This week, as part of our series exploring the benefits of delivering behaviour change programmes in tandem with new technologies, we are delighted to welcome a guest blog from Sam Nutt, Researcher at the London Office of Technology and Innovation (LOTI). So far in #nudgemonth, we have looked at the ethics of applied behavioural science and highlighted the need for initiatives to be community-led and based on primary research – for this to work in practice, access must be equitable. Here, Sam highlights some of the ways London councils are promoting digital inclusion and embedding residents’ views at the heart of every decision, even the most technical data policy.

Innovation doesn’t just have a speed, but also a direction.

Across the capital, the London Office of Technology and Innovation (LOTI) works to promote a vision of innovation that is uniquely collaborative and inclusive. We want to see councils building the most effective tools with data and digital, empowered by the needs and perspectives of residents. However, to ensure the benefits of data technologies and a digital economy are felt by everyone, councils need to include digitally excluded people.

One London authority that has worked hard on this is Camden. Camden decided that they wanted their residents to thoughtfully deliberate, and then propose what they wanted the council’s data strategy to actually look like. The council showed great trust in their residents by bringing in a randomly sortitioned and representative group from across the borough to create their first ever Camden Data Charter.

Given that this group included older people, people with less knowledge in data, and even people who could not afford to spend the time learning this, the council had to make special efforts to include their residents, to ensure their commitment and participation. To help residents of all income levels to attend each weekend deliberation, everyone was paid London Living Wage. And, to ensure residents had an adequate handle on this technical issue, expert and neutral organisations like the Alan Turing Institute helped create dedicated educational resources and ensure residents could engage on their terms.

Lastly, and most importantly, residents will only choose to engage if they believe their input will actually lead to change. There is plenty of research from organisations like the OECD or Nesta that shows that this is one of the key enablers to encourage residents to engage with councils more. In Camden, not only did the residents directly determine the shape of the Data Charter, the panel of 2021 which designed the Charter also ensured accountability for their work, as the council has to report back to a new panel of residents in 2022. When residents feel genuinely trusted with meaningfully shaping council decisions or actions, then they are much more likely to choose to engage.

Luckily, there are growing numbers of tools for councils to help embed resident voices in decision-making, but considerations still need to be made for the digitally excluded. Newham Council demonstrates good practice in this regard. Their digital engagement platform, Newham Co-Creates, has around 5000 active members, but 3000 members were registered in-person in a single month during a dedicated push by their community neighbourhoods team. And, Newham’s Community Assemblies, a programme which gives residents £800,0000 a year to spend on however they vote, uses a hybrid model, combining in-person and online deliberation and voting. So, whilst there are new technologies and approaches which are empowering residents, Newham is showing that with the right design approaches, councils can both embrace new technology and empower their digitally excluded.

There is so much more to be done, but by meaningfully including all residents in decision-making, even the digitally excluded in technical issues like data policy, councils can massively improve the quality of their engagement with residents, ultimately allowing them to create policies and services more in line with resident need. If London can develop and embed this practice systemically, it won’t only be a great city for public sector innovation, but a great city to be a resident.

Thanks, Sam for sharing LOTI’s work in the capital and some of the initiatives that councils are developing to achieve these aims. You can find out more about the GLA and LOTI’s Digital Inclusion Innovation Programme on their website.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, the shift online for key services, from education to healthcare, highlighted the urgency of enabling universal access. DG Cities was appointed by Greenwich to identify and address the barriers to digital inclusion in parts of the borough - you can read more about this in Hiba’s piece.