To ask the Minister for Communities what initiatives she has created to help older and more vulnerable people better use online technology to keep in touch with friends and family and access goods and services.

My Department has created a number of initiatives to help older and more vulnerable people better use online technology to keep in touch with friends and family, and to access goods and services as set out below:

My Department leads on the Executive’s Active Ageing Strategy, which contains a number of actions from across departments focused on the digital inclusion of older people. These can be found on pages 22-23 of the Strategy (available at www.communities-ni.gov.uk/publications/active-ageing-strategy-2016-2022).

£800k has been ring-fenced for the purchase of digital devices within VCSE COVID-19 Recovery Fund that I launched recently and will be available to organisations seeking to support older and vulnerable people within our community.

As part of the rollout plan for Universal Credit to support people and to improve their digital skills, a series of events were held in Jobs & Benefits offices. My Department worked in partnership with advice organisations and LibrariesNI to provide digital support. Staff in Jobs & Benefits offices provide help to people to improve their digital skills on a daily basis, and work closely with grass roots organisations to improve digital inclusion across our communities.

The Housing Executive has been involved in delivering or partnering a number of initiatives aimed at assisting older and more vulnerable people to become or remain connected online, such as the 2016/17 Digital Inclusion Pilot exercise, part-funded by the DFP/Digital Inclusion Unit & DSD (DfC). Supporting Communities provided training to tenants and residents including the elderly on using social media platforms and engaging with public services online, as well as encouraging them to use online services, for example, to report repairs.

Community Grants and COVID-19 Response funding supported the provision of digital equipment to a range of community organisations and residents.

83 refurbished laptops were made available to the Housing Executive’s Housing Community Network organisations, and tablets were provided to Central Housing Forum (CHF) members who represent a network of over 500 community organisations. This helped older and vulnerable people to access to online services.

Housing Executive provided the 12 members of the Disability Housing Forum with new tablets and digital training sessions during late June 2020.

Supporting People (SP) service providers have used online activities such as virtual classes, online socialising, newsletters, befriending schemes and referrals to community support to help service users.

This year, the Housing Executive has been involved in the ONSIDE (Outreach and Navigation for Social Inclusion and Digital Engagement) project aimed at supporting individuals with a disability to improve their health and wellbeing through increased social and digital involvement in the community, and to reduce social isolation by creating community connections in their local area and digital connections online. This is a cross border funded project led by Disability Action NI in partnership with the Housing Executive, the Independent Living Movement Ireland (ILMI), and Supporting Communities (SC). Since June, the Housing Executive has placed 300 digital devices with individuals who are now completing online training sessions aimed at supporting individuals to use IT to complete tasks and remain connected.

In 2020/21 the SP Provider Innovation Fund was specifically aimed at innovative projects that support clients to make the best use of technology, with £0.5m of funding provided annually. It has been evident through successful applications to the fund that greater levels of digital connectivity and digital inclusion have been realised.

The Housing Executive has implemented an 'Assisted Living' pilot scheme in Derry with the aim of improving the quality of life and social interaction for tenants who are living with disabilities or mobility issues, aged between 16 and 68. This pilot is a joint initiative with the Health and Social Care Trust Occupational Therapy Service and Hive Studios for a group of 18 households with elderly, disabled and/or vulnerable tenants. Working together to identify assisted technologies to support the circumstances of each individual tenant, the partnership has deployed a range of fully customisable, broadband-enabled 'smart devices' to each of the scheme's participants.

A further project is currently being developed, involving Assisted Living Technology in a vacant block of flats in Lisnafin in Strabane. I understand that the business case for the scheme will shortly be referred to my Department for consideration.