News

As an approved supplier, telecare service providers can be reassured and confident about the cybersecurity management processes and systems in place.  The Digital Telecare Security Assessment Scheme has been developed to support telecare service providers, including local authorities and housing associations, to evaluate cybersecurity risks of suppliers more effectively before integrating with new supplier digital solutions. This involves suppliers undergoing an assessment on its cybersecurity management processes and for a penetration test to be completed.

Andy Grayland, Chief Information Security Officer, Digital Office for Scottish Local Authorities said: 

“The Scottish digital telecare security-assessed suppliers scheme reviewed a submission from The Safe Shoes Group for their Archangel® system. The assessment panel was very impressed with pre-existing security culture and standards within Safe Shores. Both this assessment scheme, and Safe Shore’s positive response to it, will help ensure that vulnerable telecare users across Scotland are protected against the threat posed by cyber criminals when using these services.” 

Scott Gilmer, Technical Systems Manager at The Safe Shores Group said: 

“Communicare247® continually champions cybersecurity and data protection throughout its products and services, so we are delighted to have been the first platform gateway to receive such positive feedback from the Scottish Local Government Digital Office and their acceptance into their Digital Telecare Security-Assessed Suppliers Scheme. 

“With Archangel® included in the scheme, our customers and partners are assured of the cyber integrity within Archangel® and telecare service providers can be confident in the security and reliability of our system to support and protect individuals living independently at home. Furthermore, the Archangel® security and resilience can help to mitigate risk in adoption of new product choices, and offer time and effort saving, for both telecare service providers and suppliers.” 

About Archangel®

Archangel® is an independent, open, scalable, service delivery platform which is designed to seamlessly integrate a wide range of third party vendor home and mobile equipment, combine multiple data sources, and deliver proactive and reactive monitoring and reporting systems used to care for, and protect, individuals while living independently at home. 

Archangel® delivers flexible services, to mitigate the individual’s risk, and enables service providers to create personal and customised telecare services catering to the needs of an individual. 

The Archangel® monitoring system helps individuals to live independently in their own homes for longer, and a growing range of shared data insight portals will deliver proactive care management and response tools.

About Communicare247

Communicare247 is a health and social care service provider which delivers connected care solutions. Using secure digital technology and monitoring services, we enable citizens to remain safe and independent in their own homes for longer. Cloud services and effective technology provide valuable reassurance for individuals receiving care and permits sharing of information with families and care providers. The service helps to support service commissioners in balancing their duty of care with practical efficiencies capable of meeting modern day audit and resource challenges.

The UK government has launched a new multi-million pound autism strategy to speed up diagnosis and improve support and care for autistic people. 

In the UK, it is estimated that around 700,000 people have a diagnosis of autism. Many people experience delays and long waiting times for diagnosis, followed by inadequate or ineffective support which can be a significant barrier to a child or young person’s development. Through this new strategy, steps will be taken to improve diagnosis, which is crucial to help people get the support they need, and improve society’s understanding of autism.

The 5-year strategy was developed following engagement with autistic people, their family and carers. It will support autistic children and adults through better access to education, more help to get into work, preventing avoidable admissions to healthcare settings, and training for prison staff to better support prisoners with complex needs.

Key takeaways from the Autism Strategy

The new Autism Strategy was developed with the views and experiences of autistic people provided in response to the government’s call for evidence in 2019. Running until 2026, the new strategy aims to: 

Help improve understanding and acceptance of autism within society

Adults and children with autism are often perceived differently by others, as behavioural expectations differ with age. There is a lot of stigma surrounding people with autism, who often feel forced into hiding their true selves. 

As part of the new strategy, the government aims to improve understanding and acceptance of autism within society by developing and testing an initiative to improve public understanding of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). This will be achieved by working with autistic people, their families and the voluntary sector to raise awareness of the strengths and positive traits of autism, including the challenges autistic people face in their daily lives. This new initiative aims to help people to recognise the diversity of the autistic community. 

Strengthen access to education and support for autistic people

In England, there are currently 646 state-funded or non-maintained schools approved to support ASD. As part of the new strategy, the government aims to improve testing by expanding a school-based identification programme based on a pilot in Bradford, which will expand from 10 schools to over 100 in the next three years.

By expanding this programme, more children will be diagnosed with autism earlier and will be able to access support sooner to support their development. 

Support for autistic people into employment 

Currently, 21.7% of adults with autism in the UK are in a form of paid employment. To help support more autistic people into employment, the Autism Strategy aims to improve the accessibility of job centres for autistic people to help them get the best help to find jobs or employment programmes. 

Tackle health and care inequalities  

Since 2018, there has been a nationwide rise in demand for autism assessments. In quarter two of 2020/2021, there were 9,868 referrals for suspected autism of which 15% had their first care contact within 13 weeks of referral. As part of the new Autism Strategy, £13 million of funding is to be used to reduce diagnosis waiting times and increase availability of post-diagnostic support for children and adults, addressing backlogs of people waiting made worse by the Covid-19 pandemic. 

Building the right support in the community 

To help build the right support in the community and to support people in inpatient care, the Autism Strategy will provide £40m funding as part of the NHS Long Term Plan to improve community support and to help prevent avoidable admissions of autistic people and those with learning disability. £18.5m is also to be used to help prevent crises and improve the quality of inpatient mental health settings. 

Improve support within criminal and youth justice systems

Prison holds particular dangers for people with autism, who are prone to anxiety, inflexible thinking and sudden outbursts, traits likely to provoke others who don’t understand, including prison guards, criminal justice workers and other inmates. 

To help improve support for autistic people within criminal and youth justice systems, the Autism Strategy will seek to develop a toolkit to educate frontline staff about neurodiversity, as well as introduce further support that people may need. 

The new Autism Strategy has the potential to impact the lives of hundreds of thousand of autistic people and their families and for the first time, includes steps to support children and young people. We hope to see the strategy unfold positively over the next few years, with local councils and NHS bodies across England reviewing their local services to implement the new strategy. 

If you would like to find out more about the strategy, click here. 

About Communicare247

Communicare247 is a health and social care service provider which delivers connected care solutions. Using secure digital technology and monitoring services, we enable citizens to remain safe and independent in their own homes for longer. Cloud services and effective technology provide valuable reassurance for individuals receiving care and permits sharing of information with families and care providers. The service helps to support service commissioners in balancing their duty of care with practical efficiencies capable of meeting modern day audit and resource challenges.

Communicare247 is delighted to welcome Paul Nelson in the role of Business Development Manager. 

Paul is a respected industry professional, having been engaged with the Telecare & Telehealth sector since 2013, and who has held senior positions with leading security, personal safety, and assistive technology organisations including Chubb and most recently, with Doro. He will be responsible for spearheading growth in the awareness and sales of our connected care cloud system, Archangel®, plus our advanced and integrated independent living solutions, and for building long-term, successful relationships and partnerships.

Paul said “I am delighted to be joining Communicare247 where we enable our customers to make proactive, informed decisions to predict the support needed for people to live independently in their own homes for longer.

“Our capacity to achieve this is via our cloud care system, Archangel® is second to none since Archangel® enables interoperability and advanced care service delivery. This means that Communicare247 really is delivering on the vision for future telecare services, and it is leading the industry transition from analogue to digital systems.” 

“I am so excited to join at this time, the opportunities to make a real difference to many people’s lives are truly exceptional!”

Speaking of the appointment, Communicare247 CEO Tom Morton said: 

“Paul’s appointment is a significant leap forward for Communicare247. The analogue to digital telecare challenge and a massive human resource pressure is currently impacting our health, social care, and housing sectors. So, it is extremely important for us to recruit quality people who understand these customer challenges, and will help us to communicate the significant value and benefits of Archangel®. Paul will demonstrate it’s shared cloud systems and data insights, showcase its resilient infrastructure, and work collaboratively with our healthcare, social care and housing customers to optimise their device and software investment decisions.” 

“Paul’s significant industry experience and insights in the telecare and telehealth sector provides him with a thorough understanding of the innovations and trends shaping the industry. He joins our growing team with in-depth knowledge that will help us to create sustainable growth for the future and to establish Communicare247 as the leader in cloud-based assistive technology solutions.” 

About Communicare247

Communicare247 is a health and social care service provider which delivers connected care solutions. Using secure digital technology and monitoring services, we enable citizens to remain safe and independent in their own homes for longer. Cloud services and effective technology provide valuable reassurance for individuals receiving care and permits sharing of information with families and care providers. The service helps to support service commissioners in balancing their duty of care with practical efficiencies capable of meeting modern day audit and resource challenges.

Communicare247 (C247) is delighted to join TEC Quality’s Trailblazer Supplier Programme, a new program designed to support organisations currently completing the TSA’s Quality Standards Framework (QSF) to become an approved supplier of Technology Enabled Care (TEC).

Going through this extensive audit process to achieve the QSF will see Communicare247 complete 10 core modules and 4 service delivery modules, showcasing evidence of how a range of standards are delivered within C247’s TEC service. This includes showcasing how C247 manages user and carer experience, service safety, information governance and business continuity, as well as service delivery covering TEC monitoring, telehealth monitoring and response services. 

Joining this new programme will allow C247 to expand its existing set of quality standards, which include ISO9001, ISO27001, BS5979, BS7858 and Cyber Essentials Plus to name a few. Built on collaboration, The Trailblazer Supplier Programme enables C247 to engage with other partners in the industry to learn, share lessons, collaborate and strive for shared excellence in the sector to deliver quality products and services for 1.5 million telecare users in the UK. 

Speaking of joining the programme, Communicare247 CEO Tom Morton said: 

“At Communicare247, we continually invest in the quality of our people, systems and processes and comply with the latest industry standards to ensure our customers have complete confidence in the quality of our service. We pride ourselves on our ability to deliver continuous improvement and collaboration, something the Trailblazer Programme helps to facilitate.” 

Helen Rudkin, Quality Manager at TEC Quality said: 

“TEC Quality’s Trailblazer Programme represents an evolution in the progression of the TEC sector, and I am delighted to have on board some of the industry’s most progressive supplier organisations to help drive innovation and standards based on the principles of quality, safety and continuous improvement to better the lives of people within their communities.”

To find out more about the TEC Quality Trailblazer Supplier Programme, click here. 

About Communicare247

Communicare247 is a health and social care service provider which delivers connected care solutions. Using secure digital technology and monitoring services, we enable citizens to remain safe and independent in their own homes for longer. Cloud services and effective technology provide valuable reassurance for individuals receiving care and permits sharing of information with families and care providers. The service helps to support service commissioners in balancing their duty of care with practical efficiencies capable of meeting modern day audit and resource challenges.

Communicare247 is delighted to announce that we have been shortlisted for the Industry Collaboration Award at this year’s Holyrood Connect’s Digital Health and Care Awards 2021.

The awards ceremony will bring together health and care organisations, collaborators andstakeholders, to celebrate success and highlight the best examples of digital innovation within Scotland’s health and social care sector. 

Communicare247 has been shortlisted for the Industry Collaboration Award, which highlights the innovative partnerships between the public and private sector and celebrates successful digital transformation projects which work to deliver positive outcomes for citizens. 

With ongoing collaboration with Glasgow Health and Social Care Partnership as part of the Can Do Project, where Communicare247 won funding of over £130k, and other partners across health and social care, Communicare247 has been recognised for our work for developing Project Liberty. 

Project Liberty is a pioneering assisted living telecare system that incorporates consumer devices such as voice activated speakers, smart phones and other smart wearables, sensors and location technologies within a digital monitoring and response platform. Project Liberty has been developed as an ideal solution to allow some of the most vulnerable people across the UK to live independently at home, whilst providing a robust, cost-effective and insightful telecare solution for care providers that can help assess and predict the care needs of citizens. 

Speaking of the announcement, Chief Executive Tom Morton, said: 

“I am absolutely delighted that Communicare247 is being recognised for its ongoing collaboration with service end-users and key partners across the industry.

“Project Liberty has made it clear that partnerships and ongoing collaboration with stakeholders is vital to achieve industry growth, for wider scale transformation, and to encourage innovation in health and social care services, especially in a time where connected systems, remote monitoring, and access to data is more important than ever.”

This year’s Digital Health and Care Awards will take place virtually on February 26th and will celebrate achievements over six award categories. Full details of the awards can be found here. 

About Communicare247

Communicare247 is a health and social care service provider which delivers connected care solutions. Using secure digital technology and monitoring services, we enable citizens to remain safe and independent in their own homes for longer. Cloud services and effective technology provide valuable reassurance for individuals receiving care and permits sharing of information with families and care providers. The service helps to support service commissioners in balancing their duty of care with practical efficiencies capable of meeting modern day audit and resource challenges.

Assistive care technology specialist Communicare247 is on track to deliver a first-of-its-kind digital home care system in Glasgow. 

Communicare247 has won funding worth over £130,000 to support the next phase of development of Project Liberty, a new system which will enable the UK’s most vulnerable people to live independently in their own homes and communities for longer.

The pioneering digital telecare system incorporates consumer devices such as voice-activated speakers, smart phones and other smart wearables, sensors and location technologies through a novel monitoring system that can integrate with existing telecare home care alarms. 

The project will connect with Scotland’s world-leading long range wide area network (LoRaWAN), which enables devices to collect and send data without the need for 3G, 4G or Wi-Fi. The IoT Scotland wireless sensor network is designed to support full use of internet of things (IoT) devices, including sensor applications deployed in Communicare247’s Liberty home care system.

The Liberty project is expected to be complete in the third quarter of 2021 and will provide a scalable digital telecare system that could be deployed by local authorities, housing associations and care providers across the UK.

The support for Project Liberty comes via the £9.2million Can Do Innovation Challenge Fund which announced funding for a number of public sector-led innovation schemes in Scotland. Project Liberty is part of Glasgow City Council’s “Technology enabled Glasgow” challenge, uniting project leader Communicare247 with partners and stakeholders including the Glasgow Health and Social Care Partnership and the Health and Social Care Alliance Scotland (the Alliance).

The funding will be used to support the second phase of development which will deploy and test the system with citizens living independently with a variety of complex care needs, including Alzheimer’s disease. The first phase commenced in January 2019.

Tom Morton, Chief Executive of Communicare247, said: “Project Liberty will design and deliver the ideal solution to allow some of the most vulnerable people in Scotland to live independently within their own home with reduced reliance on publicly-funded care interventions. 

“A telecare system that uses Alexa and smart watches is a game changer. We are integrating common and easy to use consumer products along with IoT sensors and innovative telehealth monitoring in an existing data-led system that reports to carers, family members and emergency services as required.

“Currently, across the UK, there is an estimated 4milllion elderly and shielding people who rely on analogue telecare systems to help keep them safe. Most of these systems are at risk of becoming obsolete due to the telephone network switch from analogue to digital. This gives the UK an unprecedented opportunity to adopt a leading digital-enabled assisted living care which will be delivered through Project Liberty.

“Together the partners behind Project Liberty are leading the way in developing integrated solutions to worldwide challenges in ageing populations and I’d like to thank them for their support and vision.”

Michael Gillespie, Principal Officer, Glasgow HSCP said: “Communicare247 were selected by Glasgow HSCP/ City Council from a competitive field of over 40 SMEs in Phase 1 of the Scottish Enterprise-sponsored Can Do challenge. Their proposed integrated digital solutions will help us meet the challenge of transitioning telecare services from analogue to digital. This carries the potential to empower users to self-manage and maintain independence at home using familiar technologies.

“To date our private/public sector partnership work with them has been productive. Subsequently we have selected Communicare247 to develop further their product in Phase 2 of the Challenge as their innovative solution is highly valued. 

“The supply of telecare is a relatively narrow marketplace characterised by relatively one-dimensional options. Communicare247’s forward thinking approach provides the potential for using a wider range of peripherals within a stable and effective platform which we hope will facilitate delivery of more user-friendly technology-enabled care services.”

Click here to find out more about Project Liberty. 

About Communicare247

Communicare247 is a health and social care service provider which delivers connected care solutions. Using secure digital technology and monitoring services, we enable citizens to remain safe and independent in their own homes for longer. Cloud services and effective technology provide valuable reassurance for individuals receiving care and permits sharing of information with families and care providers. The service helps to support service commissioners in balancing their duty of care with practical efficiencies capable of meeting modern day audit and resource challenges.

Tom Morton, Chief Executive of assisted living technology specialist Communicare247, welcomed the publication of the National Briefing Document by Digital Telecare for Scottish Local Government highlighting the urgent need to upgrade telecare systems supporting over 180,000 elderly and vulnerable citizens in Scotland.

He said: “This report is a game changer. It nails on the head the issues facing telecare providers such as local authorities and housing associations and their vulnerable clients.

“We became aware that the telecare systems used across Scotland risked becoming obsolete as soon as the decision was taken to switch the national telephony network from analogue to digital in 2016. This process has now been speeded up and will be complete by 2023. The warning is stark that without intervention, call failures will continue to rise because analogue equipment can’t operate safely or reliably over digital telephone lines.

“Now is certainly the time for the publication of this document, which provides an essential routemap towards ensuring telecare is both safe and robust for the increasing number of people who rely on it.

“The report highlights that there will be a need for investment, but it also confirms that care providers now have an unprecedented opportunity to deploy a transformational transition to digitally-enabled assisted living. This includes a range of voice and sensor-enabled devices that could never be used in analogue systems. Other benefits include quality and reliability, more choices and improved experience for citizens with services tailored to their needs, the power of data-driven services and overall resilience for both the user, care providers and alarm receiving centres (ARCs). 

“Scotland is a leader in developing integrated solutions to worldwide challenges in ageing populations. The future of social care is reliant on telecare systems that offer both reduced costs but also improved outcomes and applications that mean people can live independently for longer in their own homes.

Click here to read the National Briefing Document: Transitioning from analogue to digital. 

About Communicare247

Communicare247 is a health and social care service provider which delivers connected care solutions. Using secure digital technology and monitoring services, we enable citizens to remain safe and independent in their own homes for longer. Cloud services and effective technology provide valuable reassurance for individuals receiving care and permits sharing of information with families and care providers. The service helps to support service commissioners in balancing their duty of care with practical efficiencies capable of meeting modern day audit and resource challenges.

The model for delivering supported living is undergoing revolutionary change. New assistive technology is set to fundamentally transform how we live with age, disability and infirmity. The need for this support has been further accelerated under restrictions imposed in the Covid19 pandemic. Care providers in the UK also face a race against time as existing telecare services risk being made obsolete by the digitalisation of the telephone network. 

To meet these challenges, Communicare247 has developed Liberty, an advanced care-at-home system that integrates digital assistive technology, telecare and Internet of Things (IoT) products including voice-enabled smart speakers. Currently in the final development stages with local authority and technology partners, Liberty is the vanguard of remote smart technology solutions that improve the physical and mental wellbeing of people with assisted living needs and helps keep them connected to carers and their community. 

Tom Morton, CEO of Communicare247, said:

“The COVID-19 pandemic and social distancing measures have quickly and significantly changed how carers can interact with people who need at-home assistance. The pandemic also exposed significant weakness in the current monitoring centres ability to support remote working, and people who were required to shield effectively doubled the existing service demand capacity pushing the provision of home care service and remote monitoring systems to its limits.

“Scotland is a leader in developing integrated solutions to worldwide challenges in ageing populations. Health and social care service providers are acutely aware of the need to adopt more flexible digital services in order to better manage our citizens’ health and wellbeing needs.”

Currently, across the UK, there is an estimated 4m+ elderly and shielding people who rely on analogue telecare systems to help keep them safe. This means care providers now have an unprecedented opportunity to adopt leading digital-enabled assisted living care.

Tom added: “The planned analogue to digital switchover, now brought forward to 2023, is creating significant pressures for care service providers who have even less time to effect the changes required to prevent rising analogue call failures.

“Communicare247, delivering a pedigree in providing digital systems to over 20,000 individuals since 1998, is at the forefront of this changing digital landscape and it is ready to help the industry today. We are proud to launch an exciting range of digital health and wellbeing services using innovative IoT and mobile technologies.

“This is not just about new gadgets or better buttons. Communicare247 solutions place better outcomes as the first design principle. Independence and empowerment lie at the heart of every solution we offer while also meeting the challenging productivity and efficiency needs of service commissioners and providers.”

Care providers such as local authorities, social care commissioners and private sector partners are invited to register their interest in Liberty which will be launched to commercial users Q1 2021.

Care users can also now choose from Communicare247’s Heritage Range, which offers digital versions of the familiar telecare alarm units designed to support independence at home. In addition, the Freedom Range uses innovative mobile phone and GPS systems that support reablement, social inclusion and freedom to roam in the wider community safely. 

All three ranges are supported by Archangel, Communicare247’s open API, cloud-based connected care platform. This connects any IoT or mobile device, providing holistic data views to carers and healthcare professionals. The data enables accurate assessment and can help to predict future care needs, which is key to people being able to remain independent and safe at home for longer.

About Communicare247

Communicare247 is a health and social care service provider which delivers connected care solutions. Using secure digital technology and monitoring services, we enable citizens to remain safe and independent in their own homes for longer. Cloud services and effective technology provide valuable reassurance for individuals receiving care and permits sharing of information with families and care providers. The service helps to support service commissioners in balancing their duty of care with practical efficiencies capable of meeting modern day audit and resource challenges.