Connected Voice's Gateshead Digital Inclusion Project

The Gateshead Digital Inclusion Project in Health and Social Care has been running since April 2023. Digital inclusion has been recognised as the super-social determinant of health, because it has a crosscutting impact on all the other social determinants of health. Some of the key elements of the project have been the focus on partnership working; its delivery at place level; the tailored response to the needs of local communities and VCSE organisations. Digital inclusion must be also tackled in a structural and holistic way, where strategic thinking and system change are needed to improve equity and choice.  

The UK Shared Prosperity Fund from Gateshead Council (2023-2025) has allowed us to provide funding, support, information, and training to VCSE organisations working in Gateshead. I rolled out lean funding application and reporting processes. Thanks to the Shared Prosperity funding, twenty smaller and grassroot VCSE organisations in Gateshead delivered their own bespoke and flexible digital inclusion projects that reflected their different needs and issues. The funding for each organisation was limited; however, the impact has been considerable. Each organisation devised unique digital inclusion project according to their identified needs - from purchasing equipment to run their services more effectively and also offer online sessions, to digital skills training for volunteers, new websites, projects to reach marginalised communities, digital skills training for their communities. One of the many examples is the project delivered by the peer-led group Gateshead Dementia Caregivers Support Group, which used the funding to buy the necessary basic IT equipment that we take now as a given for all organisations. Thanks to a laptop, tablets, and related training and printing equipment, the group was able to benefit from training and information on what is dementia, learn to navigate GP online platforms and apps, learn how to create an email account. The IT equipment gave the possibility to run hybrid meetings so many of the group members who could not join the in-person meetings due to their care responsibilities could join online.  

Some organisations have been connected to other stakeholders and presented to the Gateshead Digital Inclusion Steering Group about their work and their bespoke digital inclusion projects. Thanks to these connections and spotlight opportunities, organisations have been able to establish relationships with other services and get other type of support needed. For example, Pelaw Community Bowling Club received support from Pride Media Centre for digital skills, online safety, and social media training for their intergenerational project with the groups of students from Bill Quay Primary School and St Alban’s Catholic Primary School. North East Diversity Education and Solidarity (NEDES) were successful in their Good Things Foundation’s bid for tablets for their sanctuary-seeking young students that were undertaking their digital skills course. 

All the targets for outcomes and outputs were exceeded, and a larger cohort of VCSE organisations benefitted from training, information, and support. One of the key elements of the success of the overall project is that the wrap around support offered to organisations in Gateshead was accessed in ways that were most suited for them and was available before, during and after the delivery of their project. 

Many VCSE organisations do not feel ready to embark on digital transformation processes and to deliver digital inclusion projects: they may lack confidence, time, and resources. Confidence is one of the many immaterial yet decisive factors that impact a person or an organisation’s journey towards digital adoption of any kid. The project has proved that organisations can deliver impactful projects with bespoke support, the reassurance of having a safety net, and a confidence boost when it’s needed.  

Each organisation expressed the need and the eagerness to receive more funding and continue their digital inclusion journeys for their organisation, beneficiaries, staff, and volunteers.  

What was surprising is that these funding, support, networking, relationship brokerage attracted more funding, support in kind, growth, and opportunities for the organisations involved: from match funding, to support and training in kind, and funding for longer periods of time. 

The training package comprised of training tailored to smaller VCSE organisation on topics such as AI for VCSE organisations, branding, digital accessibility, cybersecurity, online safety, digital safeguarding, graphic design platforms, creative community consultation, and website development. They responded to the needs that VCSE organisations in Gateshead raised, and they had good attendance despite a very stretched sector.  

All organisations involved wished to have further opportunities to be involved in digital inclusion projects that are more creative and that foster thinking outside the box; that respond to different levels of needs, but that can cover very basic needs too. As well, they saw the benefit of project that can provide “digital inclusion by stealth” and to have funding for longer-term projects.  

This Shared Prosperity project showed once again that an essential component to improve digital inclusion is partnership work. After this project ended and we received UKSPF transition fund for 2025-2026, I have continued working in partnership with different stakeholders. I have been working with the Digital Poverty Alliance since 2023, and in 2025 we have been working together to launch the project Tech4Communities in Gateshead, with Gateshead Council, Gateshead Libraries, and VCSE organisations as key partners. 

The pilot started in August 2025 and it draws on years of hands-on delivery experience, and it is grounded in a model that combines national infrastructure with local coordination. Sixteen drop-off points are now open for residents and small businesses to donate unused laptops, tablets, and phones. Each one will be securely refurbished and placed directly into the hands of people in Gateshead who have been excluded from the digital world. The items that cannot be refurbished will be used for parts and will be disposed appropriately. This will benefit communities, as well as the environment. 

Thanks to this partnership, Gateshead Council is also donating their decommissioned devices to be refurbished and donated back into the scheme to benefit local communities. We are looking forward to seeing the impact that this project will have on Gateshead, and supporting this with further collaborations and interventions to tackle digital inclusion holistically.