We’ve put together a video on the assisted digital team, showing a bit about who we are and what we do. Thanks to Graham Higgins and Giles Turnbull for making this for us, following their previous excellent work introducing the Transformation team, Finance team, Hosting and Infrastructure team, User research team, Procurement team and the Product analysts.
Meet the assisted digital team - video transcript
Rebecca Kemp (Team Leader, Policy, Government Digital Service):
At the moment you have a digital service, you might have a paper channel, you might have a phone channel, and they're all separate. Whereas in future, you would have a digital service that's all digital behind the scenes, with a bit of extra help for the people who need it for Assisted Digital.
Karen Stokes (Project Manager, Government Digital Service):
We know that not everyone will be able to use digital services independently so we need to make sure that we provide some help and some support for those people who are offline, and that's Assisted Digital.
What sort of people is Assisted Digital for?
We're talking about people like my dad, one finger at a time when he does use a laptop, and who gets very frustrated about looking at forms online. "That's not giving me the answer, that's not going to help me, I don't know what that's all about."
Mark McLeod (Digital Policy Advisor, Government Digital Service):
My nana would benefit from Assisted Digital support. So she's 94 and she's never used a computer, and she's not interested in using a computer.
Richard Smith (Policy and Projects Officer, Government Digital Service):
It's mainly for people who have problems using technology in general, and also people with certain disability needs, people from certain socio-economic groups, anyone really who, for whatever reason, is disadvantaged using a computer.
Delivering Assisted Digital
Rebecca Kemp:
Last year we were working on the Government Digital Strategy, so thinking big thoughts about what Digital by Default means and what Assisted Digital might look like. Now we're moving from strategy or policy development into delivery phase.
Assisted Digital is part of Digital by Default
Mark McLeod:
The way not to think of it is: we have digital and non-digital. I think the way you need to think about it is: you have your Digital by Default service that includes Assisted Digital provision that's going to allow the people that aren't online to access that service.
Rebecca Kemp:
The reason we call it Assisted Digital, not other channels or alternative channels, is because we want it to be thought about together. The process should be pretty similar. It's about understanding user needs, it's about meeting them efficiently and effectively, it's about getting people services in the ways that are comfortable and that work for them.
5 comments
Comment by andyleppard posted on
Will there be any funding available to organisations that are able to provide digital assistance to the customers of government services?
Comment by reemamehta posted on
Hi Andy,
As set out in the Government Approach to Assisted Digital (http://publications.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/digital/assisted/), assisted digital support will be procured as the default from the private, voluntary and wider public sectors. We've started talking to potential providers of this support (http://digital.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/2013/05/23/starting-conv-assisted-digital/), and we held a market engagement event for interested suppliers in June (http://digital.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/2013/06/20/engaging-the-market/).
Reema
Comment by Seth Edwards, Strategic Systems and Technology Lead posted on
This was really informative - thanks for putting it together.
I would be very interested in participating in your discussions. Please let me know if there is an opening/opprtunity.
Comment by reemamehta posted on
Hi Seth, thanks for your interest in our work. I'll get in touch to arrange a chat about how you could get involved.
Reema
Comment by Seth Edwards, Strategic Systems and Technology Lead posted on
Thanks Reema p- look forward to hearing from you.