Connected Care service

This service was formerly known as the Safe And Sound Service, and the Community Alarm Service. Connected Care provides expert advice and support for digital assistive technology, along with a 24 hrs Monitoring and Responding Service.

Digital Assistive Technology can transform your life, by fitting in with your needs, lifestyle and other elements of your care.

Assistive Technology includes electronic equipment and adaptations to your home. These can help you to stay independent and safe, support you with your daily living tasks, and provide peace of mind for you and your family and carer(s).

The service is available to people of all ages who feel vulnerable, unsafe or need support in their home or their community.

This can include people who are:

• older
• physically disabled
• sensory disabled
• learning disabled
• at risk of falling
• unwell
• patients who have recently left hospital
• And anyone who needs support to live independently and safely

We hope to find out what is important to you, what you need and how technology can help. We are looking for new products that might meet that need.

Please contact us for an assessment or to discuss your personal situation. You can also request a free demonstration of available assistive technology or a discussion to help you identify alternatives you could buy for yourself.

You can fill out your details using the referral form below and a member of the Connected Care Team will contact you.

Connected Care referral form

How does the monitoring and responding service work?

We will install devices in your home. These will use your landline telephone - if you do not have a landline telephone, there are alarm units that can use a mobile SIM card.

We also provide GPS devices you can take out with you. Both are connected to our in-house monitoring and response service - this operates 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

We can ensure that you get the help you need as soon as a problem is detected.

If you need help at any time:

1. Press the button on your personal trigger or Alarm Unit. An emergency call will be sent to our control centre.
2. The alarm has a sensitive microphone and powerful speaker, so you can speak with the operator from your home. If for some reason you can't do this, the control centre will know your alarm has been activated and organise help.
3. If you have a GPS tracker we can find your exact location. We can set this up to receive an alert when you are leaving a predetermined area. This means you can move around your home or community confident that in an emergency, help is at hand.
4. We can also alert a family member or friend to help you, or we will contact the ambulance or other emergency or medical services if required.

When you join, you will be asked to provide contact details of friends, family members or neighbours to act as Volunteer Responders. We will contact them in the event of an emergency.

If you do not have someone who can be a responder for you, this is not a problem - our mobile Response Service will send a highly trained professional to help you or arrange emergency services.

The service can also act as a key holder, to ensure they can get into your property.

Cost of the service

Connected Care provides two service levels:

• Monitoring Only – £4.65 per week: we will monitor your calls. If you need assistance, we will contact your family or friends, or call an ambulance or other emergency service.
• Monitoring and Responding – £7.81 per week: we will monitor your calls. We will visit you if your call is unclear or if you need assistance.

Connected Care provides key safes at a rental cost of £1 per week. These can be purchased outright at a cost of £72. There are no costs for installation or additional equipment. You only pay for the service.

If you cannot afford to pay, you may get help under the Fairer Charging scheme. They will assess your contribution to the cost of community services.

You can obtain a Fairer Charging Assessment form by contacting the finance assessment team.

You may be able to get a Housing Related Support grant if you get pension credit and you do not live in supported/sheltered housing. Please contact the Connected Care Service for further information.

Who provides the service

We provide support and expertise to help you to find the most appropriate device for you. We receive referrals from a wide network, including health and social care professionals, care agencies, the community and voluntary sector, and family members and friends of potential service users.

The service is made up of the following teams:

Digital Care Assessors

Process all new referrals to the service and suggest equipment that may work for you.

The Assessors will provide you with information about Connected Care, and carry out a detailed assessment to see if you need any electronic devices. They will identify the best equipment for you, such as a Dispersed Alarm Unit with a Personal trigger, or a range of environmental or wellbeing sensors. They keep up to date with the market to identify new equipment that may help people.

Digital Care Technicians (DCTs)

Install, maintain and upgrade equipment.

Digital Care Technicians make sure that customers and their family members or carers understand how the equipment works and how to use it.

They review our assistive technology offer and find and test new products on the market. Our Lead DCT will find and test new equipment to ensure it works with our systems. We work with device providers to ensure all staff know how the devices work and keep up to date with new developments.

Monitoring and Responding officers (MROs)

Monitoring and Responding officers will monitor and respond to emergency calls.

MROs will identify and arrange appropriate intervention or support to ensure your wellbeing. This may mean visiting your home to help deal with an emergency. This support is available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

The Stock Coordinator

The Stock Coordinator provides, maintains and services equipment in line with service and supplier standards and guidelines.

The coordinator can also provide information and guidance on how to use the equipment safely and correctly to customers, their family members, or carers.

Along with our Digital Support Officers, collectively, the teams work together to provide you with a personal, friendly and responsive service that gives you peace of mind of due to the 24-hour link to the monitoring control centre.