The pandemic has triggered a rapid acceleration in the use of technology, but also highlighted pre-existing inequalities in access to IT, the co-founder of dot.com business Last Minute told the LGA’s annual conference.
Baroness Martha Lane-Fox CBE, Chair of the Lords’ Select Committee on COVID-19, admitted she struggled to keep up with what she was meant to know about the internet, but that it was important for managers of public services – including schools, hospitals and councils – to understand technology and keep up with innovation.
She outlined the committee’s recent work on the impact of COVID-19, including key themes around inequalities, opportunities and wellbeing, and the impact of IT on public services – all of which raise “fundamental questions about how technology and society interrelate”.
“I’m not a techno-utopian; I don’t believe everything has to be digital… The hybrid world is complicated and I don’t think there is a one size fits all,” she told delegates.
People still need and want face-to-face services. But technology can help communities take control and bring them together, and help people learn new skills and access good-quality jobs – creating an “incredible uplift” when digitisation is done well.
For the public sector, “the trick is navigating where on the spectrum you put services”, from entirely digital to entirely face to face, said Baroness Lane-Fox.
“It is important that both central and local government thinks carefully about where on the spectrum the different services should sit.”