Leeds Community Healthcare NHS Trust launches new digital offer for patients

From the end of April 2025 Leeds Community Healthcare NHS Trust patients will have access to the Trust’s new digital offer, including having the option to receive letters digitally.

Patients who access their letters digitally will be able to change the letter’s language, background colour, and font size to best suit their needs. Patients who would prefer to not access their letter digitally will still be able to receive a paper copy through the post. From the end of April the Trust will be sending out texts to all patients that have a mobile phone number on record, giving people the option to opt in to receive digital letters. 

This five-minute briefing video from Amanda Jackson, Associate Chief Clinical Information Officer at Leeds Community Healthcare NHS Trust, gives organisations a first look at the new Digital Letters initiative and launch, and the sign-up process for patients. 

The process for signing up to Digital Letters:

  • Text messages will be sent to all patients where the trust has a mobile phone number on record.
  • All texts will be sent from a number which states NHS No Reply. The text message will include a link and a four digital PIN.
  • The patient will be expected to click on the link, and enter their date of birth and the four digit PIN which can be found within their text message.
  • The patient will then be able to see their appointment letter. They can change the font, background colour and language to suit their needs.
  • If patients are digitally excluded or would prefer to not access their digital letter, they can ignore the text and will receive a paper copy of their letter through the post within 48 hours of the appointment booking.

The video includes screenshots of the text messages patients will receive, so that organisations can be confident in reassuring any members concerned about scams that the text message is legitimate, and they are safe to click on the link and follow the sign-up process. The video also includes screenshots of leaflets and posters available for organisations to order to help promote the initiative.

Leeds Community Healthcare NHS Trust’s digital offer for patients: briefing event for community partners

Event details and booking: 1 May, 10-11am, via Teams. Book your free ticket via Eventbrite

100% Digital Leeds and Leeds Community Healthcare NHS Trust are hosting a briefing event giving community partners the opportunity to hear more about the Trust’s new digital offer for patients. Attendees will have the opportunity to ask Amanda questions and to share any thoughts of feedback.

The briefing will cover:

  • A walk through of the Trust’s Digital Letters roll out.
  • A preview of the Trust’s new Digital Portal for patients.
  • Information about the Trust’s new screening questions to better understand the digital inclusion needs of their patients.
  • An update on the Trust’s new Digital, Data and ​Technology Strategy.
  • Information about what digital inclusion support is available across the city.

Digital Volunteering Matchmaking Event 2025

Leeds Digital Volunteering Partnership is hosting an in-person networking event with the aim of fostering collaboration between Leeds’s charity and tech sectors, increasing the city’s capacity to support digital inclusion. To understand more about how tech companies and community organisations can partner to support the digital inclusion of people and communities in Leeds read our latest partner profile outlining how Leeds Older People’s Forum and Axiologic partnered with Southlands Retirement Apartments to support digital inclusion for residents.

Digital Volunteering Matchmaking Event details and booking:

Date and time: Tuesday 29 April, 10am – 12noon

Location: MEPC Wellington Central, Wellington Place, Leeds LS1 4AP

Booking: Book your free place on Eventbrite

The networking event aims to link tech companies seeking Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) volunteer opportunities with community, voluntary or social enterprise (VCSE) organisations looking for volunteers to support basic digital skills for Leeds residents. We aim for attendees to leave the event having made meaningful matches, leading to ongoing, mutually beneficial partnerships.

The plan for the morning:

  • Introductions and context setting from 100% Digital Leeds, Voluntary Action Leeds, and Forum Central.
  • A short panel discussion with representatives from businesses and VCSEs who have worked in partnership to support digital skills for Leeds residents.
  • A networking exercise to foster new partnerships.

Who would benefit from attending this event:

  • All attendees should represent businesses or VCSE organisations based in, or delivering services, in Leeds.
  • Representatives should be organisational leaders with enough influence to action any commitments made. Example roles include CSR/ESG Leads, Volunteer Managers, and Digital Inclusion Officers.

Leeds Digital Volunteering Partnership:

Leeds Digital Volunteering Partnership (LDVP) is made up of representatives from 100% Digital Leeds, Leeds Community Foundation, Voluntary Action Leeds, Forum Central, and the city’s tech sector.

LDVP fosters cross-sector partnerships that help the city’s third sector organisations benefit from the digital skills and capacity of the tech sector, and to enable tech businesses and their employees to gain new skills, experience, and a sense of community through work with not-for-profit organisations.

The partnership was formed after the success of the Leeds Digital Ball and Leeds Digital Inclusion Fund highlighted further opportunities for the tech sector to support the third sector other than financially.

Partner profile: Southlands Retirement Apartments  

100% Digital Leeds has supported residents of Westward Care’s Southlands Retirement Apartments to partner with Leeds Older People’s Forum and Leeds tech company Axiologik, to improve residents’ digital skills and confidence. Southlands Retirement Apartments is a collection of retirement apartments situated in Roundhay in the north of Leeds. These self-contained apartments allow older people to lead an independent life and run their own home while also having the option of care and support should they need it.

With support from Leeds Older People’s Forum’s Digital Inclusion Officer and corporate volunteers from Axiologik, residents have developed their digital skills and confidence to make better use of their digital devices,  increasing their independence.

“The sessions have been very helpful, I’ve found out things that I didn’t know my phone could do. We had a power cut here the other day and I thought I know what I can do, I have a torch on my phone!”

Margaret, resident of Southlands Retirement Apartments

Understanding the needs of residents

100% Digital Leeds was contacted by a resident at Southlands Retirement Apartments who was interested in replicating the digital skills activity that had taken place at Headingley Hall. He had recognised a need for digital support for the residents of the retirement apartments and knew that they would benefit from receiving help with digital tools and technology, but didn’t feel like he had the confidence or skills necessary to deliver the sessions himself.

“Being the youngest, everyone was asking me questions all the time when they were getting stuck with using their phones. I use digital a lot, I know the basics but I don’t know everything. Quite early on I asked Westward Care if they had any contacts that could support with digital as some of the questions I couldn’t answer. A lot of residents need support with the basics of emails and messages.”

Mick, Residents’ Representative, Southlands Retirement Apartments.

100% Digital Leeds visited Southlands and spoke to the group about the personal barriers they were experiencing to getting online and what they felt was important to them. Residents spoke about their lack of confidence with digital tools and technology, concerns about scams and fraud, and confusion about passwords and apps.

It became clear that access to equipment and connectivity was not an issue, as many residents owned a smartphone or tablet. However, some residents were not making full use of the ‘smart’ features of their devices, so not realising the potential benefits of digital.

“A lot of the residents own a smartphone but only use it as a phone and don’t know what else they can do with it. People were very keen to maintain contact with their families, particularly the people living alone. A lot of residents have been bought tablets by their family too, they maybe know how to receive and send a message and take a video call but that’s the extent of their confidence.”

Mick, Residents’ Representative, Southlands Retirement Apartments.

Support from Leeds Older People’s Forum and Axiologik

100% Digital Leeds facilitated a partnership between Southlands and Leeds Older People’s Forum. Leeds Older People’s Forum is a network of third sector organisations working with and for older people. They partner with 100% Digital Leeds to facilitate the Older People’s Digital Inclusion Network, and they led on the development and delivery of Be Online and Stay Safe (BOSS), a project supporting older people more likely to face additional barriers to digital inclusion and media literacy, including cultural, language, and literacy barriers.

Leeds Older People’s Forum were awarded a UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF) grant to appoint a Digital Inclusion Officer to increase digital inclusion  for older people, and the organisations that support them. The Officer’s remit was to provide both digital skills support for participants and to support organisations to develop their own digital skills offer, to make sure that the digital inclusion work is sustainable.

Leeds Older People’s Forum’s Digital Inclusion Officer began delivering weekly digital skills sessions with the group. They followed the Be Online Stay Safe programme, to address the challenges faced by older people. The programme empowers older people who may be more susceptible to online scams to feel more comfortable and confident navigating the online world.

In addition, one-to-one troubleshooting sessions with individual residents helped to address specific digital concerns. This tailored, person-centred support was made possible by volunteers from tech company Axiologik, who brought additional skills and capacity to the session.

“Having the extra volunteer support means that I could do the generic training on basic digital skills, but then I’ve got support to deal with those other questions that might come up as well. For example, if one resident wants to know about voice notes it can distract the entire class, so this way they’re getting more out of the session and more person-centred support by having that one-to-one help.”

Sam Haggart, Digital Inclusion Officer, Leeds Older People’s Forum.

The volunteers from Axiologik were highly valued by the Southlands residents, for the skills and knowledge they were able to share but also for their patience, words of encouragement and personal interest in the group. The residents enjoyed meeting new people, learning valuable new skills, and seeing new faces in the apartments.

“Having the Axiologik volunteers coming in has been great, they bring a different perspective.”

Mick, Residents’ Representative, Southlands Retirement Apartments.

“If I was teaching on my own, the maximum I could probably teach is about three people. So having more people to support means that more people could access the sessions. And then when volunteers are partnered up with the same people every week you can form a relationship with that person and you get to understand their learning level and how they learn as well. Also, taking the time out of your day to come along and join in a session means so much to the residents.”

Sam Haggart, Digital Inclusion Officer, Leeds Older People’s Forum

Improved digital skills and confidence for residents

Some residents were already engaged with digital, but were struggling with particular issues, which caused frustration. One resident, Patrick, was supported with a one-to-one session to get him properly registered on PATCHS, which is the digital tool used to contact their local GP practice.

“When I originally registered myself and my wife on PATCHS the system confused the two of us because we share one email address. So whenever I tried to log into PATCHS it couldn’t distinguish between myself and my wife. Sam was able to sort me out and make sure that we were both registered with different email addresses which made it far easier. I can get messages to the doctors now and when my wife fell out of bed I was able to send a message straightaway to the doctor, I got an acknowledgement that it had been received and the doctor came that afternoon.”

Patrick, resident of Southlands Retirement Apartments.

Residents unsure of how they might benefit from digital were also encouraged to think about how they could use their digital devices in a way that made sense to them and their own individual circumstances and priorities. The Digital Inclusion Officer and volunteers had conversations with the participants to see what digital tools and resources were meaningful to each resident. They aimed to find the motivational ‘hook’ for residents who lacked an understanding of how they could benefit from using their device.

“David really didn’t like using his device, he didn’t even want to do the BOSS exercises. So I said we can look at the real basics, for example would you use your torch? You know, if you were to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night? And he said, oh, actually, that’ll be really useful because the light switch is on the other side of my room and I don’t want to fall. So he knows how to use his torch now and can now go to the toilet in the middle of the night without any accidents.”

Cat Hardy, Talent Partner, Axiologik.

The Digital Inclusion Officer and volunteers then supported residents to expand their digital skills and knowledge.

“One of the residents put a reminder in for her grandson’s football training, so that she would remember to text and ask how it went. And it’s just about staying in touch but being anchored to your family is really important. Another lady wanted to send voice notes. That’s all she wanted to do, practising week by week sending voice notes to her family, which was a game changer for her because she had arthritis in her hands. The voice notes for someone who can’t type is hugely important for staying in touch with family. Another resident wanted to have repeated calendar invites in her phone to remind her about her daily activities to make her feel busy and give her a reason to get up in the morning. She told me that if she has a reminder that she’s got an exercise class at half eleven, she’ll have a lighter breakfast that day. This was important and valuable to her and was motivation for using her phone.”

Karen Lewis, Account Manager, Axiologik.

The benefit of employee volunteering to Axiologik

Axiologik is a Leeds-based digital delivery consultancy business, delivering digital transformation for organisations including the NHS and the Home Office. The organisation is keen to work with organisations in Leeds through its Employee Volunteering Programme, allowing them to see the benefits for both the people they support and the organisation itself.

Leeds Older People’s Forum partnered with Axiologik after meeting them at a Digital Volunteering Matchmaking event held by Leeds Digital Volunteering Partnership. ‘Empowering communities’ is a key element of Axiologik’s Social Value Strategy, and their staff are encouraged to make use of the four days of paid volunteering allocated by the company’s Employee Volunteering Scheme.

“Cat and I had just joined a dedicated CSR committee within Axiologik to make a positive impact and positive difference and our commitment to social support is a huge part of our business. It’s embedded in our DNA, in terms of what we want to do for our team and the communities we serve and work in. It’s written into our contracts that we can have up to four days a year dedicated to support any initiatives that we feel we are personally or professionally aligned to. Sometimes we’re not aware of where we can make that positive impact. And so the timing [of the volunteer event] was beautiful because we wanted to make sure that we are actually driving value and driving the impact we want at an organisational level.”

Karen Lewis, Account Manager, Axiologik.

The member of staff who was particularly interested in volunteering lived locally to the home and was keen to support an organisation in her local area. She could also see the huge benefits they were able to provide to Southlands with their capacity and expertise for only a few hours of volunteering a week.

“Southlands is my local community, I live half a mile from them. I’m in the neighbourhood. On a human level there is a really rewarding feeling to volunteer your time, something that is an hour of our week, which was not very long at all but it was really appreciated by the group. Our time is valuable, but time is the one thing we as an organisation can lend. We have knowledge and experience and are able to support with interventions that non digital organisations would really struggle with, and might have to pay to get someone in to deliver for them. Our lending of skills for a day is relatively inconsequential time wise, but it has a big impact on the organisation that we are supporting.”

Karen Lewis, Account Manager, Axiologik.

Axiologik have worked with the NHS on driving digitisation of health services including digital interventions like PATCHS. Staff reported that volunteering to support people with low digital skills and confidence was extremely valuable. It allowed them to see the results of their digital transformation work in practice. Supporting the end user to access the products they developed gave staff greater understanding of the impact those interventions have on digitally excluded communities.

“Volunteering with residents at Southlands has increased our understanding of the communities of older people who need support to access those services.”

Karen Lewis, Account Manager, Axiologik.

Next steps

The temporary support from Leeds Older People’s Forum and Axiologik has given Mick the confidence to continue supporting his fellow residents as a volunteer ‘Digital Champion’.

Having the Be Online Stay Safe modules and learning resources has given Mick a framework which he will continue to follow.

“I couldn’t see a way of helping the residents with all of their digital issues before Sam started the BOSS sessions. Having the BOSS resources means that in between the formal sessions if anyone has a question for me I have exercises I can use to support them, as a refresher to continue to practise their digital skills. Going forward I’d like to run a session once a month as we get new residents in. I’d like to see digital inclusion support be embedded across the home”

Mick, Residents’ Representative, Southlands Retirement Apartments.

Partner profile: Out Together

Out Together is a charity supporting the LGBTQ+ community across Yorkshire. Throughout 2024 the organisation worked with 100% Digital Leeds to embed digital inclusion into their existing offer, positioning digital as an enabler to combat loneliness and isolation for their older lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and queer members. Their digital support offer was co-designed with members, ensuring it was person centred and relevant to the needs of their participants. The work was supported by the city’s tech sector, including a grant from Leeds Community Foundation, funded by Cognizant, and the gift of digital equipment and volunteers from Amazon. The project saw Out Together survey their members to identify their digital support needs and drivers, informing the development of the support programme.

To further develop their offer, Out Together received advice and practical guidance from community organisations more experienced in supporting older people’s digital inclusion, including Leeds Older People’s Forum. As well as receiving support from a paid Digital Officer in weekly skills sessions, members benefit from one-to-one peer support between sessions from member ‘Digital Buddies’. As a result, Out Together have supported 45 members to develop their essential digital skills and confidence, resulting in improved social connections and reduced isolation.

“The experience we have gained has made a huge impact on our understanding of how improving the digital skills of members will develop our community coherence. Members taking part in the classes have become much more connected to Out Together and each other, which has led to increased mutual support and co-operation. We can now offer both physical and virtual connections to our existing members, and to many other LGBTQ+ people who are isolated.”

Tim Gittins, Chair of Out Together

Out Together

Out Together work with people of all ages but have a focus on supporting older people. The aim of the charity is to combat isolation and loneliness and to create a community ‘which will overcome the cultural and social barriers which can prevent us celebrating our old age with dignity’.

The LGBTQ+ community often face additional barriers to social inclusion and are therefore more likely to experience digital exclusion. Digital exclusion can make it more difficult for people to connect with others and maintain a sense of community.

“Part of our mission as a charity is to combat loneliness and isolation within the LGBTQ+ community. We have people who are scared to access services because that means they’ve got to ‘out themselves’, but they feel safe dealing with us. We want to help more of those people get online and stay connected with other people in their community. We’re enabling members to access people, access information, all those things that make their life that much better. Digital is part of the toolkit for combating loneliness and isolation.”

Tim Gittins, Chair of Out Together

Support from the city’s tech sector

Out Together received support from tech sector partners to resource this work. Out Together were awarded a grant of £9,300 by Leeds Community Foundation via a closed grants scheme funded by Cognizant, a business partnering with 100% Digital Leeds on the Tech Sector Support key initiative.

Out Together used the grant to increase their organisational capacity to develop and deliver their bespoke digital inclusion intervention over the course of 2024.

As a community organisation with a very small workforce, the grant allowed Out Together to free up the staff time needed to work with 100% Digital Leeds to:

  • Understand the potential impact of embedding digital inclusion support within their existing services
  • Understand the barriers to digital inclusion experienced by members
  • Understand how increased digital inclusion could help improve the lives of members, focussing on outcomes important to the members themselves
  • Design a bespoke digital inclusion support offer tailored to members’ needs and interests

The funding also allowed Out Together to:

  • Pay for a freelance Digital Officer to lead the delivery of the digital support sessions, with the support of one volunteer and 10 members as ‘Digital Buddies’
  • Purchase two large screen SIM-enabled tablets to support project delivery
  • Provide volunteer travel expenses

Out Together also developed a relationship with Amazon who gifted them digital equipment including tablets and smartphones. Amazon staff also attended some of the digital skills sessions as volunteers. Digital skills sessions often require a lot of one-to-one assistance and volunteer support is invaluable. Out Together found the time and capacity offered by Amazon to be just as vital as the equipment they were gifted.

Understanding the needs of members

Central to the Out Together approach is the importance of co-designing the digital programme with their members.

“We shouldn’t be delivering any kind of support to members without having involved them in the design of what we’re doing and what the content is going to be. Everything we’re doing is in conjunction with the views of our members. It’s driven by what we’ve learned, instead of our members saying ‘well, I didn’t ask for that, but somebody somewhere decided I needed it.”

Tim Gittins, Chair of Out Together

Out Together had not delivered any digital inclusion work before working with 100% Digital Leeds. They were keen to collaborate with members to co-design their digital offer, ensuring that it would meet the individual needs of participants.

Out Together were careful not to make any assumptions about the barriers to digital inclusion experienced by their members. To better understand this they surveyed their members, asking about the barriers faced, levels of digital confidence, and what they would like to be able to do digitally.

The survey was accompanied by a member consultation assessing levels of digital confidence and literacy prior to accessing support. The session took place in person at Virgin Money’s community space. Members were encouraged to talk about their interests and their feelings about the use of digital tools and technology. 100% Digital Leeds supported the session, encouraging members to begin engaging with digital devices by playing games on iPads borrowed from Leeds Libraries’ tablet lending scheme. Despite being digital, the games, such as jigsaw apps, were familiar and recognisable, and quickly engaged members. Completing the member consultation in a fun, welcoming, non-threatening environment meant that members were more likely to open up and chat about their experiences with digital and any concerns or fears they had about the technology.

The member survey and consultation revealed:

  • Many members had a low level of digital skills and confidence
  • Some members did not have access to digital equipment such as smart phones and tablets
  • Some members experienced health conditions and memory issues which could potentially be a barrier to learning if not properly supported
  • Topics members were interested in learning about, such as video calling, travel apps, health tools, and the cloud

They also gave the organisation a baseline understanding of members’ digital skills and confidence levels before they received digital inclusion support, which they could use to evaluate the impact of the digital inclusion intervention.

Organisational peer support from Leeds Older People’s Forum

Out Together were keen to engage with other community organisations supporting digital inclusion for older people, to understand different approaches and learn from best practice. They joined the city’s Older People’s Digital Inclusion Network, co-facilitated by 100% Digital Leeds and Leeds Older People’s Forum.

Leeds Older People’s Forum offered Out Together their support by sharing existing tried and tested digital skills session resources, and providing shadowing opportunities with their experienced Digital Inclusion Officer.

“We initially consulted other organisations such as Leeds Older People’s Forum and 100% Digital Leeds. We shadowed the Leeds Older People’s Forum’s Digital Inclusion Officer to understand what worked well, and we benefited hugely from their help and experience.”

Ant Warren, Digital Officer, Out Together

Out Together used Leeds Older People’s Forum’s Be Online Stay Safe (BOSS) learning resources to run a six week ‘digital beginners’ course, supporting members to develop basic and essential digital skills.

Using the Be Online Stay Safe modules to guide participants in their first steps into digital meant that Out Together had a ready-made syllabus to follow, accompanied with ‘step-by-step’ learning guides, designed to meet the needs of older people from diverse backgrounds, and already tried and tested by organisations supporting older people in Leeds. Using this ready-made resource to deliver the initial series of digital skills sessions meant Out Together had more capacity to listen to what participants were particularly interested in learning about, helping shape the content of future sessions to support members’ particular needs and interests.

Member peer support from ‘Digital Buddies’

These initial sessions allowed Out Together to further understand how to best support members with different needs. They learned that some members, especially their older members who were completely new to digital, struggled to remember everything they had learned without step-by-step guides, one-to-one support, and practice between formal sessions. They also learned that checking in with members over the phone between skills sessions greatly improved members’ confidence, allowing them to resolve any issues so they could continue to practise and feel more ready for the next formal skills session.

“One member is aware that it takes him longer to learn than younger members of the group, but this has never put him off. We call him each week in between sessions to check if he has any questions, but he tends to prefer to practise when he comes to the sessions rather than at home on his own, as he sometimes forgets what we learned that week. Most recently, we introduced him to video calling. Once he is up and running with this at home, this should make it easier for us, and other members, to keep in touch with him whilst helping him build his confidence with more regular practise.”

Ant Warren, Digital Officer, Out Together

Out Together realised that as members learned more and their confidence grew, they ask detailed questions specific to their individual needs. Sometimes this revealed others with the same support needs, but it also slowed group progress.

To offer more one-to-one support addressing the specific needs of individual members, Out Together recruited 10 members with a higher level of digital skills and confidence to act as volunteer ‘Digital Buddies’. The ‘Digital Buddies’ allowed Out Together to be more flexible to the needs of individual members, especially those experiencing additional barriers such as health issues.

“One of our members in the initial group of trainees is an 86-year-old man who had never used a touch screen or smart device before. He also has Parkinson’s. We provided him with a tablet and paired him up with a ‘Digital Buddy’, another of our members who also has Parkinson’s and so understands the additional challenges this might present. In a little over four months, the member has gone from zero digital knowledge to making and answering video calls, meaning he can now socialise and join digital inclusion sessions from home if he is unable to get out. The member has since expressed an interest in a smartphone, which we have now given him, and he is getting used to using.”

Ant Warren, Digital Officer, Out Together

Outcomes for members

To date, Out Together have supported 45 of their members to build digital skills and confidence, and provided some with the gift of a smartphone, tablet, or Amazon Echo smart speaker. Members have used their devices and newfound digital skills and confidence to connect with each other and the wider LGBTQ+ community, reducing social isolation. They have also learned how to use digital and the internet to support their own learning and interests.

“Our oldest learner is a 94-year-old man who had never used a touch screen or smart device before joining our digital skills sessions. He now attends every week, and told us that he enjoys the learning and the opportunity to socialise. He has sight issues due to glaucoma and is better able to see on some days than others. One breakthrough moment was when he learned how to read about specific health conditions on the NHS website, looking up and saying with a big smile ‘I’m now an expert on glaucoma!’”

Ant Warren, Digital Officer, Out Together

Next steps

Out Together are keen to build on the progress they have made with their digital skills group participants and would also like to deliver more hybrid support, including video calling, as they are aware that some of their members are often unable to attend in person.

“Moving forwards, some of the group training will also be able to be conducted online, as members become more comfortable with video-calling. This will enable more people to benefit, as we know there are members who cannot get into Leeds but who would be interested in joining the training.”

Ant Warren, Digital Officer, Out Together

Out Together would also like to increase the support they can deliver in rural communities, through their programme Out in the Country. This community is far more likely to experience isolation and barriers to engaging with digital services.

Out Together has also offered to help another community organisation, BHA For Equality Leeds (Skyline) who provide support services for people living with HIV in Leeds and their partners, families and carers. Skyline has shadowed Out Together digital skills sessions and have gained confidence in their own abilities to be able to deliver digital skills support.

“It was encouraging seeing how a little bit of knowledge goes a long way, once you are explaining it to a group. It felt do-able.”

Fran Webb, BHA For Equality Leeds (Skyline)

Leeds Databank User Group

The Leeds Databank User Group brings together organisations gifting free data SIM cards via Good Things Foundation’s National Databank. The group is hosted by 100% Digital Leeds in partnership with Good Things Foundation. The group meets quarterly, with the aim of working together to identify any operational challenges, solutions, and successes relating to SIM gifting. Member organisations also share best practice and ideas on how to identify, engage, and support those experiencing data poverty.

“The sessions are extremely helpful knowing that it’s not just you facing specific challenges. A great share was how our organisation plays a key role in distributing SIM cards to communities, ensuring connectivity for those who need it most. Through support sessions, we have focused on effective distribution strategies, such as identifying underserved areas and prioritising vulnerable groups. These sessions also emphasised the importance of accurate record-keeping to track distribution, monitor impact, and ensure transparency. By sharing best practices and innovative ideas, we’re improving how we reach and support the community, making connectivity more accessible and equitable for all.”

Community Ambition

The National Databank

The National Databank provides free SIM cards with 4G data, texts and calls to those who cannot afford it. The National Databank is an initiative led by Good Things Foundation, with SIM cards donated by Virgin Media O2, Vodafone, and Three. Members of Good Things Foundation’s National Digital Inclusion Network can apply for free data SIMs. Good Things Foundation distribute the SIM cards to Digital Inclusion Hubs across the UK, who activate and gift the free mobile data to people in their community experiencing data poverty or living on a low income.

As of February 2025, there are 117 organisations in Leeds gifting SIMs via the National Databank. Those that are open to people being signposted in to their service are listed on the 100% Digital Leeds Community Support Directory. 

The purpose of the Leeds Databank User Group

The Databank User Group was formed after 100% Digital Leeds found that some delivery partners were experiencing difficulties with gifting SIMs and needed support to efficiently and effectively administer the National Databank. After speaking with organisations about their challenges on an individual basis, the 100% Digital Leeds team realised that organisations were experiencing similar challenges with overarching themes.

Good Things Foundation were invited to partner with 100% Digital Leeds to co-facilitate a Leeds-based Databank User Group to better understand and address common challenges faced by multiple organisations when administering SIM gifting.

Co-facilitating the User Group allows Good Things Foundation to address challenges and share solutions with organisations on a group basis. As well as more efficiently addressing challenges across multiple organisations, Good Things Foundation can also offer preventative advice and support, especially useful for organisations that are earlier in their Databank journey. This may include signposting to existing training, such as Databank Refresher Sessions, scheduled Question and Answer sessions, and mentoring from Good Things Foundation’s Ambassador Network. Good Things also use the group’s feedback to more easily identify common challenges and inform improvements to future iterations of the Databank.

The Databank User Group allows organisations to:

  • Gain an awareness of the number and range of organisations offering SIM gifting across Leeds
  • Link with organisations offering SIM gifting to a similar geographical community or community of interest, to get a better understanding of the wider support available
  • Feel less isolated, understanding that others have faced and overcome similar challenges
  • Address shared challenges as a group
  • Hear best practice, tips and tricks from their peers
  • Share organisational successes

The Databank User Group enables organisations across Leeds to share challenges and help each other to resolve them, with the support of 100% Digital Leeds and Good Things Foundation. The User Group is also a space to celebrate organisations’ successes and reiterate the impact of providing free SIM cards to address data poverty. 

“Playing an active role in the 100% Digital Leeds National Databank User Group has been incredibly valuable. It’s great to engage with Hubs on these regular sessions and to be able to provide guidance and support with the National Databank. By being involved in this group we are able to gather insight that we can use to improve our service.”

Good Things Foundation

Understanding the challenges faced by organisations

Prior to the first meeting of the User Group, 100% Digital Leeds surveyed organisations to ask them what they would like to see from the group, ensuring that the meetings were guided by the current and ongoing needs of partners.

Organisations shared a range of operational challenges, including:

  • Managing access to the Databank Portal
  • Understanding how to accurately report SIM gifting via the Databank Portal
  • Demand for SIM cards exceeding supply
  • Delays with reordering SIM cards, due to organisations’ inaccurate reporting
  • SIM cards expiring before being gifted
  • Staffing changes leaving organisational gaps in knowledge on how to administer SIM gifting
  • Understanding the differences between the SIM cards provided by Virgin Media O2, Vodafone, and Three
  • Difficulties identifying service users experiencing data poverty

Celebrating success

Leeds Refugee Forum were invited to the Databank User Group to share their approach and the success of their SIM card drop-in sessions. To manage the high levels of need, Leeds Refugee Forum run two drop-in sessions a week for people needing SIM cards. They target advertisement of the sessions to people accessing support across Leeds Migration Partnership. Between June 2023 and June 2024, 715 service users were given SIM cards.

“Providing SIM cards helps our service users feel more connected to their local and global communities and with their loved ones.”

Leeds Refugee Forum

Identifying service users experiencing data poverty

Complete Woman CIC were invited to the Databank User Group to share how they identify beneficiaries and effectively gift SIM cards. Complete Woman explained how they focus on embedding conversations about data poverty into their existing services that address wider poverty. This includes services such as their foodbank or support services for undocumented migrants, which are more likely to attract people on low incomes. Complete Woman also highlighted the way in which SIM gifting fits into their wider digital support offer, such as their free wifi on site, and their weekly IT classes where people can get help from staff and volunteers to improve their digital skills.

“We enable participants to access the internet, essential services, and information that they previously struggled to engage with. Many of our beneficiaries have limited or no internet access at home, and this initiative empowers them to independently connect to vital online resources, enhancing their daily lives.”

Complete Woman

Joining the Databank User Group

100% Digital Leeds and Good Things Foundation welcome new members to the Databank User Group. If your organisation is gifting SIMs via the National Databank and would like to be invited to the quarterly User Group meetings, please contact 100% Digital Leeds.

Partner profile: Leeds Community Health and Wellbeing Service

100% Digital Leeds is supporting homecare providers Be Caring and Springfield Healthcare to embed digital inclusion into their offer as part of the new Leeds Community Health and Wellbeing Service. The 18 month pilot service aims to support over 200 clients across West Leeds in their own homes, providing a person centred approach to care and allowing staff increased capacity to engage clients with meaningful activities, including support with digital.

100% Digital Leeds was asked to support both organisations to further understand the role that they could play in supporting digital inclusion to benefit both the service and the clients.  As a result, homecare workers are better equipped to support service users to be more digitally included.

Be Caring

Be Caring is the UK’s largest employee-owned provider of social care services in the home. Based in South Leeds, their range of services covers everything from traditional domiciliary care to supporting more complex needs like dementia, learning disabilities, palliative care and reablement. Be Caring partnered with 100% Digital Leeds in 2023 to engage with the Arts in Care Digital Programme to see how they could better support the wellbeing of their service users using digital and have maintained contact with the team to explore other digital inclusion opportunities.

Springfield Healthcare

Springfield Healthcare has over 800 staff supporting clients in their own homes, in the community, and in their care homes across the north. 100% Digital Leeds has been in frequent contact with the organisation as examples of best practice, learning from their staff about how they support their clients with digital, and the innovative approaches they take with digital activities. They run a monthly ‘virtual cruise’ event for residents where they use digital technology such as YouTube, Google Earth and their large screen tablets to animate the event and make it more fun and interactive for residents to engage with. The team recently shared their virtual cruise idea with #CovConnects who have run a pilot session with their partners, which has been well received.  

Taking a person centred approach to care

The Community Health and Wellbeing Service is being piloted across Bramley, Stanningley, Armley, Farnley and Wortley over an 18 month period, aiming to provide a more flexible and person centred service for around 200 clients in receipt of care by using ‘neighbourhood teams’ of health and care staff. The new streamlined service will allow Be Caring and Springfield Healthcare to build small local teams, providing service users with a greater consistency of social care workers that undertake their care on a regular basis, as well as improving family and community connections.

“Working in small teams, care workers will be able to get to know their neighbourhoods and work in partnership with a range of services to help individuals access support and activities in their community. It’s a much more flexible approach and we’re very proud of the work that has gone into the service’s design, as it’s been a real joint effort with those who experience home care as well as unpaid carers, providers and care staff.”

Councillor Salma Arif, executive member for Adult Social Care, Active Lifestyles and Culture.

One way in which the new service will allow for more person centred care is that the care workers will be paid on a shift or block pay model, rather than separate home visits, providing the capacity to work flexibly and deliver individualised care, including support outside the home.

Any downtime in their rota can be used for the benefit of the client, including supporting the client’s digital inclusion goals. This may involve sitting with them to assist them with getting online, visiting their local Neighbourhood Network to find out what digital support activities they offer, finding out about cheap broadband tariffs, or supporting them with SIM cards with free 4G data, gifted via Good Things Foundation’s National Databank.

“This is an innovative new service that pays care workers for their whole shift and offers them a rewarding job that makes best use of the knowledge and relationship they have with the people they support and their family carers. The service treats care workers as the true professionals they are with a great training offer and career development opportunities”.

Cath Roff, Project Director, Adult Social Care Transformation, Leeds City Council

Support from 100% Digital Leeds to embed digital inclusion within the offer

Be Caring and Springfield Healthcare approached 100% Digital Leeds to help them to embed digital inclusion within the Community Health and Wellbeing Service. Paying staff on a shift or block pay model has resulted in staff having increased capacity to support clients with their specific goals and outcomes, including supporting with digital skills, motivation, and confidence. Staff have more time to have positive digital conversations with clients, explore their barriers to digital, and help them to engage with digital tools and technology in a way that is meaningful.

100% Digital Leeds delivered a digital inclusion awareness workshop to staff from both organisations. The session provided an overview of what digital inclusion means, including discussing the four main barriers to digital inclusion and how these can be exacerbated by other factors including poverty, long term health conditions and language barriers. The attendees then discussed their different job roles within their organisations and how they could support digital inclusion within their specific remits.

This was followed by a discussion about the resources that 100% Digital Leeds can provide, including the Leeds Community Digital Support Directory and the Digital Inclusion Delivery Resources Google Drive, and how they might support their client’s with their individual goals and motivators. The session also touched upon local and national partners working in digital inclusion that could offer support to clients including Carers Leeds and AbilityNet, depending on the client’s individual needs and circumstances.

The session ended with an activity using iPads borrowed from Leeds Libraries, showcasing some of the games and apps that can be used to support a person’s first steps with digital. The games and apps are a familiar and safe way to motivate someone who is reluctant to see digital as something that they might want to engage with. As the carer is a trusted person, they are well placed to provide support and encouragement with digital, modelling positive digital behaviours and suggesting digital activities that are appropriate and meaningful to their clients.

Next Steps

100% Digital Leeds will continue to work with Be Caring and Springfield Healthcare on the Community Health and Wellbeing Service pilot to fully understand what digital inclusion support is needed by both staff and clients, and how digital inclusion can be used as an enabler to support clients with their goals and outcomes in a person-centred way. The team will meet with staff in Care Assessor and Champion roles to further assess digital inclusion support needs, and to share resources and best practice.

Partner profile: Leeds Community Healthcare NHS Trust

100% Digital Leeds has partnered with Leeds Community Healthcare NHS Trust (LCH) since 2020. The partnership began with 100% Digital Leeds working with individual LCH services to support the implementation of specific digital health tools, or to embed digital inclusion within discrete projects. This includes supporting patient uptake of digital tools to support the self-management of long-term conditions such as COPD and diabetes. The partnership has continued to develop, seeing 100% Digital Leeds supporting LCH to embed digital inclusion into the trust’s soon to be published Digital, Data and ​Technology Strategy, ensuring digital inclusion is considered across the whole trust.

Most recently 100% Digital Leeds is working with LCH to ensure the trust’s 3,500 staff are aware of the potential impact of digital exclusion, can easily identify digitally excluded patients, and can sign-post people to the right community support. To support this 100% Digital Leeds has worked with LCH to coproduce Digital Inclusion Awareness training. LCH has also implemented Electronic Patient Record (EPR) screening questions, supporting staff to have conversations with patients and service users around their digital inclusion needs and sign-posting them to support in the community. In this way LCH ensure that patient digital inclusion needs are identified and addressed as standard practice.

Leeds Community Healthcare NHS Trust

Leeds Community Healthcare NHS Trust was formed in 2011 to provide community healthcare services for the people of Leeds. The trust delivers services in or close to people’s homes and works with the whole family. Their 3,500 strong workforce includes nurses, therapists, pharmacists, non-registered and registered clinical staff, supported by their corporate services. LCH works closely with the other trusts that make up the NHS in Leeds, recognising that patients will move between services and trusts depending on their health needs.

Services include:

  • Primary Care, offering GP services.
  • Leeds Teaching Hospital NHS Trust, the city’s hospitals.
  • Leeds and York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, the main provider of specialist mental health and learning disability services in Leeds.

LCH is keen to support digital inclusion for the benefit of patient’s health and wellbeing in the long term, regardless of the service they currently access.

Working with LCH to embed digital inclusion into specific projects

100% Digital Leeds has partnered with many LCH services to embed digital inclusion into discrete projects. Examples include working with the Cardiac team to support the rollout of Airmid enabling patients to remotely submit blood pressure readings, working with the Weight Management team to support uptake of nutrition and fitness apps, and the rollout of AccuRX to support virtual consultations during the pandemic.

Further examples of project-based partnership work include:

Increasing the uptake of the MyCOPD app

myCOPD is a self-management app with integrated online education, symptom reporting, and pulmonary rehabilitation system, support people living with COPD to manage their condition. The app is issued free of charge through Leeds Community Healthcare NHS Trust, Leeds Chest Clinic and Primary Care, funded by NHS England. 100% Digital Leeds worked with LCH to embed digital inclusion awareness into the app’s rollout. Clinicians and Breathe Easy groups were trained in digital inclusion awareness, addressing digital inclusion needs alongside the issue of the app, supporting increased uptake.

Supporting digital inclusion provision to be embedded within the Enhance Programme

The Enhance Programme is a partnership between Leeds Community Healthcare NHS Trust, Leeds Older Peoples Forum, and 13 third sector delivery partners. The programme supports safe and sustainable discharge from hospital and neighbourhood teams into a secure home environment, providing person-centred holistic support at home for people receiving community-based healthcare. When the programme was launched 100% Digital Leeds facilitated digital inclusion awareness workshops with the third sector partners, supporting them to build digital inclusion provision into programme delivery.

Embedding digital inclusion within Student Nurse Programme

100% Digital Leeds partnered with LCH’s Senior Practice Learning Facilitator to include a digital inclusion strand within the Leeds Primary Care Leadership Placement. 100% Digital Leeds delivered a digital inclusion training package to the student nurses, providing them with greater insight and understanding of digital inclusion, tools they could use to explore barriers and challenges, and resources to support them to signpost service users who identify they would like help to become more digitally included. For the remainder of the placement, the students led on NHS Health Check Clinics in general practice settings and spent time in a community setting, building relationships with a diverse population group, enabling them to have meaningful conversations about digital health.

Baby Bubble Leeds

100% Digital Leeds partnered with LCH’s 0-19 Public Health Integrated Nursing Service to support the development of Baby Bubble Leeds, an initiative to access support and information from health professionals using closed, moderated Facebook groups. 100% Digital Leeds worked with LCH to ensure that the project is as inclusive as possible, recognising that, whilst the women the project is aimed at may find it useful to engage with health services digitally, they are also likely to face some barriers to engaging with digital.

Embedding digital inclusion across the organisation

The success of the partnership between 100% Digital Leeds and LCH in addressing digital exclusion for improved health outcomes was a key factor in LCH continuing to partner with 100% Digital Leeds, going on to embed digital inclusion into their service at a strategic level. 100% Digital Leeds is helping to embed digital inclusion within LCH’s strategy and working with LCH’s business units to determine the best approach for each team in relation to digital inclusion.. 

The strategy supports the following themes:

  • Providing the best possible care in every community.​
  • Keeping people well at home.​
  • Providing choice to patients and service users.​
  • Supporting out of hospital care.​
  • Supporting people to maintain their independence. ​
  • Promoting self-management.

Digital inclusion is integral to enabling the strategy’s objectives:

“As a Trust we have a vision to use digital technologies at the heart of our service delivery model to improve access to care and ensure our services and staff are as efficient as they can be. In order to do this effectively, we need to bring our patients and service users along the journey with us.  We want to co-design all future digital solutions with patients and service users to ensure we get this right from the outset. We are very mindful that there will be people who aren’t able to use digital and we want to support them, through partnership working with 100% Digital Leeds, to access the most appropriate support.” 

Dawn Greaves, Associate Director of Digital Transformation, Leeds Community Healthcare NHS Trust.

Digital inclusion screening questions

LCH has introduced digital inclusion screening questions, supporting clinicians to have conversations with patients and service users around digital inclusion. Once the support needs have been established clinicians can directly link into 100% Digital Leeds’s Community Support Directory and ensure the right support is offered to each patient.

“We must make sure that our offers are digitally inclusive and accessible to everyone who wishes to access them. To achieve this, we have to ensure we routinely ask our patients and service users about their digital literacy skills and digital inclusion support needs. By starting a positive conversation about digital we can understand the needs of the patient and ensure that the information we direct them to is accessible for them. We may send them links via SystmOne, direct them to Patient Information Hub, or recommend the NHS app, but we need to make sure that they’re able to access and use those resources.”

Amanda Jackson,  Associate Chief Clinical Information Officer and Baby Bubble Leeds Lead, Leeds Community Healthcare NHS Trust.

The template will be used across the trust’s business units and services. The patients will be asked the questions both as part of an initial assessment and again at regular intervals, recognising that a patient’s situation and digital inclusion needs can change over time.

Guiding staff to have positive digital conversations with patients

The questions revolve around three topics:

  • Which of these can you do via digital methods?
  • If you don’t currently use digital options, why not?
  • What would help you to use digital options?

The template is designed as a questionnaire with set multiple choice answers, but the questions are intended to be used as conversational prompts, guiding staff to provide the right information and resource for the patient. During this conversation staff are expected to highlight the potential benefits of the patient engaging with digital tools and services relevant to their needs, supporting patient motivation.

Embedded within SystmOne, for ease of staff

Both the ‘Digital Ability and Access to Digital Devices’ template and the links to community sign-posting information are embedded within LCH’s Electronic Patient Record, SystmOne. Once staff have established the patient’s needs, they can click straight through to the 100% Digital Leeds Community Support Directory or the AbilityNet referral form, or a link to the LCH intranet with further information about accessible information and digital inclusion. Embedding both the screening questions and support information within the trust’s key systems makes the process as simple as possible for staff. The LCH intranet is updated regularly and includes information from the 100% Digital Leeds Letter Newsletter.

Considering digital inclusion alongside wider communication needs

The template is sat within the wider ‘Communication Needs’ screening section on SystmOne, encouraging staff to consider digital inclusion alongside wider accessibility needs. Accessibility needs such as whether the patient is visually impaired, has English as an additional language, or has learning disabilities, are considered when identifying the right community digital inclusion support to signpost to.

Digital inclusion awareness training

LCH aims for all staff to have an understanding of both digital exclusion as issue, and their role in supporting digital inclusion. Since the trust has a workforce of 3500, with different teams and roles requiring different levels of understanding around digital inclusion, LCH and 100% Digital Leeds have worked together to develop a stepped approach. A short training video has been coproduced to give all staff across the organisation a basic understanding of digital inclusion. After watching the video staff are asked to reflect on the impact of digital exclusion in their service area. Where staff feel their team support patient cohorts where digital exclusion is particularly prevalent or complex, or where patient uptake of particular digital tools is essential, such as with long term condition-specific self-management apps, staff are offered a more in-depth digital inclusion workshop.

Digital inclusion awareness training video

100% Digital Leeds and LCH coproduced a 30 minute digital inclusion awareness training video. The training is designed to give all LCH staff a basic understanding of the potential scale and impact of digital exclusion, and their role in supporting patient inclusion. It gives staff the knowledge and tools needed to gain a deeper understand the patient’s needs, enabling them to signpost people to the right support.

The training video introduces staff to:

  • The potential scale of digital exclusion across the city.
  • The potential impact of digital inclusion on patients, exacerbating existing health inequalities.
  • How to have a person-centred, motivational conversation around digital.
  • How to identify a potentially digitally excluded patient.
  • The range of digital inclusion support available in Leeds.
  • How to signpost potentially digitally excluded patients to relevant community support, taking into account the patient’s holistic needs.
  • Further support available from 100% Digital Leeds, where teams support patient cohorts where digital exclusion is particularly prevalent or complex.

The training video is introduced by a member of LCH staff, positioning digital inclusion as an enabler to the trust’s Digital, Data and Technology Strategy. The final section of the training sees the member of LCH staff introduce the new digital inclusion screening template, ensuring staff understand how the training will be practically applied going forward.

Whilst the training video has only recently been launched, initial staff feedback has been positive:

“This was an education indeed! I was pleased to see how much support there is available on the Community Support Directory, especially seeing the scale of potential digital exclusion in Leeds.”

Member of Leeds Community Healthcare NHS Trust staff.

Team specific digital inclusion awareness workshops

Where staff feel their team support patient cohorts where digital exclusion is particularly prevalent or complex, or where patient uptake of particular digital tools is essential, such as with long term condition-specific self-management apps, staff are offered a more in-depth digital inclusion workshop.

The workshops are an opportunity for 100% Digital Leeds to work more closely with a particular team, to further understand the barriers to digital inclusion faced by particular patient cohorts, and how the team can offer further digital inclusion support. This may involve LCH teams working more closely with community organisations offering support tailored to meet the needs of a particular community of interest facing existing health inequalities, such as people experiencing homelessness, refugees and asylum seekers, or people from areas of economic deprivation.

The workshop gives staff the understanding and tools needed to play a more active role in supporting patient digital inclusion. This may include having a deeper understanding of how to support patients with low digital motivation, offering more in-depth skills support to support uptake of a particular digital tool such as a condition specific self-management app, or gift patients’ digital equipment and 4G data sims via the National Databank.

Securing organisational buy in at all levels

As a huge service with over 70 service areas and 3500 staff, LCH has taken the time to engage staff at different levels, setting digital inclusion in the context of strategy, and securing buy-in. The strategic approach to digital inclusion was launched at the trust’s Leaders Network, a forum chaired by the trust’s Chief Executive, with attendance from across the leadership team.

“I am delighted to support this programme. The alignment between the national priority of ‘analogue to digital’ and our LCH strategy is crucial to 21st century healthcare services. Ensuring the people we serve have the support to access digitally enabled services is crucial.”

Selina Douglas, Chief Executive Officer. Leeds Community Healthcare Trust

They coincided this with an update on the new Digital, Data and Technology Strategy, clearly aligning digital inclusion as essential to the realisation of the strategy’s objectives and priorities. They have rolled digital inclusion messaging into service readiness for current digital projects such as Digital Letters and Patient Information Hub, making the most of existing engagement opportunities with service areas.

The work has been led by a member of staff with experience and expertise in both digital transformation and clinical practice, and shaped by the service’s existing Staff Digital Champions Network.

Led by a member of staff with experience of both digital transformation and clinical practice

The digital inclusion work has been led by Amanda Jackson, a Nurse and Health Visitor by background, whilst working for LCH’s 0-19 Public Health Integrated Nursing Service as a Clinical Team Manager. Amanda has recently completed a Florence Nightingale Fellowship that had an entirely digital focus. As a result, Amanda spent time working alongside the LCH Digital Patient Communications Team and shared her clinical nursing knowledge. Following this Amanda was successful in obtaining the post of Associate Chief Clinical Information Officer, working alongside Geraint Jones, Chief Clinical Information Officer. This breadth of experience makes Amanda, and her colleagues well placed to help shape the organisation’s Patient Engagement and Digital Inclusion agendas, sharing insights from a range of perspectives.

Staff Digital Champions Network

LCH’s Digital Champion Network is a trust-wide network formed in 2021, including over 40 LCH staff ranging from senior strategic roles to frontline clinicians. The network brings staff together to share thoughts around digital transformation and equip each other with new digital skills.

The network is led by the LCH Digital Innovation lead, Mark Simpson, who works across the service to spot any opportunities where digital innovation can help drive improvements in care quality. 100% Digital Leeds delivered a digital inclusion awareness workshop for network members, supporting staff to reflect on where digital exclusion may impact on the success of newly introduced digital solutions.

Attending the network also supported 100% Digital Leeds to have a greater understanding of other potential barriers to successful digital innovation, such as where staff may lack the digital skills and confidence to embrace digital change, or where internal factors such as a lack of capacity or poor digital infrastructure may need to be considered. The insight of the network has been an important factor in ensuring the success of trust-wide digital inclusion interventions.

Next steps

100% Digital Leeds and LCH continue to work together to embed digital inclusion awareness and support within clinical practice and the healthcare system. The roll-out of digital inclusion training is ongoing. 100% Digital Leeds continue to work with individual teams where digital exclusion is particularly prevalent or impactful, to co-design bespoke digital inclusion interventions.

eVisas

UK Visas and Immigration are developing a digital immigration system known as an eVisa. This means that the government are replacing physical Biometric Residency Permit documents with an online record of immigration status.

The documents being replaced are:

  • Biometric Residence Permit (BRP)
  • Biometric Residence Card (BRC)
  • Passport endorsements, such as indefinite leave to enter
  • Vignette stickers in passports, such as entry clearance or visa vignettes

An eVisa will be needed to access a range of public services, such as funding for childcare, benefits applications, and housing and employment services. People you work with may not know about this change if they do not have an email account or don’t regularly check their emails.

Everyone who has a right to remain in the UK who doesn’t have British or Irish Citizenship, needs to register for an eVisa online before 31 December 2024. To do this, people will need access to the internet to create a UKVI account, and then download and use the UK immigration ID check app. 

Please note that people who have come to the UK under the EU Settlement Scheme should already have an eVisa and do not need to apply again.

More information from the Home Office includes how to set up an online eVisa account, which people will need in order to access their information. There is also more information on the Leeds Migration Partnership website and the Right to Remain website. If your organisation would like to support eVisa applications for your clients or members, please contact the 100% Digital Leeds team and we can discuss any digital inclusion support you may need. 

Leeds Refugee Forum: eVisa support session for volunteers, community leaders and staff

18 November 2024, 1:30pm – 3:30pm, One Community Centre, LS9 7SG

Leeds Refugee Forum offered a training session for volunteers and community leaders to understand and navigate the new eVisa system. Topics included a breakdown of the eVisa process, guidance on how to apply, critical deadlines, and troubleshooting common issues. 

Empowerment Through Technology: Donate your digital equipment for good

For this year’s Leeds Digital Festival, 100% Digital Leeds hosted a webinar ‘Empowerment Through Technology: Donate your digital equipment for good’, in partnership with Solidaritech. The webinar was developed by Leeds Digital Volunteering Partnership, as part of 100% Digital Leeds’s Tech sector support key initiative.

When we’re working with migrants, we see that these people are some of society’s poorest. They’re not the poorest in terms of skills. They are the poorest in that they only have £37 a week. There’s no way they can afford a smartphone or a laptop to do things like find secure housing, access health services, and stay in touch with friends and family. We’re a lifeline for people, and we do it all through donated tech.”

 Ben McKenna, CEO, Solidaritech.

Solidaritech repurposes unwanted laptops, desktops, tablets, and smartphones, passing them on to asylum seekers and refugees without digital equipment. The webinar informs businesses and other organisations of the impact of donating unwanted equipment to Solidaritech, and the processes they have in place to enable secure donating. Solidaritech then work with local organisations supporting those from migrant backgrounds to gift the equipment to people who need it most. Having a digital device and connectivity helps people resolve their immigration status, pursue studies, and start their lives in their new country.

Webinar recording – Empowerment Through Technology: Donate your digital equipment for good.

Webinar overview

The webinar features:

  • Ben McKenna, CEO at Solidaritech, who gives an overview of the donations process from collection, through secure wiping and refurbishment, to the gifting of equipment to the end beneficiaries.
  • Darren Stocks, IT Service Lead at Emerald Publishing, who shares their experience of donating equipment to Solidaritech, and how donating devices help the business to achieve its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) goals. 
  • David Skivington, English at Home Volunteer Manager at Leeds Asylum Seekers’ Support Network, who shares the difference donated equipment makes to the lives of the refugees and asylum seekers his organisation supports.

Solidaritech

100% Digital Leeds has been working with Solidaritech for several years. Formed in 2017, Solidaritech is a Community Interest Company that exists to help refugees and asylum seekers across Yorkshire get access to technology by repurposing unwanted laptops, desktops, tablets, and smartphones. All donated devices are safely and professionally wiped of all data, with any problems repaired, and new Operating Systems and suitable software installed for the next users. In the last 12 months Solidaritech has refurbished and gifted over 1,300 devices to digitally excluded people across Yorkshire and the Humber. 

To donate unwanted laptops, desktops, tablets, and smartphones, complete Solidaritech’s Donate Form. For more information about the donations process contact Solidaritech on 01274 288 910 and hello@solidaritech.com.

Partner profile: People Matters

People Matters supports people with learning disabilities and other hidden disabilities to reach their full potential. They offer individual support to their members citywide, at home, and in community settings. They also facilitate wellbeing groups and run a variety of activities to help their members towards employment.

People Matters prides itself on being a member led charity, which means members have autonomy over the care and support that they receive. Staff work very closely with their members to make sure they are offering services and support that will enable members to reach their full potential.

Staff at People Matters recognise how important digital inclusion is when tackling the health and societal inequalities faced by their members. They have worked closely with 100% Digital Leeds and regularly attend Autism and Learning Disability Digital Inclusion Network meetings to look at varied and creative ways of embedding digital inclusion in their work. They have included digital activities in their arts and wellbeing groups and used digital technologies to facilitate activities for the Arts in Care Digital Programme.  They are members of the National Digital Inclusion Network and they gift SIM cards to their members experiencing data poverty, via the National Databank. 

People Matters took part in Multiply to help their members access digital devices while improving their numeracy and move closer to employment. They embedded digital elements into their employability work, including helping their members to create video CVs. They have also been successful in gaining UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF) funding which will help them to offer more employability and digital inclusion support for their members.

Supporting people with learning disabilities and hidden disabilities

People Matters understands that many of their members face barriers to reaching their full potential and engaging fully in society. They also understand that their members have a higher chance of being digitally excluded. Digital exclusion can quickly exacerbate problems that disabled people face in daily life.

People Matters know that the barriers their members face to getting online can be complicated and varied:

  • Many members struggle financially due to the low levels of employment within this community.
  • Many people with learning disabilities or other hidden disabilities lack confidence, and this can include the confidence to try things online.
  • Many members at People Matters are vulnerable, which means they may need additional support and advice to keep themselves safe online.

People Matters make sure their members receive digital support which meets their individual needs by embedding digital inclusion throughout their service. Staff at People Matters have taken part in digital inclusion awareness workshops delivered by 100% Digital Leeds and have also had training from AbilityNet.

Digital inclusion in one-to-one support sessions

People Matters offers individual outreach support to approximately 80 people in Leeds, both at home and in the community. They support their members to take part in activities that build skills and promote independence. Staff who offer one-to-one support build strong relationships with the people that they support, as they have the time to learn about members’ personal needs and interests. This means they are well placed to identify which of their members might benefit from receiving digital support, and the level of support they will require to learn new digital skills.

Staff can also identify what might interest their members and motivate them to go online. When a member at People Matters asked their support worker to help them to apply for a new bus pass, the member of staff helped the member to set up an email address and access a website to apply for the bus pass themself. As a result, the member gained confidence by completing a digital task and also had an email address to use independently in future.

“Staff at People Matters support members to bank online, to create email addresses, use online apps and resources to travel independently, to listen to music, to look up recipes and to look for employment opportunities, to name just a few things! Our aim is to help our members to live independent, fulfilling lives and being online is a big part of that.”

Elissa Matley, CEO, People Matters.

Digital inclusion in health and wellbeing sessions

People Matters run a range of social and wellbeing groups which help their members to have fun and make friends whilst also learning skills which make them more independent and confident. Members choose the types of activities they want to do, and staff will embed digital elements in these groups in ways which are relevant and appropriate. For example, recent sessions to help members look after themselves and be independent have included lots of work on internet safety. Sessions covered topics such as banking safely, dealing with online bullying, recognising and avoiding scams, and using social media.

People Matters also run wellbeing groups where their members take part in a host of creative activities. They have used these sessions as an opportunity for their members to enjoy some gentle, digital activities such as drawing or colouring on a tablet alongside more traditional arts and crafts. This has enabled less confident members to try digital activities in a non-threatening environment.

Arts in Care digital programme

In 2023, People Matters wellbeing groups took part in the Arts in Care digital programme to bring their work to a wider audience. They delivered an interactive drumming workshop which they shared with care residents over Zoom. By keeping the session very simple, without the need for any specialised musical equipment, they managed to bring their work to a wider audience by contributing to the programme.

“Arts in Care allowed us to reach a whole new audience with our activity. Our members had been working on drumming, and a Zoom session meant they could share their skills with other people who were also able to participate by using everyday items to make creative sounds. The session was genuinely interactive, and it was wonderful to see how much fun the participants had communicating with one another. We are excited to participate in more Arts in Care activities in future.”

Mandy Craven, Outreach Service Coordinator, People Matters.

Employability

People Matters run a wide range of employability groups to support their members to move closer to employment. The groups are aimed at people with a wide range of abilities and ambitions. Activities range from being a part of the People Matters micro social enterprise Nourishing People, to job workshops and one-to-one support. People Matters recognise the need for jobseekers to have digital skills in order to gain and retain employment. Every member who engages with these groups gets digital support which is tailored to their needs, whether this is helping them to set up an email address, navigating a job search website, or creating their own video CV.

Multiply

The Multiply programme is a government-funded scheme to improve adult numeracy skills. 100% Digital Leeds is working with Leeds City Council’s Employment and Skills team and third sector partners to use Multiply to support communities hit hardest by the cost-of-living crisis. People Matters have delivered three rounds of Multiply, supporting 68 people to improve their numeracy skills. Each of these members has also been given a device which is suited to their needs along with free connectivity which will help them to be digitally included in their day to day lives.

People Matters is well placed to deliver Multiply as they work with some of the most vulnerable people in our society. Most of their members are unemployed and reliant on benefits which means that they need to budget their money carefully to live a balanced life. People Matters take a person-centred approach to the programme and encourage their staff to tailor the budgeting work to the needs of the person they are working with. Activities range from taking members to shop for food on a budget to helping members to bank online. The programme has been successful in giving members new skills and helping them to be more independent in their daily lives.

“One of our members had historically struggled with managing his own finances. He was checking his balance at the ATM with the support of his mum which was time consuming and inconvenient. His support worker recognised this and used the time allocated for Multiply to teach him to bank online. Now the learner can check his balance and monitor his money and spending independently using an app on his phone. He can plan his own budget, manage his own expenses, and is more in control of his own finances.”

Elissa Matley, CEO, People Matters.

The National Databank

People Matters are members of the National Databank and have been actively gifting SIM cards to their members since 2021. Having access to data without having to worry about confusing mobile contracts, high bills or running out of data on a Pay As You Go deal is life changing for members who struggle financially.  It means they can stay in contact with friends, carers, and support workers, and access online services at their convenience.

“I got a SIM from the Databank. It really helped me when I was searching for a new place to live as there was plenty of data to go online.”

Stephen, member of an employability group, People Matters.

Having access to a mobile phone with data can also make members feel more confident and increase their independence. One member who lacked the confidence to travel independently received a SIM card so that he could check bus times on his phone and phone his carer if he was feeling nervous.

“This made a huge difference to his wellbeing. He feels a lot happier now and he’s proud that he is able to get around by himself.”

Theo, support worker, People Matters.

Next steps

People Matters continue to embed digital inclusion into the work they do. They are using funding from UKSPF to enhance their existing employability programme. This includes delivering themed workshops with a focus on different digital elements, including setting up an email address, updating a CV, creating a video CV, or learning to job search online. They have also set up drop-in sessions where members can borrow digital equipment if they do not have access to their own.

People Matters continue to work closely with 100% Digital Leeds and regularly attend Autism and Learning Disability Digital Inclusion Network meetings where opportunities, funding and good practice related to digital inclusion are shared on a monthly basis.

“ALaDDIN meetings have been a great opportunity for us to explore creative ways we can use digital tools to support our members. They have helped us to promote the work that we do and collaborate with other organisations in ways which are beneficial for our staff and our members. Working with 100% Digital Leeds has helped us to develop digital training and support which can be life changing for the people we support. 100% Digital Leeds has helped us to gain funding and access opportunities which has made a positive difference to the service we provide.”

Elissa Matley, CEO, People Matters.

If you are interested in hearing more about the Autism and Learning Disabilities Digital Inclusion Network or would like to join a meeting, please contact nicky@pyramid.org.uk