Older adult
Margaret, 74
Retired — Lewisham
“I just want to be able to book my own appointments.”
IFB Gaming builds the engagement infrastructure and measurement systems that turn digital access into lasting participation — particularly for communities that conventional provision has failed to reach.
Research, intelligence
& community infrastructure
for digital participation
Most digital inclusion work stops at connectivity and basic skills. IFB Gaming operates in the spaces that come after — gaming-powered engagement, behavioural participation, AI inclusion, and the measurement frameworks that prove change is happening.
Empowering Futures — our founding commitment
Everything IFB Gaming builds is grounded in one commitment: that inequality in digital access is a structural problem requiring sustained, community-led action. Empowering Futures is our response — a commitment to a fairer, future-proofed UK where no community is left behind by technology.
Free to use · No login required · No referral needed
200+
SIM cards distributed via Winter Data Care
5,000+
Organisations in the National Digital Inclusion Network
3
Layers: Access · Engagement · Transformation
2016
Active in Southwark & Lambeth since
How it works
Three layers.
One operating model.
IFB Gaming is one of the only organisations in the UK operating deliberately across all three layers of digital inclusion — from first access all the way to AI-ready transformation. Most stop at layer one.
IFB Gaming operating model
Hover or focus any layer to explore what happens there
Transformation layer — the goal
AI literacy · Workforce capability · Measurement
Where access and engagement become lasting change — career-readiness, AI fluency, measurable movement along the inclusion spectrum. The least-served layer in conventional digital inclusion.
IFB’s differentiator
Engagement layer — where IFB Gaming is distinctive
Gaming infrastructure · Behavioural participation · Toolkits
Most organisations jump from access to skills and call it done. IFB Gaming builds the engagement infrastructure in between — using gaming mechanics, behavioural research, and self-directed tools to turn passive access into active participation.
Access layer — the foundation
Connectivity · Devices · Data · Local support
The prerequisite for everything else. If someone cannot afford to stay connected, no other tool reaches them. IFB Gaming addresses the access barrier directly through Winter Data Care, the National Databank partnership, and local Data Waypoints.
The measurement framework — Check, Stage Index, IFB Index — runs across all three layers, tracking movement from access to transformation.
Who it is for
Digital exclusion has names.
Every framework, every tool, every Data Waypoint exists because these barriers are real. The hub is built around people like these — not abstract user groups.
Physical disability
David, 41
Wheelchair user — Southwark
“The internet assumes everyone’s hands work the same way.”
Refugee
Amara, 28
Arrived from Somalia — Tower Hamlets
“I have the phone. I just can’t afford to keep it on.”
Young person / NEET
Tyler, 19
Not in education or work — Peckham
“I know how to use my phone. I just don’t know how to use it for work.”
Unpaid carer
Jean, 54
Full-time carer — Croydon
“By the time I’ve looked after Mum, I don’t have the energy to figure out a website.”
Visual impairment
Nadia, 33
Registered blind — Lambeth
“I can use technology fine. It’s the websites that can’t use me.”
These are the people the Stage Index, the Inclusion Check, the toolkits, and Winter Data Care are designed for. Explore the full personas in the toolkit ↗
Our structure
Four categories.
One clear architecture.
IFB Gaming is not a single programme or a collection of tools. Four distinct categories — each doing a different job, all serving the same commitment.
Programmes
Community-led delivery
Direct delivery that reaches people facing the deepest barriers — access, participation, and lived experience of exclusion.
- Empowering Futures — founding commitment
- Winter Data Care — free SIM cards & devices
- Data Waypoints — local delivery nodes
- NDIN membership — national network delivery
Research
What we measure & learn
Evidence, insight, and measurement work that gives IFB Gaming analytical credibility and policy relevance.
- IFB Digital Inclusion Measurement Framework
- Behavioural participation research
- University of Portsmouth & Southampton
- Community intelligence systems
Tools
What anyone can use now
Self-directed, freely available instruments. No referral, no login. Each is also a data instrument feeding IFB Gaming’s research.
- Digital Inclusion Check — 2-min self-assessment
- Stage Index™ — 8-pillar deep assessment
- From Devices to Impact — 11-section toolkit
- Beginners Toolkit — 8-module guided learning
- From Data to Delivery — coming soon
Innovation
Where we’re looking next
Frontier work most digital inclusion organisations are not yet doing — building capability for the next decade.
- ByteMentor — AI mentoring layer (in scoping)
- AI inclusion & AI literacy frameworks
- Gaming as engagement infrastructure
- Behavioural participation modelling
Tools & products
Five tools. Free. Self-directed.
Each tool is self-contained and freely available — no referral, no account. Each is also a data instrument. Together they map inclusion status across individuals and communities.
New
Quick check · 2 minutes
IFB Digital
Inclusion Check
Where do you stand?
Plain-language self-assessment across four dimensions. Benchmarked, scored, routes directly to the right support. Part of the IFB Measurement Framework.
- 0–100 score across Access, Skills, Safety & Participation
- Benchmarked against UK ONS and Lloyds data
- Routes to SIM cards, Learn My Way, or the Stage Index
- Free-text field — qualitative as well as quantitative
- Anonymous — no login, no referral required
Full assessment · 8 pillars
IFB Gaming
Stage Index™
The deep-dive diagnostic
8-pillar scored report with London benchmarks and postcode-mapped support. Includes an AI Literacy pillar — unique among community tools in the UK.
- Individual and Organisation modes
- AI Literacy pillar — frontier capability
- Postcode-mapped support pathways
- Downloadable results backup
Interactive toolkit · 11 sections
From Devices
to Impact
Student, Community & Organisation Edition
11 interactive sections covering what digital inclusion means, who it affects, six community personas, and national policy context.
- 6 real community personas
- Interactive participation cycle
- London exclusion statistics
- CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 — free to share
Beginners toolkit · 8 modules
Digital Inclusion
Toolkit for
Beginners
Step-by-step learning journey
Eight self-paced modules for complete beginners. Audio, 6 languages, progress tracking, and completion certificate.
- Audio listen feature for every module
- 6 languages inc. Arabic, Bengali & Somali
- Facilitator guide built in
- Linked to Learn My Way
Coming soon
From Data
to Delivery
Practitioner & Organisation Edition
For practitioners moving from understanding to structured, evidence-led delivery. Data-led practice, AI in digital inclusion, impact measurement.
- Data Waypoints delivery framework
- DSIT Action Plan aligned measurement
- AI literacy as a delivery dimension
- Commissioning guidance
In scoping
AI mentoring layer
ByteMentor
Personalised AI guidance
IFB Gaming’s planned AI mentoring layer — routes individuals through the ecosystem based on their Check score and Stage Index profile. Helps people understand and safely engage with AI in their own lives.
- Personalised pathway routing
- AI literacy in plain language
- Integrates with Check, Index, toolkits
- Community language support planned
Seasonal access programme
Winter Data Care
Free SIM cards, refurbished devices, and digital confidence support for residents facing data poverty in Southwark and Lambeth. If someone cannot afford to stay connected, none of the other tools reach them. Winter Data Care removes that barrier first — and is Empowering Futures made practical.
You have reached the end of the hub
Ready to go further?
Everything here is free, self-directed and open to anyone. Share it with someone who needs it, or get in touch to discuss working together.
IFB Digital Inclusion Measurement Framework
Three instruments.
One framework.
Most digital inclusion organisations count outputs. This framework measures position — where someone is on the inclusion spectrum — and change over time. Three instruments at different depths.
Entry level · 2 minutes · Individual
Digital Inclusion Check
Scores individuals across four dimensions — Access, Skills, Safety, Participation — benchmarked against ONS and Lloyds data. Routes to specific immediate support.
Take the Check ↗Full assessment · 8 pillars · Individual & organisation
Stage Index™
Comprehensive 8-pillar assessment with scored report and postcode-mapped support. Includes an AI Literacy pillar. The only community-produced assessment of this depth in the UK.
Open Stage Index ↗Longitudinal · Population level · In development
IFB Digital Inclusion Index
Aggregated anonymised data from the Check and Stage Index plus Data Waypoint community intelligence. Designed to track inclusion movement across communities over time.
In development · Register interest ↗Why IFB Gaming
The gap most organisations
are not filling
Most digital inclusion work focuses on devices, connectivity, and basic skills. IFB Gaming builds in the spaces that follow — always connecting frontier thinking back to lived experience.
AI inclusion
AI is not just for the already-connected
As AI reshapes services, work, and daily life, exclusion is extending beyond internet access to whether people can safely engage with AI tools. The Stage Index already includes an AI Literacy pillar.
For Tyler: understanding what AI tools could do for his job search — not in theory, but in a session, with support.
Behavioural participation
Getting online is not the same as benefiting
Most inclusion metrics stop at access. IFB Gaming builds frameworks to understand why people disengage even after access is achieved — the behavioural gap that conventional provision misses.
For Margaret: having a smartphone is not inclusion. Feeling safe and confident enough to use it — that is the gap worth measuring.
Gaming infrastructure
Engagement is the unsolved problem
Gaming mechanics — progression, reward, community belonging — are among the most powerful engagement frameworks ever built. Applying them to digital inclusion is largely unexplored territory.
For Amara: motivation and community matter as much as access. The infrastructure that keeps people engaged matters as much as the device.
Community intelligence
Inclusion data should come from communities
IFB Gaming builds longitudinal, community-level data through the Check, Stage Index, and Data Waypoints — a type of measurement community organisations have never had access to.
For Jean: her struggle with online care forms should be visible in data — informing service design, not disappearing into a call centre log.
Inclusion measurement
Position, not just participation
There is no established methodology for measuring individual inclusion status over time at community level. IFB Gaming’s three-instrument framework is among the first serious attempts to build one.
For David: the question is not whether he is “online” — it’s whether the services he needs are actually reachable from where he is.
Empowering Futures
Structural inequality needs structural responses
Digital exclusion is not a technical problem with a technical solution. It is a structural inequality requiring sustained, community-led action. Empowering Futures names that as a justice issue.
For Nadia: the barrier is not her visual impairment — it is the failure of organisations to design with her in mind.
The pathway
How the ecosystem connects
Each tool is a step. You can enter at any point — the ecosystem meets people where they are.
Empowering Futures
Our social responsibility
commitment to a fairer UK
Empowering Futures is the commitment that makes everything else necessary. A future-proofed UK means one where the communities most at risk from accelerating technological change are the ones most actively supported to navigate it. IFB Gaming exists to make that happen — through research, tools, infrastructure, and the kind of presence in communities that cannot be replicated from a distance.