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A British company founded in 2004
Places for People approve of ‘morning calls’ modern alternative.
Places for People one of the UK’s largest housing providers, with over 62,000 properties, has evaluated Safety Confirmation from Alertacall and approved using it for daily checks at sheltered accommodation schemes instead of ‘morning calls’. Claims it can also recover Support Officer time are also confirmed as realistic.
Places for People has always recognised that regular daily checks on customers in sheltered accommodation can save lives by preventing people from being left alone if incapacitated. They also give customers an opportunity to request support if required.
However the current practice of morning calls is considered an activity that is ripe for updating for the 21st century given that it is time consuming, labour intensive and often inconvenient to some customers.
To determine if it is possible to recover Support Officer time whilst checking on customers every single day - including weekends and times when Support Officers are on leave - Places for People embarked on 4 month trial of Safety Confirmation from Alertacall; 164 customers across multiple regions and schemes participated in the trials.
Safety Confirmation is a system whereby customers can press an ‘I am okay’ button each day at a time of their choosing to confirm they are safe and in doing so opt out of their morning call. It takes less than 2 seconds for a customer to press their ‘I am okay’ button and the exact time they have done so is recorded.
Places for People is pleased to announce the evaluation of Safety Confirmation has been a success and recommends other sheltered housing providers evaluate the service to determine if it meets their needs. Safety Confirmation demonstrated a 99% reduction in the workload associated with traditional morning calls recovering a significant amount of Support Officer time for other work.
Daily checks every day of the year are also considered to be an added benefit by many families who are evaluating options for family members and housing providers recognise how this added value gives them an edge in comparison with their peers.
A majority of sheltered customers who used Safety Confirmation in the trials stated that Safety Confirmation was significant improvement over ‘morning calls’. This enthusiasm for the service was also demonstrated by the fact that Safety Confirmation attracted more service users than traditional morning calls at all schemes.
At least one of the Places for People regions is so pleased with the outcome of the Safety Confirmation trials and customer feedback that it is now working to adopt the system across all of its sheltered schemes across the region as soon as possible.
John McKelvey, Operations Manager of Individual Support at Places for People said:
“Safety Confirmation has delivered on its claims and the discovery of the service is potentially very important as we strive to increase support to customers at a time of increasing funding pressures. Feedback has been very positive from most customers and it really does help recover a lot of Support Officer’s time, which allows us to spend more time on supporting customers.”
Key facts:
- Customer presses an ‘I am okay’ button to confirm they are safe before an agreed time and in doing so opts out of their ‘morning call’.
- Reduces workload associated with traditional morning calls by 99% which allows Support Officers to spend more time supporting customers.
- High levels of customer satisfaction reported in trials with 164 people.
- Safety Confirmation is a telecare service that operates 365 days a year.
- Places for People approved the use of Safety Confirmation
Alertacall was founded in 2004 and is a company that specialises in Safety Confirmation and similar processes to confirm the safety of people who live independently.
Places for People is one of the UK’s largest housing associations. It provides support to over 8,000 older and disabled people and manages over 62,000 properties.
For further information please contact:
James Batchelor, Chief Executive, Alertacall
Click here to contact Alertacall Telephone 0808 156 5779
Web site www.alertacall.com
Tahir Idris, Telecare Project Manager, Places for People
Telephone 01772 897499
Web site www.placesforpeople.co.uk