Everon UK’s Sales Director Mark Smith will be attending the Chartered Institute of Housing’s Northern Housing Festival in Durham next week to discuss the exciting developments in Wireless based intelligent cloud-based solutions for grouped and supported housing. In this piece, Mark outlines why events like this are vital for delegates working on digital transformation and sustainability strategies to future proof a scalable digital only approach to services.
Housing professionals go to events like the Northern Housing Festival in Durham for all kinds of reasons with expert sessions and exhibitors like us providing them with emerging good practice, knowledge and inspiration through like-minded housing partnerships that they can apply to their service area – or the wider organisation to power change.
It’s clearly a key priority for those commissioning grouped or supported housing services - from housing associations to care home networks - across the UK to have more housing flexibility than ever before. Supporting this, many housing providers are in the process of making investment decisions for the digital transformation of their resident services. With the deadline for the great analogue switch off – or digital switch on less than two years away, this process is crucial to future proofing services.
The Northern Housing Festival, organised by the Chartered Institute for Housing and taking place this year on Monday, 8 October, will have a focus on digital transformation for grouped and supported housing and we’re delighted to be joining the event to demonstrate why the future lies with wireless cloud-based solutions and the data, trend and insight it can provide.
We’re leading the move away from traditional island solutions to a truly digitally connected approach that support every stage of the care journey. Wireless cloud-based solutions will future proof your digital transformation strategies and ensure improved service delivery and outcomes for the most vulnerable in our society and offering greater re-assurance to their families too.
Our partner housing associations like Clarion Housing have already seen the benefits of using our solutions which uses data, trends and machine learning analysis to support care services across its sites – improving levels of care, increasing efficiency and cost savings for the long term.
Housing can be the foundation for social and community health joint plans with an eye on reducing hospital admissions through a more pro-active approach that the latest intelligent digital and the sharing of solutions allow. Systems like Everon’s Lyra eco-system have an important role to play in the new government’s push to reduce pressures on the NHS and the wider health and social care system by taking a less reactive approach. Prevention is the cure.
Everon UK can support your supported housing digital transformation journey with a focus on working collaboratively in partnership focused on improved service delivery that will benefit both your organisation and those people in your care.
We provide housing solutions of today that can support you in delivering the social and community healthcare services of tomorrow. The key to success is flexibility with solutions that are interoperable, compliant, visionary and offer a truly connected approach to data, trend and analysis.
Going to the CIH Northern Housing Festival in Durham? Come and find us at Stand Number One and discover how we can help your digital transformation journey.
Everon is a leading UK and European provider of cloud-based, wireless digital solutions for assisted living, supporting housing associations and healthcare providers across the UK, Finland and Sweden.
Want to know more? Contact our UK Sales Director Mark Smith – mark.smith@everon.net or book a consultation online and we’ll be in touch.
Everon has welcomed a government letter issued to technology enabled care suppliers across the UK reminding them to stop selling analogue only devices as we head towards a digital only future.
In a joint notice the Minsters of State at the Department of Health and Social Care, and the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology raise concerns that some analogue only devices are still available to buy despite the risk of being incompatible with digital lines.
It also re-iterates the Government’s expectation that all analogue models, known to still be in use by telecare service users, should be tested to ensure their reliability when operating over a digital telephone line and the results published.
With the digital telephone switchover set for 2027 time is not on the side of commissioners or suppliers alike. However, it’s important that service providers avoid relying on quick fixes that may prove be more costly in the long term.
Peter Kerly, Managing Director, Everon UK, said: “We welcome this important intervention by ministers and look forward to further guidelines from the TEC Services Association (TSA), the independent advisory body for the technology enabled care (TEC) sector.
“The safety of service users regarding the design and deployment of assisted living solutions has always been of paramount important to us as a company.
“Commercial opportunities must be a second thought in the mind of any supplier, especially for those promoting sticking plaster solutions focused more on cost than public safety.
“Analogue to digital converters is a case in point, which should not be considered as part of any strategic plan for investment in systems over the next 10-15 years. As the government letter points out, it is a known risk that some analogue telecare devices may not be digitally compatible or reform as reliably on digital networks.”
“Everon’s solutions are totally end-to-end digital, present no risk to service users and are compatible with alarm receiving centres. It’s important that commissioners, operating in the assisted living space begin to plan their upgrades now, if they haven’t already – and to put service user safety first.
“There are various finance options available with extended warranties that will ease the financial cost and allow for investment in systems that are will be fully compatible and provide the highest level of safety that service users should expect.”
Everon is a leading UK and European provider of digital solutions for assisted living, Make us part of your digital transformation journey. To talk about the digital solutions and service we can provide contact our Sales Director Mark Smith - mark.smith@everon.net or visit our website to book a consultation: https://everon.net/contact-support/
See the letter to telecare suppliers here
So what to make of the report into the NHS by Lord Darzi?
For those of you commissioning services or deciding on major investment for your health trust, housing association or care organisation, will any of it have come as a surprise?
The challenge now is making the right decisions in the knowledge that no additional government money is coming to boost services or delivery, within the NHS at least – without strings being attached.
At Everon UK we believe that the UK health and social care sector must embrace technology enabled care if we are to fix the challenges facing health and social care in this country.
Earlier this month we shared a blog post asking if data led behavioural monitoring technology – the cutting edge of technology enabled care - could be the answer to the challenges of caring for an ageing population.
Speaking in the House of Commons, Health and Social Care Secretary Wes Streeting said it was now “over to us to write the prescription.” That’s great to hear. We hope he listens far and wide for the right treatment.
We say the prescription requires not being afraid of embracing proven technologies that can support early discharges from hospital, or even prevent the need for them to need emergency care in the first place.
The UK has an increasing ageing population and that’s growing over time. People are living longer with disabilities or life limiting and chronic illnesses.
These, as Lord Darzi’s report illustrates, are pushing health and social care providers to the brink. They simply do not have the resources to meet demand. Using the latest health tech for assisted living should be part of the response to flattening the curve of cost and demand, and making finite resources stretch further.
We know it can be done. We know the difference the new generation of AI and machine learning monitoring technology can make because we’re delivering these solutions at Everon already.
Peter Kerly, Managing Director, Everon UK, said:
“The Prime Minister today said the NHS is broken with no extra funding without reform. The government’s prescription for the changes required must include technology enabled care as part of the solution, embracing the potential of AI and machine learning. These innovations are already proving their worth in reducing costs and increasing capacity across the UK’s social care and healthcare system.
“Everon UK and our strategic partners are pioneering proactive technology in assistive care with the capability to quickly detect shifts in behaviour that may indicate emerging health concerns. These preventative approaches are key not only for the future of our health service, but for improving the quality of life for those most in need.”
Everon UK are sponsoring and attending Innovative Horizons: Shaping the Future of TEC at the King’s House Conference Centre in Manchester from 9am until 3.20pm on Wednesday, 25 September.
The one-day TSA members event promises to be a dynamic day of insights, discussions and networking opportunities. Our new UK Sales Director, Mark Smith will be there. To find out how we can transform your service delivery, email: mark.smith@everon.net
On the election trail the new Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Wes Streeting said the new government would be honest about the challenges facing the UK and serious about tackling them.
Less than two months on from election day and it all feels depressingly familiar when it comes to the changes to both mindset and delivery that are urgently required when it comes to social care. It’s not just the NHS that is broken.
Instead, having listened to the Prime Minister’s recent Downing Street speech, it feels like we’re about to make the same mistakes with all the signs being that the new administration is going to kick any reforms back into the long grass.
It doesn’t have to be that way. Businesses like ours operating in the technology enabled care space in the UK are ready to deliver on the kind of innovative solutions that will help support the wider health and care system.
By working more closely with - and listening to - the private sector the government can achieve its ambitions of reducing hospital stays and spiralling costs for care home and emergency admissions. The Secretary of State has said he is intending to do just that. He has a busy in-tray but we’re ready to have that conversation.
Peter Kerly, Managing Director, Everon UK, says: “It’s undoubtedly a prickly nettle to grasp but unless action to change the UK’s approach, it risks destabilising much more than our health and social care system alone.
“This government is clearly not afraid of tackling thorny issues, so I would urge them to grab this nettle, get all the heads around the table to look at the issues holistically and find a pathway that works.
Report showcases TEC impact
Monitoring technology to support assisted independent living has the capacity to make a vital contribution to fixing the funding crisis affecting health and social care providers across the UK. We’ve known that for a long while and the data is starting to back that up.
A new industry report published this month suggests the NHS could save more than £1.2 billion through widespread use of non-intrusive lifestyle monitoring technology, including supporting early discharges from hospital.
Clearly, we have a vested interest in that success as a health tech business, but the results based on data from local councils that have embraced technology enabled care and responded to this research is particularly compelling.
The report concludes town halls across the UK responsible for social care could save £3bn by 2035 if they adopted proactive monitoring technology now.
This would give more people the option to live independently at home for longer and prevent thousands from entering more expensive care settings.
Responding to the report, Peter Kerly added, “The evidence is there as this report from a business that shares our passion for data driven, technology-enabled care reveals. A preventative-model of care that isn’t afraid of utilising proven technologies needs to be embraced and soon.”
Data backed solutions are the future for care
At Everon, we support health commissioners, housing associations and other care providers across the public and private sector with digital, data driven solutions that can make this happen.
Increasingly that is no longer a pendant that needs to be pressed to raise the alarm but technologies that can detect changes in behaviour and warn both families and care providers of health issues that may be emerging.
At the end of March, we announced a strategic partnership with Howz alongside Develco Products, IRIS-IoT and Cair to power the next generation of intelligent technology solutions for the health, housing and social care sectors.
That collaboration is already having an impact, and with growing interest from customers. As we get closer to digital switchover in 2027, by which time all analogue systems in the UK will need to be replaced, we expect that momentum to grow. Investment decisions will be required sooner rather than later.
That investment should include the kind of technologies that we are delivering with Howz. Using unobtrusive sensors around the home, and linked to an app and data analysis portal, this system uses intelligent AI machine learning to keep people safe, families reassured, and care providers informed.
Through work with NHS Trusts and local authorities Howz has shown just how effective these behaviour-led technologies can be in supporting a preventative model of care – delivering a 32 per cent reduction in ambulance call outs and a 23 per cent fall in hospital admissions.
Kate Fairhurst, Managing Director, Howz, says: "Howz are pioneering proactive technology in assistive care, designed to build a comprehensive picture of daily life and quickly detect shifts in behaviour that may indicate emerging health concerns.
“Our collaboration with Everon UK is bringing the future of assisted living into the present, offering providers cutting-edge insights that support timely interventions.
“With the rapid adoption of Howz proactive monitoring across health and social care, fuelled by the increasing need for early detection, Howz and Everon are at the forefront of this transformation.
“By integrating Everon’s devices with Howz’s machine learning and pattern detection capabilities, our clients gain the ability to spot issues early, ensuring that care is delivered before problems escalate—ultimately improving the quality of life for those in need."
Everon UK are sponsoring and attending Innovative Horizons: Shaping the Future of TEC at the King’s House Conference Centre in Manchester from 9am until 3.30pm on Wednesday, 25 September.
The one-day TSA members event promises to be a dynamic day of insights, discussions and networking opportunities. If you’re interested in the potential and delivery of technology enabled care, this event organised by the TSA is for you.
To find out more about this free event, including registering your attendance, click here
