Supplementary evidence by Tunstall Group
Ltd
BACKGROUND
1. Following the oral evidence given by
Steve Sadler, Technical Director, Tunstall Group, at the sub-committee
meeting on 8 March 2005, this supplementary submission is being
sent at the suggestion of the sub-committee to emphasise two key
points referred to in the meeting which we feel are worthy of
further clarification. The two points concerned relate to:
— New evidence from the West Lothian
Council telecare project.
— The need to ensure that new funding
allocated to telecare in the 2004 Comprehensive Spending Review
(£80 million over two years commencing April 2006) is spent
as intended, so as to generate further evidence of the efficiency
and effectiveness of telecare and to encourage mainstream deployment.
NEW EVIDENCE
FROM THE
WEST LOTHIAN
COUNCIL TELECARE
PROJECT
2. During his oral evidence Steve Sadler
referred to the West Lothian Council Home Safety Service, where
telecare equipment has been installed in 1,700 homes with residents
aged 60 or over. This is to be further increased to 4,000 homes,
with the long-term target to install similar equipment in all
10,000 homes in West Lothian with residents aged 60 or over. An
academic audit study identified that over 3,000 hospital bed nights
per annum were avoided through the use of this service at the
point where there were 1,200 service users.
3. The cost of this West Lothian Home Safety
Service is of the order of £250 per annum including telecare
equipment, monitoring and response. Where home care services are
also required (average 10 hours per week) then costs of £7,000
pa are typical. These care models compare favourably with the
cost of residential care of £22,000 pa, whilst delivering
choice and independence. There is preliminary evidence from West
Lothian Council that up to 10 per cent of the clients using the
Home Safety package would otherwise have entered residential care.
4. The West Lothian project is being independently
evaluated by the University of Stirling. Their most recent report
dated February 2005 concludes that the telecare technology has
been well received by service users and informal carers. The findings
suggest that independence and choice for older people are clearly
supported.
NEW FUNDING
FOR TELECARE
5. In the 2004 Comprehensive Spending Review
the Chancellor announced new funding for telecare totalling £80
million over the two years commencing April 2006 to "keep
up to 160,000 older people healthy, safe and independent in their
own homes". This will be split as to £30 million in
2006-07 and £50 million in 2007-08, and is to be distributed
to the 150 Councils with Social Services Responsibilities in England.
The money is intended to be spent on telecare but is not ringfenced
as such.
6. There must be a possibility therefore
that, given the pressures on local authorities, the badged funding
may not be spent as intended but diverted into other priorities.
It is to be hoped therefore that the Government will do everything
possible, through audit processes and other means, to ensure that
the new funding is invested in the incremental provision of telecare
as clearly intended by the Chancellor's statement. In this way
further hard evidence can be collected about the efficacy and
value for money of telecare to encourage mainstream deployment
by Social Services and Primary Care Trusts. The aim must be for
telecare to become a mainstream solution not reliant on pump priming
funds.
RECOMMENDATION
7. Central Government should issue strong
direction to Councils with Social Services Responsibilities in
England to ensure that the new money allocated for telecare in
the 2004 Comprehensive Spending Review should be spent as intended
and not diverted by local authorities into other priorities.
March 2005
| 
