Switch
United Kingdom
Switch promote a collaborative and networked partnership approach to tackling digital exclusion; using and valuing current resources and strategies in …
Good practice
Imported
★ 56
★ 52
★ 52
★ 72
Click & Connect
United Kingdom · Glasgow · National · See the United Kingdom profile
The Click and Connect centres aim to increase digital access throughout Scottish communities and open up a range of opportunities from online savings to jobs and training for service users. These centres allow tenants to build up their digital skills with drop-in sessions availab
187 GBP
Average savings reported by tenants from using internet shopping through the service (GHA study)
Details
- Maturity
- Established
- Promoter
- Wheatley Group — website
- Type
- Service
- Status
- Ongoing
- Target groups
- Elderly people, Marginalised young people and children, Unemployed and those facing social problems, Migrants, People with disabilities
- Period
- 2014-02-14
- Keywords
- online, digital inclusion, access, digital skills
Context
The Wheatley Foundation charitable trust tackles the barriers people face growing up in poverty, creating opportunities and helping people achieve their ambitions. Click & Connect centres operate in community centres and libraries across Scotland through a partnership between Glasgow Kelvin College, the John Wheatley Learning Network and other partners.
Objectives
Click & Connect aims to increase digital access across Scottish communities and open up opportunities - from online savings to jobs and training - for tenants and other service users of Wheatley Group housing.
Activities
Click & Connect centres offer free drop-in sessions and more structured IT classes, with many sites also offering free wifi, helping users find work, gain qualifications, cut their energy and shopping bills, and manage online service accounts.
Results
A study carried out by GHA (Glasgow Housing Association) found that tenants using the centres for internet shopping saved an average of £187.
Implementation
- Indicative cost
- Medium (€50k–€500k) — Not documented in source material.
- Time to results
- Long (> 3 years) — Ongoing service, running since 2014-02-14.
- Staffing & skills
- Delivered in partnership between Glasgow Kelvin College and the John Wheatley Learning Network, hosted within community centres and libraries
Conditions for success
- Free-of-charge access, including free wifi at many sites, to lower the barrier to participation
- Embedding centres within existing community infrastructure (libraries, community centres) rather than standalone facilities
Where it fits
- Governance type
- Housing association/charitable trust (Wheatley Group) delivering via further-education and community partners
- Scale
- Sub-national (Glasgow/Scotland-wide network of local centres)
- Income level
- High-income (UK)
Do you run this practice? Claim it — verified implementers get a public contact pathway and can propose corrections.
Data sources
Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.
- MEDICI / Digital Inclusion Atlas — accessed 2026-06-14
- Practice website — accessed 2026-06-14
- Information source — accessed 2026-06-14
Attachments
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