The benefits analysis has revealed that the telecare service achieves significant cost savings, as well as delivering improved quality of life outcomes for users and carers. As a result we’re keen to expand the service further, and to work more closely with our partners in health to support the wellbeing of people in our community.
Joy Hollister, Children, Adults and Housing Group Director, London Borough of Havering
The Challenge
The London Borough of Havering’s Adult Services team is committed to embracing the opportunity and need to transform the Health and Social Care provision in Havering to meet the challenges of the 21st Century. With demographic changes, limited resources, and increasing levels of dependency, it is imperative to strive for more effective and efficient care options that provide residents with the right outcome, giving local people the opportunity to remain independent in their own homes.
What We Did
The Adult Services team is working in partnership with Havering Clinical Commissioning Group to deliver better integrated care for the older population, and part of this work has focused on increasing the use of telecare in order to maximise benefits realisation. Telecare, or assistive technology as it is also known, has been used to support adult social care (ASC) clients in Havering for some time.
However, funding from NHS Support for Social Care enabled the increased use of telecare by improving operational efficiency in assessing, referring, providing, installing and monitoring equipment. It also supported the evaluation of the service to measure the benefits. A basic telecare package consisting of a Lifeline home unit with pendant and 24 hour monitoring and response is being provided to over 1,500 FACS eligible individuals, with a further 2,500 or more FACS eligible clients under consideration for telecare as part of their care package.
Highlights
- Significant cross-sector benefits of telecare have been evidenced
- Service user survey indicates significant improvements to quality of life
- Robust, longitudinal analysis showed:
- Overall hospital admissions reduced by 50%
- Hospital admissions due to falls were reduced by 44%, with an estimated annual saving of £2.24m
- Admissions to residential care reduced by 5.9%
- Admissions to residential care delayed by 2-7 months resulting in projected annual net saving of £937,500
