allpay Broadband

To start using the free Wi-Fi, users will simply need to search for allpay on their mobile device and then carry out a onetime log in process, but once this is completed they will be able to use it every time they’re in Hereford.

Herefordshire based allpay Broadband is thrilled to have been awarded the contract for Hereford City to deliver a Wi-Fi hotspot zone in the High Town area of the city centre.

The contract, awarded by Herefordshire Council, will see allpay install three wireless nodes along the main shopping area of the city allowing shoppers, businesses and tourists to access fast and reliable internet while they’re out and about.

Installing Wi-Fi in Hereford City will facilitate Herefordshire Council’s ambition to deliver ‘a fast and affordable broadband service that contributes to better outcomes for all people, greater range of service delivery, competitive advantage for business and escalated learning opportunities’.

Councillor Graham Powell, Cabinet Member for Education and Infrastructure at Herefordshire Council, said: “We are pleased to announce that through a partnership with allpay we are able to provide wireless broadband coverage across Hereford City centre.  A service that will enhance the city centre experience for visitors and residents.

“It means people will be able to access a wide range of information about shops, local attractions, events and special offers, as well as pick up and send emails, access the internet and send and receive photos, all at no cost.  This scheme is part of the on-going programme designed to attract visitors to Hereford City, and also part of a countywide drive to maximise the benefits as we become a digitally enabled county.”   

Helping deliver a Wi-Fi hotspot service for the local community and tourists in central locations is the next step for allpay. As part of the company’s digital, social and inclusion strategy, allpay has enabled more communities across Herefordshire, including those in the most rural areas, to surf the web using their wireless broadband service since 2009.

Entrepreneur, and owner of allpay Limited, Tony Killeen, commented: “This is a great step forward for Hereford, installing this Wi-Fi zone has the potential to increase tourism, help businesses, improve the local economy and even enhance social cohesions. We’re delighted to have been awarded this contract, which reflects our investment in the local community and our commitment to bringing Herefordshire up to speed.”

allpay Broadband has now reached an incredible 13 areas across Herefordshire!

With its pioneering approach of using church towers to create an impressive wireless network across the county, allpay Broadband has been steadily expanding its service, helping more and more local communities receive acceptable levels of internet speeds. Both residents and business owners across Herefordshire can now access a super-fast, highly reliable internet service that connects them to the rest of the world and has the potential to improve innovations, help businesses and even enhance social cohesions. This initiative is the first of its kind in the UK which has provided access to over 400 churches and thousands of residents throughout the Diocese of Hereford.

The scheme, which started in Kingstone now has 17 access points, covering 12 villages:

Wellington Credenhill Madley Staunton on Wye Dinedor  Kingstone Preston on Wye Swainshill  Burghill Allensmore Clehonger Brilley

Not forgetting Hereford City itself!

With ambitious plans, allpay Broadband hopes its service will bring Herefordshire into the 21st Century, improving people’s lives and supporting local businesses in the community.

The next villages planned to benefit from the service in the coming months include Garway, Peterchurch and the Golden Valley.

To register your interest in receiving the service, which is offering three months free* if you install before 31st December 2012, visit www.allpaybroadband.com

Welcome…

Welcome to allpay Broadband’s bi-monthly e-newsletter, keeping you up to date with our latest news.   Coming to a community near you... Next stop, Peterchurch, Garway and the Golden Valley! We know we’ve been saying this for a while now but we are nearly there. We’ve installed an access point in Peterchurch and we’re just waiting to get approval from the relevant authorities to install in Garway before we can get both sites up and running, hopefully by the end of November. We’ll then be coming to the Golden Valley!

    We’re going as fast as we can and as soon as the service is live we’ll get in touch with you.   Surf with your friends… Refer your friends to allpay Broadband and claim your £25 M&S voucher now! Are you already an allpay Broadband customer?   Yes…then share this with your friends, get them to sign up to our service and we’ll send you a£25 M&S voucher. Your friends simply fill in their details on the ‘register your interest’ page and include your broadband customer number in the ‘surf with your friends’ code field.   Once you have been verified as an existing customer and your friend has installed with allpay Broadband, we will send you your £25 voucher! allpay Broadband in the spotlight... allpay Broadband and Cambium Networks win NextGen Challenge 2012 allpay Broadband recently won the ‘rural leadership and community development’ award at the NextGen Challenge Awards 2012, in partnership with Cambium Networks (the manufacturers of our subscribers and antennae).   The win recognises our commitment to delivering broadband to rural communities across the Diocese of Hereford, through a unique and pioneering approach with the region’s churches playing a crucial role in the future of broadband accessibility.   Winning this award reflects our investment in our local community and demonstrates how we are successfully overcoming the challenge of providing fast and reliable broadband across our rural community.   allpay Broadband out and about... The allpay Flavours of Herefordshire An estimated 32,000 people celebrated the best of the county's food scene at the allpay Flavours of Herefordshire Festival on 27th & 28th October. There was so much to see, do and eat, we didn’t know where to start!   The event was a credit to the county and we were so proud to be part of it. The Cathedral provided a stunning backdrop to our stand where we provided free Wi-Fi in the Cathedral Close and demonstrated our broadband service live.   We spoke to a lot of you about the frustrations you have with the speeds you’re getting with your current providers and there was a lot of demand for us to widen our network coverage. It was great to meet you all and understand where you need us most, we’ll be updating our network plans to reflect the conversations we had.   Remember, we will go where the demand is, so if you need us - get your neighbours to register their interest too at www.allpaybroadband.com/availability/interest.   High Town stand – Saturday 17th November We’ll be in High Town on Saturday 17th November from 9am – 3pm where we’ll have our expert technicians on hand to talk you through our service and answer any questions you may have.   Truffle Christmas Market – Monday 10th December As part of the Herefordshire ‘Christmas Week of Markets’ the Truffle Card will be holding their second Truffle Market on Monday 10th December in High Town from 9am - 4pm.   We’ll be there so please come over if you want to know more about our service. We hope to have live demonstrations of the service and of course our team will be on hand to help with any questions.   Last year 22 businesses took part in the market and this year promises to be bigger and better, so it’s well worth a visit. Hopefully see you there!   Cathedral Close Christmas Market – Saturday 15th December We’ll be attending Hereford Cathedral’s Christmas Fair on Saturday 15th December.   There’ll be over 30 stalls displaying local crafts, produce and seasonal gifts.   Set in the grounds of the Cathedral, it’ll be the perfect way to get in the Christmas spirit!   Registering your interest... We are continually working to provide a reliable broadband service to more areas of Herefordshire.   Please encourage friends and family to register their interest with our service. If you are a landowner and think you could help allpay Broadband come to your community call us on 0844 557 8322, email [email protected] or click here to find out more about how it works. Want to know more? Can’t wait til next time to hear more about allpay Broadband? Why not follow us on Twitter or ‘like us’ on Facebook?   Simply search allpay Broadband. We will keep you up to date with the latest news, as it happens, including updates on our new broadband coverage areas.

The streets of Herefordshire came alive this weekend as the city saw the first allpay Flavours of Herefordshire Festival take place in the heart of the city centre.

The city of Hereford was awash with things to see, do, eat and drink at every turn.

Hereford Cathedral Close, High Town, Castle Green and Church Street were full to bursting with food stalls, demonstration theatres, farmers markets, children’s activities and street entertainers and the city centre was buzzing with festival goers enjoying the autumn sunshine.

The event, organised by Visit Herefordshire and replaces the annual Food Festival at Hereford Racecourse, was a celebration of Herefordshire’s abundance of food and drink produce.

This year’s festival celebrities included much loved baker and cookery book author Mary Berry CBE from the hit TV series, The Great British Bake Off, closely followed by acclaimed restaurateur and Ready Steady Cook favourite Tony Tobin, the wonderful Katy Ashworth from the well-known children’s TV show CBeebies and Xanthe Clay food and cookery features writer for Weekend Telegraph.

allpay is committed to supporting the local community and was extremely proud to be headline sponsors of the event.

Tony Killeen, Managing Director of allpay said “We are extremely proud and delighted to have been involved in such a successful event. The city centre was busy and vibrant and with 32,000 visitors, it has certainly put Herefordshire on the map. As a local business and a leading large employer we are always keen to put something back into the community and sponsoring the allpay Flavours of Herefordshire Festival was the perfect way to do this”

Clive Beddall OBE, international food consultant and former editor of The Grocer, the world's largest food trade newspaper, also attended the festival and commented:

"The allpay Flavours of Herefordshire Festival 2012 was a highly successful event. It spectacularly portrayed the great variety and scope of the food and drink industry in the region and allpay is to be congratulated for their foresight in sponsoring the festival. I have spent over four decades covering food events around the world and I have rarely attended anything that took such a passionate and professional approach to the food sector”.

As well as showcasing its community Broadband service and Print & Design product, allpay also invited people to join the ‘Great Recruitment Race’ to demonstrate the benefits of working for allpay.

allpay Broadband also provided free wireless broadband access to the festival exhibitors and visitors, and social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter were inundated with positive comments and feedback about the event.

Herefordshire-based allpay Broadband and Cambium Networks and have won the ‘rural leadership and community development’ award at the NextGen Challenge 2012. The win recognises the partnership’s commitment to delivering broadband to rural communities across the Diocese of Hereford, through a unique and pioneering partnership that saw the region’s churches play a crucial role in the future of its broadband accessibility.

The NextGen Challenge Awards are designed to give companies the opportunity to highlight achievements in developing and deploying better broadband, showcasing the best in next generation digital access infrastructure innovation.

“We’re delighted to have won this award in partnership with allpay Broadband as it demonstrates our commitment to the UK’s digital infrastructure and tackling rural broadband head-on,” comments Graham Bolton, Regional Sales Manager at Cambium Networks. “Residents and business owners across Herefordshire can now access a super-fast, highly reliable internet service that connects them to the rest of the world.”

With the support of the Chancellor of the Diocese, the creation of an innovative Common Licence scheme enabled antennae hardware to be fitted onto church towers across the county. The first of its kind in the UK, the Licence created a streamlined planning and application process for every church in the area and has provided access to over 400 churches and thousands of residents throughout the Diocese of Hereford.

Cambium Networks and Herefordshire-based allpay Broadband have been recognised by the NextGen Challenge Awards, for its commitment to delivering broadband to rural communities across the Diocese of Hereford using Church spires. Working collaboratively, the two companies have been named as a finalist for the ‘Rural leadership and community development’ category, after completing an innovative project that married the Medieval with the 21st century.

The project involved the creation of an unlikely but unique and pioneering partnership with the Diocese of Hereford, and saw the initiation of an innovative Common Licence scheme, that would enable antennae hardware to be fitted onto church towers across the entire region. With the support of the Chancellor of the Diocese and a forward-thinking approach, the Licence, which was launched in January 2011, created a streamlined planning and application process for every church in the area.

“Both residents and business owners across Herefordshire can now access a super-fast, highly reliable internet service that connects them to the rest of the world and has the potential to improve innovations and the environment, help businesses and even enhance social cohesions. When a community comes together like this, it shows what can be achieved if you have the desire to make it happen and the right technology. Cambium Networks Point to Multi Point technologies are being used to deliver super-fast broadband in and around Hereford today,” comments Graham Bolton, Regional Sales Manager at Cambium Networks.

This was the first ever installation of its kind in the UK and has provided access to over 400 churches and thousands of residents throughout the Diocese of Hereford. Since the launch, over 100 churches in Herefordshire have already registered their interest in the solution and currently there are already 17 access points covering 13 villages. Entrepreneur, and owner of allpay Limited, Tony Killeen, comments:

“When allpay recognised the desperation from businesses and individuals across the County to access fast and reliable internet, we knew it was going to be a challenge. Our partnership with the Diocese of Hereford is very much an example of the Big Society in action, with two local organisations coming together to help tackle a problem facing thousands of people living in our local communities.”

He continued: “The use of Cambium’s technology has been crucial to allpay Broadband’s progress and development. It has meant we’ve been able to tackle the problem face on and roll out our wireless service to areas that other broadband providers have not been able to reach and bring Herefordshire back up to speed.”

The NextGen Challenge is the UK’s annual competition for broadband network innovation and was open to all project and community leaders and suppliers who were able to demonstrate the best in next generation digital infrastructure. The awards evening will take place during the NextGen12 conference at the House of Commons Member’s Dining Room, London on 8 October 2012.

allpay flags, sweets and goody bags were proudly paraded in welcome of Her Royal Highness and the Duke of Edinburgh at the Herefordshire Diamond Day jubilee celebrations last Wednesday.

Named a ‘sparkling success’ by the Lord-Lieutenant of Herefordshire, Diamond Day attracted over 25,000 visitors and showcased a diverse procession from community representatives from all over the county.

As patron sponsor, allpay was thrilled to be a part of such an exciting event and was delighted by the level of visitors to the allpay display, where interested parties could register their interest in the company’s rural broadband solution and discuss the issues they face with slow internet speeds in their town or village.

The hundreds of school children who made the special trip to greet The Queen also seemed to be pleased with the abundance of allpay bespoke rock that was on offer!

Welcome… Welcome to allpay Broadband’s bi-monthly e-newsletter, keeping you up to date with all our latest news.   Coming to a community near you... We’re now live in BRILLEY! We have now successfully installed allpay Broadband in BRILLEY! Make sure you register your interest if you’re within the coverage area and encourage your friends, neighbours and family too.   Next stop... ...Goodrich and the Golden Valley! The next village to benefit from our service is Goodrich. So make sure you register your details on our website now, we can then get in touch once we’re live.   If you want to see exactly where we plan to go over the next few months click here.   allpay Broadband out and about... Kingstone Annual Dog Show On 23rd June we attended Kingstone Sports Association’s main fundraising event, the Kingstone Dog Show. We had a meet and greet stand at the event, giving away lots of goodies and meeting plenty of you who discussed your broadband woes with us.   Hereford High Town meet and greet We’ll be in High Town again on Saturday 7th July so make sure you come over and say hello. We’ll have our expert technicians on hand to talk you through our service and answer any questions you may have.   Herefordshire Diamond Day  On Wednesday 11th July the Queen will be visiting Hereford as part of her Diamond Jubilee celebrations!   The visit, organised by Herefordshire Council, has been named Herefordshire Diamond Day – a special event to be held on the King George V playing fields. It will draw together communities from around the county and feature sports, music, dance, local arts and crafts, voluntary groups and charities.   allpay is one of the main sponsors of the event and we will be there on the day in the ‘Communities Tent’. As always we’ll have lots of goodies to give away and our expert technicians will be on hand to answer any questions you may have about our service.   We’ll also be joined by the allpay Print and Design team and Cashless team.   It will be a momentous event and we hope to see you there!   Herefordshire Country Fair We’ll also be at the Herefordshire Country Fair this year.    We’re hoping to provide free Wi-Fi at the event as well as a meet and greet stand so you can see the service in action for yourself!   The event is on Sunday 5th August at Whitfield Court, so remember to put it in your diaries and we hope to see you there.   Business networking events As you know allpay Broadband wants to help businesses across Herefordshire get online, with fast internet!    So, to try and get our name out there and make some friendly links we’ve been attending a few business breakfasts over the past few months. We’ve attended some really interesting sessions so far including the Hereford and Worcester Chamber of Commerce breakfast meetings and the Hereford Business Networking Club run by Griffin and King and apple accountants.   We’ve made some good links at the events and we hope we’ll soon have a web of useful contacts from across the Herefordshire business world. This will help us understand the true issues faced and how we can help overcome them.    allpay Broadband in the spotlight... Get active with allpay Broadband We’re going to be running a summer awareness campaign during July and August so you may see our name out and about quite a lot over the coming months.   Every customer who installs before 31st August 2012 will receive a free guest pass for Halo Leisure!*

Look out for adverts in the Hereford Times, at your local newsagents and in local businesses around Herefordshire.

*Only valid for those currently living in the allpay Broadband coverage areas and who install before 31/08/2012

Every Herefordshire Housing tenant will have access to free broadband within the next five years, according to its chief executive.

The ambitious goal was set after the 5,500-home social landlord agreed a unique partnership with local service provider allpay Broadband.

The partnership will initially see wireless broadband installed at three sheltered housing schemes in the county, providing residents with broadband speeds of up to 10Mb.

The first scheme to benefit is Innesfield in Clehonger where the allpay system is serving a communal area along with 31 bungalows.

Peter Brown, Herefordshire Housing chief executive, says digital inclusion is high on the agenda for his organisation.

“Broadband is increasingly becoming the fourth utility and we want as many tenants as possible to benefit from having high-speed internet access in their home,” he said. “We chose the scheme at Clehonger to test the allpay system as it is a rural location and BT have only been able to provide 2Mb to this point.

“We feel access to the internet can help change people’s lives – from shopping, to contact with family members as well as accessing our own services.”

The next sheltered schemes to benefit from the partnership with allpay Broadband will be Southgate in Ross Road, Hereford, and Bryngwyn Court, off Barrs Court Road.

As part of its digital inclusion drive, Herefordshire Housing is providing training and support to residents who need help getting started on the internet.

If all goes to plan, Herefordshire Housing hopes to have all of its older persons’ schemes covered by the end of 2012.

Tony Killeen, allpay Managing Director, said the partnership with Herefordshire Housing was an ideal fit for his organisation.

“allpay already helps housing associations across the UK with the collection of rent through our bill payment systems, so it is a natural fit for us to provide them with broadband solutions as well,” he explained.

Welcome…

Welcome to allpay Broadband’s monthly e-newsletter, keeping you up to date with all our latest news.

Just so you know, we’ll be changing the frequency that we send out these e-newsletters to bi- monthly. The next one you’ll receive will be at the end of June but you can continue to keep hot on the toes of what we’re doing through our Facebook and Twitter pages.

Coming to a community near you...

Coming soon to... BRILLEY!

We’ll be live in Brilley by the end of next week! Make sure you register your interest if you’re within the coverage area by clicking here. We can then get in touch with you as soon as we’re up and running.

Next stop...

The Golden Valley!

We’ll soon be making our way down to the Golden Valley - the Bage and Peterchurch are next on our list. So remember to register your interest here and tell your friends and family too.

Goodrich

Our engineers have been completing site surveys in Goodrich over the past few days and we’re hoping to install over the summer period. Keep an eye out for our June newsletter when we should be able to give you some firm dates.

In the meantime, spread the word amongst friends and family and get them to register their interest here.

allpay Broadband out and about...

Party on the Path!

We attended Party on the Path – a festival of food, fitness and fun which took place on Saturday 21st April at Widemarsh Common in Hereford.

This event launched Herefordshire Council’s Personal Travel Planning (PTP) project which aimed to bring the community together to discover more about active travel in an enjoyable community focused event.

Hereford High Town meet and greet

We’ll be in High Town again on Saturday 2nd June so make sure you come over and say hello. We’ll have our expert technicians on hand to talk you through our service and answer any questions you may have.

Credenhill drop in session

We’ll be at Credenhill Social Club on Friday 4th May from 6.30pm – 10pm, answering questions about our service and providing more information on how it works. If you’re in the area and would like to know more about our service, pop down – our team would love to meet you.

We’re always looking for opportunities to get out and about in our community so watch this space to see where we’ll be this summer.

Welcome to the team...

We’d like to welcome Geraint Hill to the Broadband team. He joined us recently as a Broadband Engineer and will be helping us install our service across the county.

Geraint is originally from Bargoed in the Rhymney Valleys, Wales where he spent five years in the Royal Signals. He completed two six months tours of Afghanistan as well as some other smaller achievements, including competing in the Lanyard Trophy event which was a 40 mile “tab” carrying 40lbs in a bergen over the Otterburn training area in Scotland. Finishing with a time of 16hours and 15minutes, it was quite an achievement.

He’s also a keen rugby supporter and loves watching Wales.

Oh and he’s also fluent in Welsh!

So, in summary Geraint is a Welsh speaking, rugby playing hidden hero and should be able to help us conquer the Broadband woes of Herefordshire!

Welcome to the team Geraint!

Registering your interest...

We are continually working to provide a reliable broadband service to more areas of Herefordshire.

Please encourage friends and family to register their interest with our service. If you are a landowner and think you could help allpay Broadband come to your community call us on 0844 557 8322, email [email protected] or click here to find out more about how it works.

Want to know more?

Can’t wait til next month to hear more about allpay Broadband? Why not follow us on Twitter or ‘like us’ on Facebook?

Simply search allpay Broadband. We will keep you up to date with the latest news, as it happens, including updates on our new broadband coverage areas.

0844 557 8322

www.allpaybroadband.com

Welcome… Welcome to allpay Broadband’s monthly e-newsletter, keeping you up to date with all our latest news.   Coming to a community near you... We’re now live in WELLINGTON! We have now successfully installed allpay Broadband in WELLINGTON! Make sure you register your interest if you’re within the coverage area www.allpaybroadband.com   Next stop, BRILLEY! The next village to benefit from our service is BRILLEY. So make sure you register your details on our website now, we can then get in touch once we’re live.   If you want to see exactly where we plan to go over the next few months click here   Wi-Fi hotspots As we mentioned in our last newsletter we’ve installed our Wi-Fi service at Burghill Valley Golf Club. This has proved very popular with their members and guests.   We’re now carrying out Wi-Fi trials on some new technology to ensure we can provide the best Wi-Fi service at more hot spots around Herefordshire. We’ll make sure we keep you updated on this and let you know as soon as we have more Wi-Fi zones up and running.    allpay Broadband out and about... Hereford High Town meet and greet We’ll be in High Town again on Saturday 31st March so make sure you come over and say hello. We’ll have our expert technicians on hand to talk you through our service and answer any questions you may have.   Green Biz showcase We’ll be attending the Green Biz showcase on Monday 2nd April at the Courtyard, Hereford.   The event hosted by Herefordshire and Worcestershire Chamber of Commerce and Herefordshire Greenlinks offers an excellent opportunity for businesses to learn more about a better, greener, prosperous future in this county. The keynote speaker is Vince Cable, current Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills. And he will be answering questions from local businesses and learning about the issues that are affecting Herefordshire businesses - especially in the green sector.   We will be showcasing allpay Broadband and our Print & Design Service at the exhibition and we'll also be attending the Question Time on behalf of allpay as a whole, so it should prove quite an interesting event.   Herefordshire and Worcestershire Chamber of Commerce Expo event We attended the Expo event at Hereford Leisure Centre on 21st March.  We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and met lots of other fellow businesses from around Herefordshire. We even had live demonstrations of our service running on our stand.   This was the first of hopefully many business events we hope to attend and we hope our services can help the business community across Herefordshire thrive.   Registering your interest... We are continually working to provide a reliable broadband service to more areas of Herefordshire.   Please encourage friends and family to register their interest with our service. If you are a landowner and think you could help allpay Broadband come to your community call us on 0844 557 8322, email [email protected] or click here to find out more about how it works. Want to know more? Can’t wait til next month to hear more about allpay Broadband? Why not follow us on Twitter or ‘like us’ on Facebook?   Simply search allpay Broadband. We will keep you up to date with the latest news, as it happens, including updates on our new broadband coverage areas.

National Institute of Adult Continuing Education

www.niace.org.uk

Press Release - Monday 19 March 2012

PR29/12

GETTING SHELTERED HOUSING RESIDENTS ONLINE HAS WIDESPREAD BENEFITS

Providing computers and training in sheltered housing across the country has had a positive impact for both residents and landlords by helping to reduce isolation, improving attitudes to learning, increasing confidence and instilling better personal health management through the Get Digital project - delivered by NIACE and Digital Unite – according to an evaluation report published today, Monday 19 March 2012.

In one year the Get Digital programme - commissioned by the Department for Communities and Local Government and funded by the Department of Work and Pensions – provided 196 sheltered homes with grants to set up kit and online facilities and engaged around 3,000 older residents in digital skills activities.

The evaluation report studies the learning journey and outcomes of residents who took part in the whole 16-week learning programme at their schemes and recognises, amongst other things, the provision of skilled tutors that accompanied the online facilities as a key factor in the scheme’s success. Older residents felt supported and it enabled them to learn at a flexible pace and according to their own needs and interests. As a result there was a marked improvement in their quality of life ranging from increased self-confidence, greater freedom resulting from access to online information, more willingness to take up different learning activities and stronger social relationships with family, friends and other residents.

The evaluation also formed the basis of a rationale report outlining Get Digital’s multiple benefits to landlords – including how the investment can become a business asset and selling point for attracting future residents and how staff involved in planning and managing the delivery of the learning activities reported increased job satisfaction. As a result of the strong business case presented in the rationale report, many participating landlords have stated that they will be delivering digital inclusion across their housing stock. Some have placed digital inclusion within their community development strategies and it is expected that both the evaluation and the rationale reports will encourage even more landlords to make further investments in digital literacy initiatives for older residents. 

Philip Taylor, Neighbourhood Team Manager, Medina Housing Association, said, “Spectrum Medina were delighted to participate in the Get Digital programme which proved to be a great success for residents, partners and staff. The evaluation shows the wider success of Get Digital in dispelling the myth that computers are not for older people, while the rationale gives convincing reasons to develop such facilities and by engaging residents, staff and partners shows how success can be achieved. This has given us the encouragement to go further and we are investing in computer facilities across our sheltered schemes in 2012.”

Susan Easton, NIACE’s Get Digital programme manager, said, “Two thirds of those over the age of 65 in sheltered housing are not connected to the internet, or don't have the skills to use it, and are therefore missing out on the many benefits of being online. By supporting the digital inclusion of older people in sheltered housing, the Get Digital programme has helped a significant number of older people to develop their IT skills and to be more confident in the use of technology. This in turn has empowered them to make important decisions about issues affecting their lives. Get Digital will also inspire more landlords to develop their own digital inclusion programmes and the rationale report makes recommendations on how landlords can develop successful programmes in a sustainable and cost–effective way.”

Emma Solomon, Managing Director of Digital Unite, said, “Digital Unite has been delivering digital literacy programmes in sheltered housing environments for over ten years, and we have long known of the multiple benefits, to a range of stakeholders, of such initiatives. The Get Digital programme was exceptional because it was delivered at such scale, and it has been fascinating – and inspiring - to examine the findings of the evaluation report. Stimulated by the feedback from Get Digital, in particular that local organisations, such as landlords, really wanted and needed to ‘own’ their digital inclusion to make it truly sustainable, we have developed the Digital Champion ITQ, which is a level 2 qualification designed to give staff and more able residents the skills, techniques and resources to deliver digital literacy in their environments long into the future.”

Ends

For further information please contact:

Ed Melia, NIACE Head of Media, on 0116 204 4248 or 07795 358 870 or [email protected]

Marie Koupparis, NIACE Communications Officer, on 0116 204 4270 or 07824 481 499 or [email protected]

Notes to Editors

1.    Both the Get Digital: Impact Study and the Get Digital: Rationale for Enhanced Digital Inclusion can be downloaded for free here: http://bit.ly/yp7sqN

2.    A short film about the Get Digital programme – featuring residents and landlords – can be viewed here: http://bit.ly/x1gMA6 

3.    The National Institute of Adult Continuing Education (NIACE) is an independent charity which promotes adult learning across England and Wales. Through its research, development, publications, events, outreach and advocacy activity, NIACE works to improve the quality and breadth of opportunities available for all adults so they can benefit from learning throughout their lives. www.niace.org.uk

The National Institute of Adult Continuing Education, England and Wales (NIACE). A company limited by guarantee registered no. 2603322 and registered charity no. 1002775, Registered address: 21, De Montfort Street, Leicester, LE1 7GE, UK www.niace.org.uk