Implementing tec strategy – Perth and Kinross Council

The TEC team in Perth and Kinross Council works closely with housing colleagues. One example of this is the SMART flat, made available by housing, which is used to showcase TEC products and for delivering training. Here, housing, health and social work professionals, as well as carers, can see the TEC products displayed in a home setting and get a feel for how they work, which helps them in meetings and assessments with customers and clients.

The TEC team also knows how well-placed their housing colleagues are to make referrals to TEC services, realising that housing staff may be the first port of call for someone or the first professional to see a need that can be fully or partially met with technology.

Despite its advantages, some people are still wary of new technology. Perth and Kinross Council provides a good example of how to overcome this hurdle by evidencing the benefits.

To begin with, the uptake of i-care – a set of Telecare devices that monitor and record activity in the home, allowing an informed assessment of how well someone is coping in an independent living situation – had been disappointingly slow. The team found that simply telling staff about the kit and how it could be used wasn’t generating sufficient interest, so they decided to work with the social work team at Blairgowrie to identify cases where i-care could be used.

After identifying a suitable case and supporting i-care’s introduction, the ‘light bulb’ moment came when the TEC team sat down with the social worker, district nurse and the customer’s family at the end of the four-week assessment period to go through the results. Based on concrete facts, rather than guesswork and assumptions, the customer was able to stay safely at home for six months longer than originally thought, which was of real value both to them and their family.

Judged on these results, referrals for i-care increased dramatically.

The sharp rise in i-care referrals has been replicated in other areas of the TEC team’s work. Almost 4,000 people are benefiting from its Telecare service, helping them to remain independent and at home, and a further 1,000 people have taken part in some kind of engagement or training.

Both the general awareness of technology and Perth and Kinross Council’s position within local authorities have improved. The Council is now seen as a forward-thinking, proactive authority in terms of how it uses and engages with technology, which maybe wasn’t always the case. Read more