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Shadow Public Health Minister, Luciana Berger MP, last week visited three of the TUC’s Digital Hubs to see the work that is being done by the project to improve the basic digital skills of thousands of Liverpool residents.

The digital hubs project is facilitated by the North West TUC and funded by the MI (More Independent) health programme, with the aim of enabling people to use technology to have more control over their own health care, recognising that many are unable to currently do this as they do not have the basic digital skills required.

Luciana visited three of the digital hubs on Lodge Lane, L8, and was keen to see the work of the Digital Champions, many of whom are volunteers, in getting learners online and up skilled.

As well as hearing about the difference that getting online had made to the learners' lives, the MP was concerned to hear detailed examples of benefits sanctions linked to compulsion to do online job search in order to receive JSA, with little or no support from the DWP and Job Centres. Luciana intends to table Parliamentary questions to examine how a lack of digital access is pushing people further into poverty.

The North West TUC and Unionlearn* were chosen to facilitate the project due to the many years experience of reaching learners and supporting them to overcome barriers to learn.

As well as the hubs visited by Luciana, which included Granby Toxteth Development Trust, a long established voluntary organisation in L8, Personal Success, based in the Tiber Enterprise offices, and the Somali Women's Centre, over 50 other hubs have been set up or resourced in the city over the past six months. The project has now trained over two hundred digital champions and supported over two thousand learners to date.

Laura Robertson-Collins, one of the project co-ordinators at the North West TUC said: "It is well-known that those who are digitally excluded also suffer financial and social exclusion. It is vital that we support all of our community to take advantage of the opportunities that digital provides, and that no-one in society gets left behind".
 

NOTES TO EDITORS:

- *Unionlearn is the learning arm of the TUC, which operates nationally and across the TUC’s six regions. The North West Unionlearn team has been active and successful in delivering workplace and community digital skills and supports a number of workplace and community learning programmes in the region. For more information visit http://www.unionlearn.org.uk/regions/north-west

 - All TUC press releases can be found at www.tuc.org.uk

 - Register for the TUC's press extranet: a service exclusive to journalists wanting to access pre‑embargo releases and reports from the TUC. Visit www.tuc.org.uk/pressextranet

Contacts:

Media enquiries

Jay McKenna- T:0151 236 5432 M:07788 414578 E:jmckenna@tuc.org.uk

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