Digital Poverty / Digital Exclusion - Freedom of information requests

Title or Description: Digital Poverty / Digital Exclusion
FOI Number: 520
Date Received: 23/05/2022
Type of Request: FOI
Request or Question: Under the Freedom of Information act 2000 I would like to know what budget/policies your council have put in place to combat digital poverty/digital exclusion (such as lack of access to devices/internet or digital skills training) over the last 3 years.Please break down by financial year, and include the following:* Amount of money/budget spent (£) on devices, digital skills training or anything else across each of the last three financial years (or as far back as you can provide)* Amount of devices donated to families, schools, or charities in need
o Please also include a breakdown of each device type (i.e. laptop, mobile phone, tablet, etc.) and associated costs
* A list of any specific policies, activities or consultations introduced to tackle digital poverty
Response: Scottish Borders Council were awarded funding from the Connecting Scotland Programme which enabled over 450 devices (Chromebooks, ipads and MiFi) which supported 354 families, 63 care leavers and 25 other vulnerable people. These were distributed via a referral process with partnership agencies.
Scottish Borders Council also secured £75k from South of Scotland Enterprise and were able to match this with £75k of SG Financial Hardship Funding. Devices are being distributed by Live Borders via a referral process in collaboration with partnership agencies. 80 iPads, 75 Chromebooks, 120 MiFi and 105 device guides have been purchased and distributed to date.
This is not specifically about Digital Poverty/Exclusion, but in order to be helpful, Scottish Borders Council's Inspire Learning programme has provided iPads to school pupils from P4 to S6. This has created an equality of access for all young people in these school years.