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Across the UK, digital access now shapes who learns, who works, who connects – and who thrives. Yet for millions, that access remains out of reach. The result is not just exclusion, but the quiet entrenchment of inequality – deepening as more of life shifts online.

Today, the Digital Poverty Alliance launches the next phase of its National Delivery and Advocacy Plan – a clear, coordinated framework to address digital poverty and drive long-term, systemic change.

Policymakers, community leaders, frontline organisations, and people with lived experience will gather at the Square Tower in Portsmouth to reflect on the progress made since the Plan’s initial publication in 2023 – and to set out what must happen next to deliver lasting impact.

The updated Plan is structured around six national missions: affordable connectivity, inclusive design, digital skills for life, stronger local capacity, sustainable funding, and better evidence. Together, they form a shared structure for delivery – moving beyond fragmented interventions toward sustained, joined-up action.

Since the launch of the original Plan, momentum has grown. In February 2025, the Government introduced the Digital Inclusion Action Plan – the first national strategy on digital exclusion in over a decade. As part of that effort, the Digital Poverty Alliance is leading a new device donation scheme, redistributing unused government laptops to households in need.

This builds on our national delivery programmes – Tech4Families, Tech4Youth, and Tech4YoungCarers – which continue to support children, young people, and families who are often excluded from digital access.

But digital exclusion is not incidental. It is systemic. And the consequences are immediate and enduring: whether a parent can book a GP appointment, whether a student can complete their homework, whether an older person can stay connected to vital services.

Today’s event includes two panel discussions, each designed to bring lived experience into direct conversation with policy and practice. The first will feature individuals from across generations who have experienced digital exclusion first-hand. Their stories are not anecdotes – they are evidence. The second will examine digital skills as a lifelong necessity, drawing on insights from education, employment, and community delivery to ask what it would take to embed digital capability from early years through to later life.

“We know what the barriers are. We know who is being left behind. What we need now is clear, sustained action. This Plan is not a list of recommendations – it is a structure for delivery. If we are serious about ending digital poverty, this is where the work must begin,” said Elizabeth Anderson, CEO of the Digital Poverty Alliance.

The updated National Delivery and Advocacy Plan will be published at 11:00am. A Communications Toolkit is already available to support partners and advocates in aligning their messaging – offering clear language and practical content to help amplify this work.

Ending digital poverty is not a question of technology. It is a question of access, of infrastructure, and of will. Today, we move forward – together.

Watch the event live
Livestream begins at 12:45pm