Issue - meetings

(Housing and Strategic Health Partnerships – Cllr H Whitbread) To note the attached report detailing the update on the emergency alarm upgrade (C-037-2023-24).

(1)           That the Cabinet noted the Council was working with TSA (Telecare Services Association) the representative body for technology enabled care (TEC) services to procure a new emergency alarm system for the Council’s independent living schemes, and designated dwellings for older people in the community following the termination of the contract with Doro & Everon in January 2023.

(2)           That the Cabinet noted the alarm monitoring contract with Tunstall Response was due for renewal in 2025, and that a tender exercise was underway to procure new emergency alarm systems and an alarm monitoring service for the Council’s independent living schemes and designated dwellings for older people in the community, to ensure work was completed in readiness for the digital switchover in 2025.

Councillor H Whitbread (Housing and Strategic Health Partnerships) advised the Council must upgrade the emergency alarm system in their independent living schemes that operated on the public switched telephone network (PSTN), as the analogue telephone lines were being discontinued by November 2025. The Council would then move to using a digital IP network. The Council had been working with the Telecare Services Association (TSA) to procure a new emergency alarm system. In addition, the current emergency alarm monitoring contract with Tunstall Response was due to expire in 2025, so the Council also had to undertake a tender exercise to procure a new monitoring provider for its emergency alarm systems.

Councillor R Brookes remarked that this had previously been done in-house and then the Council had switched to a telecare system that was Essex-wide. Councillor H Whitbread acknowledged this was the case. The Interim Housing Services Director, S Balu, continued that the TSA had recommended hard wired alarm upgrades for the Council’s independent living schemes and the Council currently provided a dispersed alarm to older people living in the community. It was more cost effective to have an external provider in terms of upgrades and repairs and other people could sign up externally who were not in independent living.

The report set out the options considered, if any, and the reasons for the recommendation and the decision.

            Decision:

(1)           That the Cabinet noted the Council was working with TSA (Telecare Services Association) the representative body for technology enabled care (TEC) services to procure a new emergency alarm system for the Council’s independent living schemes, and designated dwellings for older people in the community following the termination of the contract with Doro & Everon in January 2023.

(2)           That the Cabinet noted the alarm monitoring contract with Tunstall Response was due for renewal in 2025, and that a tender exercise was underway to procure new emergency alarm systems and an alarm monitoring service for the Council’s independent living schemes and designated dwellings for older people in the community, to ensure work was completed in readiness for the digital switchover in 2025.