Free tech help for over-50s and carers at St Peter's, Plough Road, Battersea, 10am to 3pm on 21 October: bring your phone, learn to spot scams, drop in.
Age UK Wandsworth is holding its first digital roadshow, a free day of help with phones, tablets, laptops and staying safe online, at St Peter’s, 23 Plough Road, Battersea, on Wednesday 21 October from 10am to 3pm. It is called Online@OurAge! and it is open to every Wandsworth resident aged 50 or over and to unpaid carers. You can register by email or just turn up on the day.
The local charity, which is independent of the national Age UK, wrote to Wandsworth News this week to tell readers about it.
The quick answer
- What: Online@OurAge!, Age UK Wandsworth’s first digital technology and skills roadshow.
- When: Wednesday 21 October 2026, 10am to 3pm.
- Where: St Peter’s, 23 Plough Road, Battersea, SW11 2DE.
- Who: Wandsworth residents aged 50 and over, and unpaid carers.
- Cost: free, with free tea, coffee and snacks.
- How to go: register at digital@ageukwandsworth.org.uk or drop in on the day.
- Bring: your own smartphone, tablet or laptop if you have one.
What happens on the day
The charity says the themes are deliberately simple: getting online and what to expect once you are there, using apps and online services safely, protecting your privacy and avoiding scams, and where to find more help after the event.
There will be big-screen presentations with audience participation, a set of help desks for information, advice and support, and Age UK Wandsworth staff and volunteers to talk to “over a cuppa”, in the charity’s words.
Bring a device if you have one. The charity says staff can do quick fixes on the spot, or book you into one of its Digital 1:1 sessions if the problem needs longer. If you do not have a device, one of the team can show you around one of the charity’s own tablets.
The other help on hand, according to the release:
- Information and Advice, and Age Well Together: two more Age UK Wandsworth teams, answering questions on “a range of topics, from Pension Credit eligibility to your first online shop after coming out of hospital”.
- Everyday services: help with the NHS App, online banking and home broadband, and where to find more support.
- The landline switchover: an update on the Digital Switchover being led by BT.
- Scams: presentations, advice and support on spotting scams and online fraud, timed for Cybersecurity Awareness Month in October.
- Family history: Wandsworth Libraries and Heritage service on using online records to trace your family’s history.
- Heroes of Computer History: a display for Black History Month that also features women who pioneered new fields of technology, including space exploration, and members of the LGBTQ+ community who, the charity says, “altered the course of world history” through computer science.
The roadshow is also part of Get Online Week, the annual digital inclusion campaign run by the Good Things Foundation, which runs from 19 to 25 October this year.
Why the charity is doing it
Age UK Wandsworth quotes the national Age UK’s September 2026 report, Digital Done Right, which says that as we age, “regardless of our previous digital experience and expertise, we are likely to face barriers to using digital devices successfully”, because of “poor health and mobility, loss of confidence and the issue of many digital journeys being poorly designed, highly complex and constantly changing”.
“Although this is not news to us, it certainly resonates,” the local charity says.
Since its revamped Digital Inclusion Programme launched, it says it has worked with hundreds of older Wandsworth residents at free drop-in sessions in the borough’s libraries, at its Day Centre and, more recently, at the Apple Store in Battersea. The help ranges, it says, “from taking the first steps in using a smartphone to completing complex online forms to access an essential service”. The sessions are run by “a small but dedicated team of volunteers”.
Helen Bird, who coordinates the programme, said:
“We help clients to manage their digital devices and make good use of the Internet; we offer clients dedicated time to learn how their devices can work best for them and encouragement to explore digital technology, so they don’t miss important things like software updates.”
She shared an email she received shortly after one session, from a client who had been learning to use Facebook:
“I have spent this afternoon experimenting with how to use Facebook; after a slow start when I thought I was going nowhere, I am now happy to report some progress. It has confirmed my belief that the best learning experiences come from getting things wrong before getting them right.”
The roadshow, the charity says, is meant to reach over-50s “who are not yet familiar with our services, as well as those who we are already supporting, and to celebrate the fact that many of us are online and making great progress”.
Carers count too
The invitation to unpaid carers is deliberate. The charity points to “the largely hidden role that unpaid carers play as digital enablers of friends, family and neighbours”, and says that role is only likely to grow with an ageing population. “We need to consider them and their digital support needs as part of new initiatives and programmes as we go forward,” it says.
What it means for you
If you, a parent or a neighbour struggles with a phone, the NHS App, online banking, or with working out whether a message is a scam, this is a free day where you can bring the device and ask. You do not need to be an existing Age UK Wandsworth client.
If 21 October does not suit, the help does not stop after the roadshow. The charity’s Digital Inclusion Programme runs free sessions all year, including a Thursday drop-in at the Gwynneth Morgan Day Centre and sessions in libraries across the borough. Call 020 8877 8947 or email digital@ageukwandsworth.org.uk. Helen Bird’s working hours are Monday to Thursday, 9am to 4.30pm.
For more free events across the borough this month, see What’s On in Wandsworth.
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