Welcome to our newsletter, where we provide you with the latest from Digital Telecare for Scottish Government. In this edition, we bring you a recap of the events within the Digital Telecare Programme over the past month, along with insights of upcoming activities.
If you have any queries regarding any of the content within this newsletter, please get in touch.
BT and Openreach Announce Extended Timeline for the Analogue to Digital Migration.
This month, BT and Openreach announced an extended timeline for the analogue to digital migration, whereby the existing analogue PSTN technology, which supports phone and broadband services, will be retired and replaced with a digital network.
As no pause or delay has been announced, the migration work by BT and Openreach will continue through this window. Therefore, it is necessary for Telecare Service Providers to continue their efforts to implement digital telecare services to stay ahead of the migration.
Due to the hard work of the Scottish sector, led by the Digital Office Digital Telecare Programme for the past five years, Scottish telecare is in a much higher state of digital readiness than the rest of the country. With the adoption of the Shared ARC Platform, we expect to see many more Telecare Service Providers fast-track their analogue to digital migration.
On Monday 13th of May, the Digital Office hosted a Shared ARC Platform Use Case Workshop in collaboration with Chubb and Skyresponse.
The aim of this initiative was to enhance data sharing efficiencies within the Scottish telecare delivery landscape by creating use cases that will optimise the benefits of the Shared ARC Platform.
South Lanarkshire and East Dunbartonshire Councils Join the Shared ARC Platform
We're delighted to share that South Lanarkshire Council and East Dunbartonshire Council, who also provide call handling for West Dunbartonshire Council, are the latest organisations to join the Shared ARC Platform.
Both organisations have now commenced onboarding and implementation activities for the Chubb and Sktyresponse Cloud Care Control System.
Angus HSCP Awarded Gold Level Two Digital Telecare Implementation Award.
We're happy to share that Angus HSCP has been awarded the Gold Two Digital Telecare Implementation Award!
Jillian Galloway, Chief Officer of Angus Health and Social Care Partnership, said: "This is a fantastic achievement, and I would like to thank the team for all their hard work to reach this milestone so quickly. Telecare supports people to live safely and independently in their own homes and we know how much people value this service. We continue to explore new opportunities for the role technology can play in supporting independence."
Our ongoing evaluation of telecare devices and services for the Assessed Solutions Scheme is progressing well. The aim of the Assessed Solutions Scheme is to support Telecare Service Providers in evaluating the cyber security risk associated with each supplier before integrating their equipment or service. This process was designed to reduce the burden on suppliers to provide this evidence to multiple customer organisations. The Assessed Solutions Scheme ensures that a consistent and best practice approach is taken to cyber security, enhancing the quality of care and support for service users in Scotland.
Considering the evolving changes in the telecare landscape and the new UK Product Security and Telecommunications Infrastructure Act 2022, we are revising our assessment process and questionnaire for the Assessed Solutions Scheme. These updates aim to simplify and clarify the application process for organisations who aspire to join the scheme. We believe these changes will make it easier for new candidates to navigate the requirements and contribute their solutions.
A heartfelt thank you goes out to our assessment panel members, who’s invaluable time and expertise have helped us to thoroughly assess these applications.
Stay tuned for more updates!
The Benefits of Telecare - Faster Discharge from Hospital.
We are looking for Telecare Service Providers to join us for a pilot project to evidence how telecare can enable faster discharge from hospital.
We are looking for volunteers to assist in a pilot gathering information on the average time an inpatient might wait for telecare to be arranged and installed before they are discharged from hospital.
Benefit Description
Having telecare services already at home will enable a faster discharge.
Giving someone a telecare service as part of their care package can enable them to be discharged more quickly.
Approach to measurement
Reduction in costs due to faster discharge from hospital = Average time an inpatient spends waiting for telecare to be installed prior to discharge X average cost of a hospital bed per day.
Associated Benefits: Wellbeing benefits of service users able to get back to their home sooner.
On Friday 24th May 2024, we held a Technicians Forum and had a good discussion on the key points below:
Tiered Approach to Telecare: Splitting Basic and Enhanced Users.
Decommissioning Warden Call Systems for Dispersed Alarm Units.
Using analogue alarms over digital lines.
Who has changed from STMF to DTMF.
DMPs/CMPs Managed in practice.
The members voted to hold the meeting quarterly and we are aiming for our next meeting to take place in August 2024.
We are keen to have as many Technicians, Stores Team members, Installers and Programmers as possible on these calls and we would be very grateful if you can pass this sign-up form on to your teams.
