£14m telecare project launched by Birmingham city council

Local authority expects around 25,000 people to use telecare technology over the next three years under new initiative

Birmingham city council has launched a £14m city-wide telecare service in an effort to support people with long-term needs and help them remain in their homes for longer.

It signed a deal with telecare provider Tunstall for the delivery of the technology, which will include motion detectors and temperature sensors. It hopes the solutions will help reduce the need for hands-on home care or a move into residential care.

The telecare products will be combined with a response service for users who may need assistance. Birmingham said that it intends to create a “systemic shift” towards early intervention and preventative services, to meet growing demand for increasingly personalised care packages.

Safina Mistry, strategic manager for prevention, prioritisation and prediction (public health) at Birmingham council, told Guardian Government Computing that people wanting to access the telecare service will in the need to ring a phone line or get a referral through face-to-face contact. In the future, the council may extend the referral process to cover online channels.

“But at the moment the majority of our referrals come through face-to-face contact or through GPs,” she said.

The contract with Tunstall is set to run for three years, with an extension option of two years depending on its success.

“We’ll be looking at things like economy obviously, so how much money is being saved, but we’re also be looking at the quality of life aspect. This includes the people using the service and those caring for them,” said Mistry.

The project ties in with the Department of Health’s ‘3millionlives’ campaign, which aims to help three million people with long term conditions and social care needs over the next five years, through the use of telecare and telehealth.