Online Communication Excludes Elderly From Brighton Housing Services

Residents are concerned that older people are being excluded from the council’s housing services as more communication takes place online.

A Brighton and Hove City Council report set out the issue:

“Residents are very concerned about the move toward online communication and service provision as the norm.

“This excludes older people who are not able to manage online services, people who aren’t able to use computers or screens for medical reasons and those who cannot afford them.

“It ends up discriminating against certain sections of the population.

“While housing services usually provide an alternative to online communication, it is often less effective and there is a lot of pressure to report complaints, repairs, etc, online as the best and right way to do things. In some situations, it is the only way.

“The increased use of online services means there is a reduction in human contact, knowledge and understanding.

“It is all anonymous and structured in a way which doesn’t allow for any more complex understanding of an issue.

“The council website is not very user-friendly and is hard to navigate, even for people with some computer experience.

“When residents have made contact by post, they have received a response directing them to the website.

“This doesn’t acknowledge the reason why they were using the post in the first place.

“It was acknowledged that this is part of a broader move towards online communication in all areas of society and that online communication can work effectively in some situations and for some people.

“However, it can also be a reduction in the quality and nature of services as well as building inequality into service provision.

“Residents asked for housing services to take some steps towards addressing this inequality by

• Always providing hard copies, by post, of long documents sent to residents. For many people, it is difficult to read long documents on a small screen and most people do not have access to their own printers.
• Making the council website as clear and accessible as possible and seeking resident feedback on problems they experience.
• In emails, to always provide a direct link to the specific issue tenants are asking about, rather than send them to the website generally.”

The report quoted Justine Harris, the council’s head of tenancy services, responding. She wrote:

“In line with the council’s customer promise, we always try to make it clear how you can contact our services – and wherever possible this will be online (email / website / social media) as this can be the quickest and most convenient way for many of our customers.

“We recognise that isn’t necessarily the best way for all of our customers and that we must make sure that our service works with individuals who find using our digital services challenging.

“We are developing our customer offer for people who need a face-to-face to service. We are looking into whether the best way to deliver this is by appointment or drop in. We aim to begin delivering this in early 2024.

“Work is starting in December 2023 on the housing pages of the website to ensure that they are accessible to as many people as possible and provide clear information on our services and how to use them and as much as possible customer feedback will help shape the website.

“When requested, we will provide hard copies of any documents / forms as appropriate. We will also ask whether the customer has anyone who can assist them with completing these forms online and / or offer them the option of staff assistance over the phone or in person.

“This is to ensure we are able to provide to this level of assistance to those who need it.

“We will ensure that wherever possible direct links to specific web pages are provided, rather than simply providing the council’s web address.”

The report and response will be shared with the council’s four housing management panels

• North area: Monday 4 December at 2pm in the conference room in the housing centre in Eastergate Road, Moulsecoomb.
• East area: Tuesday 5 December at 6.30pm in the Bristol Estate Community Room, 146a Donald Hall Road, Brighton.
• Central area: Tuesday 12 December at 2pm at Brighton Town Hall, Bartholomews.
• West Hove and Portslade area: Wednesday 13 December at 6.30pm at Hove Town Hall, Norton Road.