Tackling child poverty delivery plan 2022-2026 - annex 5: impact of policies on child poverty

Connecting Scotland

To close the digital divide, by bringing digitally excluded people online. By initially focussing on child poverty priority families, the programme can unlock the best value of digital inclusion, maximising the return on investment in areas such as employability and skills, income maximisation and health.

• Costs of living

Enhanced life chances (e.g. health, wellbeing, capabilities, longer term goals)

Potential size of impact

To bring up to 300,000 people online through Connecting Scotland and eligibility will initially be targeted specifically at child poverty priority families.

Type of impact

Digital inclusion impacts directly on each of the drivers of child poverty. Use of the internet makes it easier to: find out about and apply for benefits; search and apply for jobs, as well as develop the digital skills needed for work; minimise the 'poverty premium' by being able to shop around for cheaper products and services.

Certainty of impact

The benefits of digital inclusion are widely recognised and increasingly important. Evidence from earlier rounds of Connecting Scotland indicate positive outcomes for device recipients and our existing evaluation framework will be adapted to be able to report the benefits realised for priority families of maximising income from earnings and benefits, and reducing household costs.

Priority families targeted by policy:

• Lone parents
• 3+ children
• Disabled
• Minority ethnic
• Baby < 1
• Mothers aged <25

The existing reporting framework will track devices and internet connection delivered to families to demonstrate uptake. Representatives from the priority groups will be actively involved in the design of the future service.

Tracking progress

Connecting Scotland has an evaluation framework in place that tracks the benefits reported by its customers using surveys and interviews delivered periodically to each cohort being supported. This framework will be built on to measure interventions in terms of whether the target groups are being reached, the extent to which they are engaging online and any positive outcomes realised from being digitally supported.