From evidence to action

Following a year of research, collaboration and debate, Connected marks the final stage of The Connection Project's work. Building on the evidence presented in Misconnected, this report moves beyond identifying the challenges of digital exclusion and sets out a practical, cross-sector plan for action. Bringing together organisations from across banking, telecommunications, broadcasting, technology and civil society,

Connected outlines a shared vision for a more inclusive digital future and calls on government, industry and local communities to work together to make it happen.

There's a point in every project where you have to stop asking questions and decide what you're going to do with the answers.

Over the past year, The Connection Project has brought together organisations from banking, telecoms, broadcasting, technology and civil society to understand what it would take to create a digital society that works better for everyone.

Our first report, Misconnected, explored the evidence.

It showed that while the UK has invested heavily in digital infrastructure, millions of people still face barriers to participating confidently in modern life.

Connected, our final report, builds on this research to draw some conclusions. It reflects hundreds of conversations and a lot of challenge and debate.

The organisations behind Connected have come together around a shared ten-point programme.

This includes practical plans to continue connecting the nation, create well-designed services, new tools and customer propositions, make it easier to support someone else with digital services and to coordinate support through trusted local organisations. 

Connected also sets out what we need from the government.

The report invites the government to join with us on a clear national ambition for digital participation, remove barriers to investment and practical barriers to connectivity, work with us to address affordability and help create the conditions for coordinated local delivery. 

Having diagnosed the problems and identified many of the solutions, we now have a choice to make.

The UK has already invested billions in digital infrastructure, and many more changes are coming in broadcasting, financial services, telecoms and public services. We can use this moment to make sure more people can benefit from those changes, or allow things to unfold on their own and deepen existing inequalities.

We’re grateful to so many organisations for their contributions to this work over the past year. Bringing together people with different perspectives hasn't always been straightforward, but that's what makes this project different.

With Connected, we’ve achieved our goal of setting out what needs to be done.

Now comes the much more interesting challenge. Action.