into Context
On 28th January CIPFA will host a meeting to put the work of this group to date into a wider context and to draw attention to the need for a more coherent approach to e-inclusion.  

Social Exclusion is a very broad topic so the first step has been to put together a simple overview that draws together the social exclusion landscape by building a clearer picture of the different social inclusion perspectives and agendas that currently exist and positioning them within a larger framework.  This has been done in the form of an "Exclusion Map".

This Exclusion Map provides a context for examining the role of ICT in the Social Exclusion agenda, and therefore for our activity, and will enable us to take stock of the current situation, identify the issues that overlap and produce proposals that can be fed into the policy framework.  The working group activity will take account of the different exclusion agendas and the existing work in this area.

A full agenda, plus the Exclusion Map and other references will be circulated to all attendees in advance of the meeting.

If you would like to attend, please reply to me at:  Emma.fryer@btinternet.com and I will ensure that you are added to the attendance list and receive all the meeting papers.  If you are unable to attend but would like to be kept informed, please let me know and I will add you to the circulation list for papers and outputs.

The Role of ICT in Tackling Social Exclusion

The role of ICT is vital in implementing policies to tackle social exclusion, because many solutions are ICT-enabled.  ICT provides new means of access, enables large-scale roll-out of best practice and enables individuals to personalise access.  The bulk automation of many citizen-government interactions can also release resources that can then be targeted to meet individual needs. 

ICT is also fundamental to an array of assessment tools for monitoring, mapping and measuring, for conducting accessibility audits and for manipulating and making available large data-sets of information. 

However, ICT also leads to new forms of Social Exclusion, to new areas of risk in the inclusive delivery of e-government services.  Although government is in an excellent position to identify, map and measure exclusion, it is, paradoxically, less and less able to intervene directly to ameliorate those problems, because services are increasingly conducted by intermediaries.  Technology can embed problems, and evidence shows that children in deprived areas predominantly use ICT for "unproductive activities" , thus consolidating, not reducing, the advantage between themselves and other children who are taking advantage of its educational capabilities.  There is also the threat of the "Critical Mass Paradox" - when an ICT interface becomes standard for the vast majority, those who do not use it will be truly excluded.  Finally, poor design, counter-intuitive operation, and poor support mean that ICT becomes part of the problem rather than the solution, and existing accessibility solutions that have been built into both hardware and software solutions are hard to find and implement.

Emma Fryer

EURIM Rapporteur

Tel: 0191 240 3332

Mob: 07714 803 650