A UK report on the role of the property sector in improving health caught our attention recently. Produced by the UCL Institute of Health Equity it provided a clear case for the importance of designing environments that promote independence, prevent illness and support people to age well. As a technology enabled care company with operations in the UK, Finland and Sweden, this report resonated with us, highlighting the broader picture of the challenges faced by those in society who need help the most.
We live at a time when inequalities in health have widened, and the NHS is under strain with not enough social and affordable homes being built. For those of us supporting health and social care delivery, we can also see the real challenges staff are facing in continuing to deliver the highest quality standards of care despite limited budgets and a shortage of skilled staff.
This report came out just at the time that the UK government was announcing proposals to streamline the planning system and a new commission to reform adult social care in England. It’s an added driver for action alongside the adoption of the latest data led technology in the solutions required for the future way forward.
Build in technology for safer homes
There’s a real opportunity with future housing design to not only make homes warmer and sustainable but to build in digital technologies that can make them safer too, leading to improvements in health and wellbeing for residents. Developers are already expected to contribute to the costs of local NHS provision. Could this be extended to technology enabled care (TEC) as part of the drive for a more prevention led model of care?
The next generation of TEC will provide housing associations and commissioners of services in other care settings with the data, trends and insights to meet the needs of future residents. This is where investment has the potential to reduce the cost of expensive hospital admissions, for example.
At Everon Group, we already provide intelligent data powered systems that are allowing care providers to be more efficient so that they can focus on tasks that matter, including supporting people most in need of care. We are developing products that embrace AI and machine learning that will allow more people to be independent for longer. Across the three countries in which we operate – Finland, Sweden and the UK, we’re already seeing an impact. Just imagine the potential if this technology was introduced into new build housing design from the start?
Everon Group works directly in the UK with commissioners of grouped or supported housing services – from housing associations to care home networks, local authorities to integrated care boards.
We specialise in cloud-based wireless technology that analyses data to provide insight for early detection of health issues. Everon Group has supported the likes of Clarion Housing, Hyde Housing, Community Housing and Jewish Care, working in continued partnership on the digital transformation of their estates.
To find out more about how Everon Group can support your organisation book a consultation and we’ll be in touch.
It’s just over a year to go until communication providers replace the technology they use to provide fixed telephone networks in the UK. The analogue landline network has provided a vital lifeline for millions of people using personal alarm pendants or buttons for reassurance at time of need.
The switch to digital is set for January 2027. It is focusing the minds of those working in adult social care settings who are still reliant on legacy analogue systems for these telecare devices. The clock is ticking. So how ready are housing associations, care homes and other grouped care settings for the necessary upgrades and investment that will be required?
This article highlights the experience of Clarion Housing, which Everon Group has supported with its digital transformation, and of our colleagues in Finland and Sweden. These are countries which switched off analogue more than a decade ago. It also explains why investing in systems that capture data, trend and insight are the future for person-centred technology enabled care.
Supporting housing associations to go digital
Our partners in the UK such as Clarion Housing, one of the country’s largest housing associations, are well advanced in being digital ready. They manage 125,000 homes and support 350,000 people across the country. We continue to support them with phase one of digital transformation, a cable-free system with central data portal at its heart that is no longer reliant on hard wired cabling or analogue telephone lines. This supports their strategy for a true connected approach to services, using data, trend and insight and is already making a difference to over 7,000 residents.
From conversations with supported housing providers at industry events such as the International Technology Enabled Care Conference (ITEC) there are still a number who have yet to press go on replacing their existing legacy analogue systems. Many have digital transformation strategies in place but have yet to act. There is still time – with no cause for panic, yet - but with just over a year to go the time has arrived to move on from market testing.
Of course, it’s important to make the right decisions. These are big investments that require careful thought. The risk of making the wrong call doesn’t bear thinking about. The government’s policy paper on its Telecare National Action Plan for England published in February 2025 highlights the increasing unreliability of the old analogue landline network. It also states:
“We must avoid a situation where someone’s care line fails during a fall in the middle of the night because nobody made sure it worked properly with new technology.”
We couldn’t agree more.
Learning from our experience in the UK, Finland and Sweden
As a company, we are fortunate to have experience in two countries where digital transformation has been in place for over a decade. Everon Group began in Finland and later expanded to Sweden. Our experience in these markets is helping us to support our UK housing and adult social care partners.
The key learning for all is the impact cloud-based services gathering data, trend and insight can bring. These give providers the capability to increase capacity quickly; allowing them to ramp up and deliver services to meet demand. A key driver is the capability to centralise numerous data sources to create a central source of insight and dashboard trend. We are the biggest, by far, provider of wireless, cloud-based solutions for supported housing in Europe. That’s not something we take for granted and we’re looking forward to sharing more exciting news in the coming months on new products and partnerships. We’re not ones for standing still.
The difference between digital transformation a decade ago and today is how far technology has advanced. That said, cloud-based Software as a Service (SaaS) is nothing new and are trusted in sectors from banking and energy to travel and parking. While the NHS has created some fantastic apps, not least during the Covid pandemic, there is greater scope now than ever before for the UK to adopt a SaaS approach to meet the ambitions of both government and decision-makers across supported housing and adult social care provision to deliver a prevention led model of care. Technology has a huge contribution to make.
The power of data, trend and insight
Cloud-based services are more robust now than they have ever been with the capability to upgrade and evolve. With the help of advances in machine learning we can analyse data better than ever before and provide care providers with data, trends and insights that will help them to become more efficient, better able to prioritise and, through early intervention, support better outcomes for those in their care.
For those care providers still deciding how to proceed with their digital transformation this should be a key factor when deciding how best to achieve their long-term goals using technology to analyse data, pick our patterns and step in early, where necessary.
It's time to get away from waiting for people to have a fall at home or push their pendant in a crisis. We have the ability now to be able to be proactive not reactive, keeping people out of hospital or residential care for longer and in their own homes. The future is here. Its not about technology, that’s just an enabler and will change, its about data, its about trend and it’s about insight. That will be the key.
Everon Group works directly in the UK with commissioners of grouped or supported housing services – from housing associations to care home networks, local authorities to integrated care boards.
We specialise in cloud-based wireless technology that analyses data to provide insight for early detection of health issues. Everon Group has supported the likes of Clarion Housing, Hyde Housing, Community Housing and Jewish Care, working in continued partnership on the digital transformation of their estates.
To find out more about how Everon Group can support your organisation book a consultation and we’ll be in touch.
I was employee number two or was it four?
Everon Sweden was started in 2016 by Christer and Mona Arlehed. They hired Johan Broström (still here as System Project Manager) and two weeks after they hired me as a technical project manager.
There were still boxes in the hall
In the beginning, we were just four people running the show with no HR or IT-support and we had to do everything from scratch, which was fun. We were like building the airplane in the air.
And then I had a daughter…
I did two and a half maybe three years and then I left the company because I wanted to work more towards sales and those roles were already taken. And then I had a daughter and wanted a job that was closer to where she was.
I took a job selling hi-tech mattresses
This company did high-tech mattresses for hospitals and ICU units. I was national sales manager for five years. That was a good journey for me.
And then I came back to Everon SE
I met up with the Everon team at a trade fair and they asked if I would be interested in coming back into a public bid and business development role. That was one and a half years ago. By the time I left, there were around eight employees. When I re-joined, we were 30.
I had the best of both worlds
I didn’t just want to be answering tenders. I wanted more space, more creativity, more autonomy. I wanted to be affecting the processes, affecting the customers and ways of buying and selling. This position allowed me to do both.
And then a new job at Everon Group came calling
I was asked as part of review of how the company was run if I would be interested in starting a business unit for Everon Group, managing the tenders and quotes globally for Sweden, Finland and the U.K.
Standardising systems and ensuring best practice…
The job includes making sure we have best practice and golden standards in place for the benefit of our clients. The idea is for this unit to have a close connection with all parts of the company leading to better co-ordination and project support across the group. As part of that, I will also be implementing a new CRM system.
Building market understanding, and recognising difference
I’ve always wanted to work globally and see how things work in different countries. Finland, Sweden and the U.K are pretty close, but the cultures are different, including ways of working and the political and economic landscape. I’m just getting started but am looking forward to the challenge. That will mean both learning and sharing knowledge. I’m psyched to have this opportunity.
I like selling products that make a difference
Whether it’s mattresses or wheelchairs or alarms for the elderly, for me it’s about working in a sector that wants to make life better for people, that can make a difference. I also like the long processes and the administration of public sector tenders. That might just be me though.
Technology is developing really fast and we’re part of that story
We can see how much difference technology can make in care settings. Back in the day you would have just a motion detector. That was like a revolutionary thing as well. Four years from then to now and we have these super smart sensors that are so much more advanced, thanks to advances in AI and machine learning.
An exciting time to be part of the next phase of digital transformation
With demographic changes coming up in all three countries, we’re going to have really big challenges. It’s not about one supplier getting all the business. The question is more: Are we going to have enough suppliers to cover all the needs of customers? There’s room for more than one, which makes competition really good and healthy.
Quickfire Questions:
Secret to a happy life: Autonomy, purpose and flexibility
A typical day: At the moment, a lot of planning
Who inspires you the most: The people closest to me.
Favourite place: Stockholm
Signature dish: Cauliflower soup sprinkled with pancetta or ramen (I like Asian food)
Spare time passion: Training for a mile run, a half marathon then a full marathon. Reading all the classics.
Being a parent: Doing kids’ stuff is a lot of fun, and cooking food from scratch
Questions a six-year-old asks: Why do I brush my teeth in the morning? I haven’t had anything to eat since I brushed them in the evening.
Donna Brabin is an experienced relationship manager and commercial leader with a digital health SaaS sales background. We’re delighted to welcome her on board to support our mission at Everon Group to transform people’s lives through the power of data-driven technology.
She has a passion for making lives easier through tech and innovation, especially in healthcare software. Her experience in delivering SaaS based solutions and building long lasting relationships makes her a great addition to our sales team in the U.K.
Her enthusiasm and past experience navigating the complex world of the UK’s National Health Service will not only be useful for us as a team but also for raising understanding of the impact our intelligent, wireless cloud-based solutions can bring.
Donna is mum to a teenage daughter, two eight-year-old stepsons and a dog called Frida, named about the artist Frida Kahlo. Donna says: "I love people, music, art and most of all my family. I’d say I’m a positive person and extremely grateful for what I've got.
“I have a ‘life’s too short’ outlook on life and try to have as much fun as I can. I jumped out of a plane in 2023, that worked out ok thank goodness, although I wouldn’t do it again, once is enough."
“I’m already loving being a part of Everon Group. It’s an exciting time to be joining the company and I’m looking forward to showcasing what makes us stand out from the rest in delivering the highest quality person-centred care.”
