Noel Park and West Green

This community has an active local third sector with key partners looking for new ways to support older people to get online.

About Noel Park & West Green

Noel Park

Population: 6,851 people.

‍Age: Residents aged 60+ make up 16.4% overall.

‍Ethnicity: 9% of people of White ethnicity, 20.4% of Black, Black British, Black Welsh, Caribbean or African ethnicity, 11.9% of Asian, Asian British or Asian Welsh ethnicity and 17.7% are of mixed, multiple or other ethnic groups

‍Household composition: 29.9% of households are one person households.
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Health and wellbeing: In 2021, most residents (81.7%) reported good or very good health while the remaining were in fair (13%), bad (5.5%) or very bad health (1.7%). Fewer (17.1%) residents have a disability and 9.1% identify as an unpaid carer.

‍Deprivation: 33.9% of households are deprived in one dimension, 21% in two, 7.5% in three or more.
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Gilmorton Estate

Population: 8,688 people.

‍Age: Residents aged 60+ make up 14.5% overall.

‍Ethnicity: 52.8% white, 19.3% Black, Black British, Black Welsh, Caribbean or African, 10.2% Asian, Asian British or Asian Welsh ethnicity and 17.5% are of mixed, multiple or other ethnic groups.

‍Household composition: 32.5% of households are one person households.

‍Health and wellbeing: In 2021, most residents (83.6%) reported good or very good health while the remaining were in fair (12.7%), bad (4.1%) or very bad health (1.5%). Fewer (14.7%) residents have a disability and 7.3% identify as an unpaid carer.

‍Deprivation: 35.5% of households are deprived in one dimension, 17.7% in two, 7.1% in three or more.

Digital Inclusion Challenge

Previous insights gathered from Haringey’s digital inclusion survey of under-engaged residents highlighted that a large number of responses from Noel Park and West Green cited a preference for in-person engagement and access to services. This preference has been recognised by the Council and community partners in previous engagement, and was selected as a behavioural barrier that required deeper research and insights.

In addition to this Haringey Council also noted the following drivers for selecting Noel Park and West Green as a site for trialling Behavioural Systems Mapping:

A need to identify wider barriers for the target cohort and to understand available community resources for targeting interventions; and,
Opportunity to bring local networks together to share insights and intelligence.

Noel Park and West Green Behavioural Systems Map

Over the course of four in-person and online workshops, stakeholders co-designed a behavioural systems map of digital exclusion:

Stakeholder collaborated through a series of in-person and online workshops to develop a behavioural systems map of digital exclusion:

Mapping highlighted 6 key behavioural clusters:

Digital-By-Default Systems / Council Services: This cluster reflects how system-level service design and fragmented coordination shape accessibility, with clear opportunities to better anticipate the needs of older people through increased insight-sharing.
Accessing Digital Services: This cluster captures how system complexity and low confidence among the older population interact to reinforce both a strong preference for in-person services and disengagement.
Receiving Support: This cluster highlights a support ecosystem that is rich and varied but often oriented toward short-term resolutions rather than building long-term capability.
Information Flows and Translation: This cluster reflects how limited information flows can decrease awareness and navigation of support, particularly for non-English speakers.
Digital Skills: This cluster captures opportunities for digital skill development that are limited by capacity constraints and infrequent engagement, both of which prevent widespread, sustained capability development across the neighbourhood.
Reducing Isolation: This cluster highlights the role of social connection as both an outcome of and a pathway into digital inclusion.

“I really felt the benefit of a very systematic approach that drives us to focus on the specific objective as well as challenging our assumptions about what interventions might have the highest impact for our digitally excluded residents.”

Workshop participant

“Participants recognised the value of the step-by-step method Behavioural Systems Mapping provides, which helped them understand their neighbourhood, and discuss ways to overcome the barriers their communities are facing.”

Workshop facilitator

Geospatial Mapping

Geospatial mapping explored digital exclusion through national and local datasets, to support the behavioural systems mapping approach. Several key challenges contributing to exclusion were found, primarily:

Affordability barriers may lead to limited device availability and broadband speed;
Limited digital skills and confidence of older people;
Limited resources and visibility of digital inclusion teams who may be able to offer digital support and skill development; and,
Connectivity and infrastructure limitations such as low quality broadband.

Lower English language proficiency across parts of the estates could indicate difficulties in seeking and providing digital support. For these neighbourhoods, social connection did not emerge as a primary driver of digital exclusion but was partly present at the edge of the estates. The key assets on this map do not sit within the boundary but are accessible by public transport and are already playing an important role in connecting older people to residents.

Intervention Blueprints

Behavioural systems mapping was used to generate a set of intervention ideas that were refined through spatial data. Find out more about these in our final report.

Council Digital Information Hub and Internal Best-Practice Promotion: this strengthens and extends the Council’s existing digital inclusion webpage – Haringey Gets Digital – into a jointly owned, accessible information hub that supports consistent signposting, clearer communication, and improved coordination across the system.

Digital Inclusion Insights and Coordination Network: establishes a structured, cross-sector insight-sharing network to systematically capture and use frontline intelligence on residents’ digital challenges. It formalises existing but fragmented feedback channels between council teams and VCSE organisations.

Research and Engagement on Older Residents’ Preferences for In-Person Services: generates deeper, actionable insight into older residents’ preference for in-person services and acts as a precursor to further intervention design, moving beyond high-level system mapping to explore the underlying drivers of behaviour in more detail.

Conclusion & Next Steps

The current outcomes of the project are seen as a starting point and not an end point, where there is now an opportunity to refine and test to deliver effective interventions. In some formats, the mapping output itself can be a useful resource to see the bigger picture and connections to inform next steps.

Haringey Council are keen to take the methodology forward across different neighbourhoods and to understand different aspects of digital inclusion.

Find out more about the research and download the report here