Hundreds of grassroot digital inclusion providers can now bid for government cash thanks to a new grant scheme.

It is being introduced by UK online centres a government organisation set up a decade ago to provide public access to computers in a bid to reduce social exclusion.

The funding is part of a £30m investment in digital inclusion announced by Gordon Brown in December’s Smarter Government report. The report said there was a potential to reduce the cost of public services and improve customer experience by moving the majority of provision online and the money was pledged to UK online centres to help get 1m people online over the next three years. 

Helen Milner the managing director of UK online centres says digital inclusion operates best at grassroots level where it is made to reach the most deeply excluded who have also been hardest hit by the credit crunch. 

She said: “It was therefore obvious to us that the majority of the £30m announced by Gordon Brown should go to grassroots providers in the form of grants in order to extend their work, and support even more people to get online. I’m delighted we’ve been able to get that first round of grant funding off the ground so quickly. 

“Grants will be available for UK online centres members, and any other digital inclusion providers willing to become members, so we can effectively administrate and monitor spending and progress centrally.

"We’ll be looking to recruit new centres working with deeply excluded groups, or based in areas of high deprivation and low network coverage. This is the first phase of a three year plan, and over the course of the next three years, many hundreds of centres will benefit from grants."
 
There are around 15m adults in the UK who are not using computers and the internet and Milner says they are likely to become socially and digitally excluded.

Nearly half of those without access are in the lowest socio-economic groups, and 70 per cent of people living in social housing are not online.

For more information about the funding visit www.ukonlinecentres.co.uk/corporate/regions-and-network/funding

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