Hello Resident

My name is Ros and I am the East of England Digital Voice Volunteer Coordinator for the BT Digital Voice Switchover project that Neighbourhood Watch are delivering on behalf of.  Please see our website for further information https://www.ourwatch.org.uk/supporting-communities/local-community-projects/our-digital-voice-project-bt

The switch is an industry wide decision that will affect all customers with a landline and BT are aiming to complete the switch from copper cabling to fibre by the end of 2027. This means that landlines will operate from broadband. The reason being that the copper network infrastructure is failing and will eventually be switched off in a few years.

Whilst not specifically targeted at the elderly, it is this demographic that is likely to be more impacted by this change as well as those in more rural areas. Those with poor or no mobile signal, or rely on carelines attached to their landlines will be more anxious about this as well as those not understanding the digital age, so it is essential that we can deliver awareness and support to those communities.

I am tasked with arranging events across Bedfordshire, looking to host these events from April to July. The Neighbourhood Watch Network have a lot of respect within the community, they know the regions they work in and would have a good knowledge of where to hold the events to best reach the right communities. We are also looking for volunteers that would host these events, preferably local to where they live to be able to also promote the great work that the network does in keeping communities safe.

I am therefore reaching out to you to ask if you would support the project by assisting in the recruitment of volunteers for these events.

The events should be staffed by two NHW volunteers or others that express an interest and will last three to four hours and take place during the week in the daytime.

Volunteers will have information leaflets provided by BT as well as promotional material for NHW to hand out and be be provided with pictures of the equipment that BT will provide to all its customers. An event pack will be sent to the volunteers with leaflets and event material. a few days before the event and they will have plenty of information and instruction to support them.

BT training will be provided before the event. This will be online via Teams and will last around 90 minutes as well as an online training session delivered by us to make sure that the volunteers are happy, understand everything that BT explained, and to answer any further questions they might have.

BT will provide a WhatsApp group that the volunteers can join which will be monitored and where volunteers can ask any technical questions directly to BT as Volunteers are not expected to have a technical understanding of the telecoms system. Instead, they will be reassuring the public they engage with that there are solutions to any problems that the Digital Voice Rollout may create (i.e. how to make phone calls if a power cut means your landline isn’t working)

After talking to members of the public, they would encourage them to fill in a short 3-minute survey , about their understanding of the digital voice rollout and their experience with the Neighbourhood Watch. This can be done via mobile or a paper copy. It is very important that we provide surveys for as many people as possible as this is information sent directly to BT.

We hope that any volunteers that step forward may be able to direct us to the best areas and venues to facilitate these events local to them as we do not expect them to have to travel too far. However, we will reimburse out of pocket expenses such as mileage and fares as well as a refreshment expense. If possible, it would be great if volunteers could do more than one event if the venues were local. However, we appreciate any time that the volunteers give up and so if they can only do the one, that is absolutely fine. 

Whilst these drop in events are focusing on the Digital Voice Rollout, they are a great opportunity to promote NHW and the work that we do.

Full support from myself and the Digital Voice team at Neighbourhood Watch to ensure that they feel comfortable with their role, before, during and after the events.

We have received some great feedback already from volunteers across the country when they have hosted events, being able to reassure people about the switch and address any confusions and concerns. Volunteers have also expressed that they have found this knowledge useful in their own NHW activity as it is helping with community safety and digital scams. We fully appreciate that this is something a little different and that volunteers may think it will be too technical or completely out their comfort zone. However, there will be a lot of support in place for the volunteers and we are not expecting them to be answering any sort of technical question at all. BT will be on hand via WhatsApp to answer these questions. 

If you are happy to share this within your contacts, I have attached a recruitment ad that may be useful. I am also happy for you to pass my details on. 

Please let me know if you have any questions or wish to have a telephone call Teams call to discuss further. My email is rosslyn.allen@ourwatch.org.uk.

I thank you for your time in reading this.

Ros