Scottish Minimum Digital Living Standard: interim report

3 Method

This section describes the rationale behind the development of the MDLS. The section then looks at the potential use of the MDLS in Scotland. Particularly the approach to assessing the appropriateness of the UK wide MDLS in the context of Scotland and Scottish households. The goal of the UK MDLS was to create a standard that captures what people in the UK think households with children need to be digitally included. The UK MDLS provides a “baseline”, which can be built upon to establish what households with children need to meet MDLS in Scotland. The initial MDLS study, funded by the Nuffield Foundation and Nominet, was conducted in 2022 across England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. It set out what families with children need at a minimum, socially acceptable level to be included in the current digital world. Drawing on this as a benchmark, the MDLS for Scotland explores if and how digital needs may vary for families living in Scotland, the challenges households may face in meeting MDLS in the Scottish context, and what might help.

3.1 Approach: Building on the MIS methodology

All MDLS work draws on the Minimum Income Standard (MIS) methodology (Davis et al., 2024; see also Davis et al., 2018). Key aspects of the MIS approach that were adopted for the development of MDLS are:

• The method involves bringing together members of the public in a series of focus groups. In these groups, participants make decisions and build consensus about needs and ways to meet them. The method emphasises the public’s opinion of “need” rather than taking a “top-down” or expert-driven approach.
• It works towards defining a minimum acceptable standard of living (Davis et al., 2024; see also Davis et al., 2018). It is about “needs”, not “wants”, but more than the “bare minimum” needed for survival, as it must enable people to participate in the world around them.
• It accounts for individuals' different needs and can also examine how these needs combine within the context of a household.
• The needs established by groups can act as a benchmark and be used to determine who may or may not be meeting this level and the barriers to doing so.

3.2 Developing the initial UK MDLS

Reflecting on the Connecting Scotland Programme, Brown et al. (2024, p. 66) wrote that “digital inclusion works best when it recognises and reflects individual needs, and helps people achieve outcomes that are relevant to their lives”. The MDLS research puts these principles into practice with its inductive (or “bottom-up”) approach via deliberative focus groups with members of the UK public. It utilises lived experiences to build a picture of individual needs and how they can combine at a household level. Understanding digital inclusion needs to be holistic, so the MDLS comprises a range of interdependent digital goods, services, and skills.

The UK MDLS research focused on households with children to pilot the feasibility of developing a digital living standard. It involved 17 focus groups with adults and young people across four stages. During the research's initial “orientation” stage, participants developed a definition of the MDLS. As the definition needed to be applicable across household types, this involved groups with pensioners, working-age people without dependent children, and parents and young people. See below for the MDLS definition.

Over further stages of groups with parents of children of different ages and with young people, participants worked together to develop lists of the types of goods, services, and skills households with children would need to meet the MDLS definition. Decisions were fed through from one group to the next, checked back and reviewed to identify any missing or unnecessary items, and resolve any areas where previous groups may have been unable to agree to move towards consensus about the contents of MDLS. A complete outline of the MDLS research approach can be found in Yates et al. (2024).

Further elements of the research included interviews and workshops with stakeholders and experts from different sectors. Finally, a UK-wide nationally representative survey was conducted to measure the extent to which UK households with children fall below or above the MDLS (Yates et al., 2024).

3.3 The MDLS definition

The definition of the MDLS is central to the research. It is central to all focus group deliberations about what people need for digital inclusion, providing a shared understanding of the “standard” under discussion.

“A minimum digital standard of living includes having accessible internet, adequate equipment, and the skills and knowledge people need. It is about being able to communicate, connect and engage with opportunities safely and with confidence.”

When developing the MDLS definition, discussion groups were clear that it should be multi-faceted, highlighting that digital inclusion would require a combination of devices and connection, as well as skills and knowledge – not only for using technology effectively but to be able to do so safely and confidently. People also agreed that the MDLS definition must be holistic, meaning that household needs would have to be met across all areas of the definition and that devices and connections should be adequate and fit for purpose. All these components were seen as important for enabling a household to participate in society and culture, connect with others, access services, and engage with opportunities, such as in education or work.

The MDLS definition was presented and explained at the beginning of the Scotland MDLS groups. Participants felt it was appropriate and covered the different components of “needs” for digital inclusion.

3.4 MDLS Scotland research questions and methods

Using the UK MDLS as a baseline this interim report presents initial findings from further qualitative work to explore the MDLS's applicability in Scotland. It is based on semi-structured interviews with policymakers and civil society organisations working in the digital inclusion space in Scotland, as well as additional focus groups with Scottish households. The research aims to provide an extensive overview and discussion of the findings and recommendations for the Scottish Government. This report presents key findings in response to the following questions:

1. What are the views of key stakeholders (e.g., civil society organisations and local authorities) conducting digital inclusion in Scotland about the potential applicability of the MDLS in Scotland?

2. What do Scottish parents and young people think about the MDLS and its applicability to their experience in Scotland?

3. What are stakeholders’ views of the MDLS definition, and what are the challenges to and benefits of a possible implementation of the MDLS in Scotland?

4. What kinds of challenges do Scottish parents and young people identify to meeting MDLS in Scotland?

Two pieces of fieldwork were undertaken for this phase of the research. First, we interviewed Scottish stakeholders between September and November 2024. Semi-structured interviews were conducted online (via Teams) with 32 participants selected with the help of contacts known to the research team, including from the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations (SCVO) and Good Things Foundation. Table 1 (see Appendix) presents the interviewees' details. The interviews were undertaken with stakeholders holding a digital inclusion role, being responsible for digital inclusion strategy, or delivering digital inclusion-facing projects within organisations. The organisations covered a wide range of geographic areas and organisational missions in Scotland. These included organisations from the third sector, local authorities, and the Scottish Government. Areas of focus ranged from youth services and mental health support to cultural engagement and housing. All organisations had a primary focus on digital inclusion or a digital element to their work relevant to digital inclusion. Once interviews were completed, the data was transcribed, anonymised, and then thematically analysed using Atlas.ti.

Second, we used the established UK MDLS for households with children as a benchmark to examine the digital needs of families in Scotland in detail. In November 2024, researchers held three focus groups (each comprising between 7 and 10 participants). As with the UK MDLS research, these involved groups with parents and young people.

Two groups were held with parents, including lone and partnered parents (a mix of mothers and fathers) from different socioeconomic backgrounds (including people working/not-in-work and in various housing tenures) who had children living at home aged 5 to 20 years old. The first group was held in a city in Scotland’s Central Belt, and the other was conducted online to enable the inclusion of participants spread across Scotland from the Borders to the Highlands. Given known differences in digital infrastructure, this group was deliberately comprised of participants living in more rural areas, with the majority describing their location as a village. The group, undertaken with young people (aged 12 and 13), was held in a public high school in a town on the edge of the Central Belt. It was timed between the two parent groups, which provided the opportunity to feed decisions and perspectives back between parents and young people.

Groups were shown lists outlining the range of devices/tech items, means of internet connection, and the different skills and knowledge included in the UK MDLS. This was a starting point for discussions to explore whether or how digital needs might vary, issues that may affect digital inclusion, and the ability to meet the various aspects of MDLS for people living in different Scottish contexts. The group discussions were recorded, transcribed, and then analysed using NVivo.

The second phase of this MDLS Scotland project will involve in-depth interviews with families who may face challenges in meeting their digital needs, and further interviews with stakeholders. These family interviews and stakeholder perspectives will provide more evidence on implementing MDLS in Scottish digital policymaking and strategies. The work will also focus on potential barriers to reaching MDLS, and interventions that could support communities, including disadvantaged groups.