London Regional ICT champion

A new report by Lasa suggests that many voluntary and community organisations are still failing to maximise their use of ICT, and are struggling to engage with funders and policy-makers.

We found that 90% of Lambeth-based voluntary and community organisations responding to our survey rate computers and the Internet as vital, but don’t back this up by budgeting, managing or planning for ICT.  The problem is also compunded by a lack of awareness from organisations about where to go for independent ICT advice and support.

The results in Lambeth are broadly inline with Ticher & Eaves 2007 baseline survey of ICT across all voluntary and community sectors and regions.

Download the Accessing and Using ICT report (PDF 2mb)

These are some of the edited highlights from the Accessing and Using ICT report:

• 43% of respondents came from smaller organisations with less than 5 staff, whilst another 31% had an annual expenditure of under £10,000 per annum.
• Virtually of our respondents said that computers (85%) and the Internet (96%) was “vital” or “fairly important” to their work. However, our respondents are exposing themselves to considerable risk by not planning or taking responsibility for ICT:
  • 55% lack an ICT budget
  • 65% don’t back-up data on a regular basis
  • 51% don’t update anti-virus software on a regular basis
• Accessing ICT: 53% of respondents have 0-5 computers. Of those, 12% have zero computers, presenting smaller organisations with serious barriers to engaging with mainstream services and provision;
• Networking of computers consistently emerged as a development and support need;
  • 40% have no computers networked
  • 33% said staff don’t have access to networked computers or email
• The comfort zone of computers tends to be for a universal range of basic office tasks – email, calendar, documents and spreadsheets for reporting to funders and trustees;
• Confidence is an issue for many decision-makers, with 41% of respondents being “not confident” in making ICT decisions. However, 53% of respondents confused us by saying they were “reasonably satisfied” with the way ICT decisions were made in their organisation!
• We are concerned about sources of internal ICT knowledge – 41% of respondents do not have anyone within the organisation with specific ICT skills. This has a knockon effect on the way ICT problems are dealt with, as some 20% are happy to let staff solve their own ICT issues on an ad hoc basis;
• The need for signposting external sources of ICT knowledge – awareness of UKOnline and
  NetGainwas low – is evident and LIOs and development workers have a crucial role
  to play in raising awareness of sources of help and support. Training resources – like
  SKILD – exist to help development workers signpost sources of ICT help.
• There are contradictory attitudes to training – 51% of respondents identified ICT
  training as a development need, but 41% were unable to prioritise ICT training,
  with 40% admitting to having no-one with ICT expertise within their
  organisation;

Lasa was commissioned by Lambeth LIP Consortium (Lambeth Voluntary Action Council, London Borough of Lambeth, Lambeth Primary Care Trust and Voluntary Sector representatives – Streatham Darby and Joan Club and Lambeth Play Association to undertake the Lambeth LIP Consortium’s “Accessing and Using ICT” research project.