The Covid-19 lockdown has exposed how vulnerable some of us are. Without internet access and basic digital skills, millions of people across the UK have struggled to access vital local services.

As the first lockdown began, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government asked council digital teams to submit proposals for tackling the pandemic.

Croydon Council and Leeds City Council applied separately with partners to create a “playbook” or “toolkit”, collecting together the best digital inclusion tips we’ve used in the past.

MHCLG invited us all to work together, and this site is the result!

TechResort has been involved since the start of the project, sharing our knowledge of useful kit, and experience of helping individuals, charities and small businesses to get online. We’re also supporting the site technically, by providing hosting, know-how and software updates at intervals.

The group was very fortunate to be joined by Age UK Croydon who’re an extremely knowledgable and committed organisation. Our common goal is to share the knowledge we have as widely as possible, and it’s been great to meet and work with like minded people.

Get useful and free digital inclusion advice

digitalinclusionkit.org includes digital inclusion tips that have worked for us. The articles you see now are just the start, and we’ll be adding more over the coming months.

As well as there being some great advice and videos on the site already, we’re particularly thrilled that all the code is going to be open sourced. This means anyone will be able to download and use it for free. A huge hat tip to Dave “Design Dave” Hampton at Croydon Council for his hard work on this.

You’re invited to join us and share your experiences. If you’ve helped others to get online, we’d love to hear what’s worked for you (and not!).