Following the launch of the Digital Switchover White Paper “The Digital Reality” produced by Everon and partners, Jeremy Porteus, CEO, Housing LIN tells Everon why some providers have been slow to embrace the role of digital, how the cost of living crisis is impacting and why doing nothing is not an option.
Why is the Housing LIN and its members interested in the digital switchover?
First and foremost we want to make sure that our members in health, housing and social care sectors are aware of the digital switchover and the implications and so that anyone who has analogue systems can build their strategies to be digital ready by 2025.
This can be anything from social alarm telecare provision through to systems that are Wi-Fi enabled, community equipment services or adaptations in the home, such as floor lifts with a digital interface. So for me, it applies not just to health and social care, but also to smart housing.
Why have care, health and housing providers been slow to embrace the role of digital and technology?
“At a leadership level, there aren’t sufficient digital champions.”
Many of the decision makers and boards may be in positions where they themselves are digitally resistant or technology averse.
There are significant issues around workforce and training to enable front line staff to be tech enabled. Perhaps training and skills haven’t traditionally relied on a digital interface due to the provision of care and support being a physical presence, as opposed to a digital presence.
There is an element of a lack of understanding of what’s going on and a lack of how to change or improve and innovate. So the danger is you’ll have more of the same-old rather than listening and understanding to what’s needed from your customers and the tech journey required to meet those needs.
What is the latest situation in relation to the digital switchover from a housing LIN’s perspective?
From the Housing LIN’s perspective, it is important to communicate messages through to our members. We have ongoing relationships with our partners to make sure that we are constantly raising awareness, sharing best practice and that includes looking at relevant products, key service delivery impacts and above all, consider the overall implications for residents and users of services whether in receipt of care or support.
“We must ensure that there’s an ease of transition from analogue to digital and that there is a smooth transfer which doesn’t disrupt the lives of the people who need it most.”
How does TAPPI (Technology for our Ageing Population: Panel for Innovation) help?
TAPPI has the potential to recognise that there are a number of important principles that have to be embedded in going digital. These are not about compliance in relation to technical standards, but more about a broad set of principles that shape why these standards are important and how they apply to the needs and wishes of customers.
The ten TAPPI principles will be tested and co-produced with the residents who are participating in these 6 sites along with the housing associations, local authorities, NHS partners, technology manufacturers, suppliers and developers. This is to ensure there is a whole system approach to make sure where technology interfaces with people, from the outset the providers are embracing and thinking about the ageing population.
My hunch is technology is developed by people aged 18-40 for people predominantly aged 18-40, working on gamification, mobile applications etc. The ageing population is not yet regarded as a significant market but we know that baby boomers are the new zoomers, especially since the pandemic. We want to create a kitemark whereby when engaging with people in later life, technologists have thought about the 10 principles in relation to technology for an increasing share of older customers.
TAPPI Phase 2, jointly administered by the Housing LIN and the TSA, is funded by the Dunhill Medical Trust. The TAPPI traffic lights turned green on 5 September 2022 - it’s a long journey and the next 12-15 months will help that journey. Read more here.
What are the biggest concerns for members/what are you worried about?
“One of the biggest concerns for members is what is the likelihood of increasing poverty and inequalities.”
Most people are concerned at this moment in time not about technology, but about the cost of living crisis and fuel poverty and how they can support their residents who may have serious financial concerns due to being on Universal Credit or low incomes.
What I’m worried about is that inequality will also create digital inequalities and further exclusion for the very people who need technology most eg those that have to charge their electric wheelchair or need 24 hr heating for poor circulation. So there will be a real impact on people’s wellbeing. From a tech perspective we need to make sure it is affordable, low cost, easily applied, easy to use and reliable.
Do you think the cost of living crisis will push back advances in digital?
There is a possibility that self-funders and carers will be impacted the most. They are already struggling with homecare for example if they have a crisis and are coming out of hospital. This could have a knock on effect in terms of creating far more pressures on the system. That’s why TAPPI which is around coproducing services with the user, may be able to offer help to self manage or maintain health and wellbeing for as long as possible. It will then create an opportunity to compress dependency to a much shorter time or to a later stage in life.
“For me there is a health economics reason why digital has to work.”
What are the key opportunities and benefits to members of digital?
Opportunities are that we need to see this as a mainstream offer and not just allocated as a specialist provision because the digital platform enables you to build up or down to meet particular individual needs. Mainstream and continuous learning around the use of digital is needed.
What is your message to housing and care leaders?
A large majority of your existing customers will be older adults and those living with long term conditions and my message is to look at your customer profiles. There is an urgent need to engage with and develop the appropriate strategies to address how to be ready for the digital switchover. There isn’t long to go. There’s a high possibility that whilst they know about it, doing the transformation has to be done at pace.
Who is ahead of the game / what does good look like?
What TAPPI showed us is that there are lots of really good examples out there. For example Innovate Trust in Wales, Radius in Northern Ireland, Guinness in England, offer good examples of pilots and testing. We need to make sure we move from these small scale projects to something mainstream and sector wide at a time when the sector is faced with addressing climate change, the impact of Grenfell, fuel poverty etc.
“This is as significant an issue as the cost of living crisis and I think it has to be red flagged by the boards and committees at the highest level.”
What does the future hold?
I think what could be different in the future, is that we need to make sure there is a higher digital literacy both in terms of people making decisions and the users of digital.
“We need to build the social capital as well as the technical/digital capital.”
How do we get there? Well some of the actions required will be based around research and evaluations and piloting such as the TAPPI project but also regulation and quality assurance mechanisms. A core component is co-production and co-design and one of the other principles is around interoperability. How to mix and match. The population isn’t a homogeneous group.
“Doing nothing is not an option.”
To learn more, see the Digital Switchover White Paper “The Digital Reality” here
There is an urgent need for all housing and care providers to upgrade analogue grouped and dispersed systems, due to the digital switchover programme. At some point during the run up to 2025, traditional analogue systems will fail. Knowing where to go for help and advice is an issue.
A new white paper supported by Everon and Housing LIN with contributions from Openreach, BT, TSA and Eseye, has been launched for the sector. This paper:
Peter Kerly, MD, Everon UK added “This paper has been drafted because of a growing need to better inform the sector about important changes impacting the digital transition. Following two successful webinars and a breakfast meeting with housing and care leaders, some key questions were debated and we hope this paper will help anyone looking for more support.”
What to look out for:
Housing and care providers have ageing stock and arguably the technology sector has been slow to provide a digital offering. Customers want choice, best of breed technology, open APIs, yet they need to understand the costs and don’t want a one size fits all approach. However, the first step in solving the problem is to recognise that it does exist.
Download the paper for the information you need to make important steps forward with digital.
About Everon – Your digital partner
Everon is the European market leader in digital grouped living solutions. Through significant investment in innovation over many years, our flexible, cable-free, open platform provides personalised, trusted and sustainable solutions that enhance life.
Everon uniquely invests 10% of its revenue in research and development pa and all systems can be quickly configured to suit specific client requirements in any care setting including care homes, assisted living or at home.
Health, housing and care partners can be reassured of the upmost quality, value for money and future proofed investment. With cloud-based, secure data sharing, our systems enable one holistic view and deliver proactive service models.
An important webinar for the sector, “Myth busting the digital landscape” took place on 20 October 2022, hosted by Everon, produced in partnership with TSA and Housing LIN and supported by Openreach, TalkTalk and Eseye.
To watch a recording of the Webinar “Myth Busting the Digital Landscape”, access the slide deck or to learn more about our speakers, click the link.
Please see below a summary of the Q&A.
Questions for John Livermore, ALL IP Industry Engagement Manager at Openreach
Questions for Phil Cain, Industry Vendor Liaison, TalkTalk
Questions for Nick Earle, CEO, Eseye
Questions for Pete Kerly, MD Everon UK
Questions for Jeremy Porteus, CE, Housing LIN
To learn more about Everon's solution, click here
On 20th October, Everon UK, hosted a webinar ‘Myth Busting the Digital Landscape’ in partnership with TSA and Housing LIN, supported by Openreach, TalkTalk and Eseye.
Following the results of the webinar poll, it was concerning to note that half of the webinar participants stated that they’re in the ‘early stages of readiness’ for the digital switchover. This will potentially leave vulnerable residents at risk and highlights significant planning gaps. The other half stated that they’re in ‘the advanced stages’ of transition.
The webinar aimed to support housing and care providers navigate the digital landscape, by getting into the detail of how digital switchover will affect grouped living, individual homes and the impact on vulnerable residents.
This event follows a previous webinar which took place on 22 June and Everon’s breakfast meeting on 21st September, where housing leaders gathered to debate the challenges and potential of the digital switchover. Everon’s next webinar on falls is being planned for the new year.
The session chair, Alyson Scurfield, Chief Executive of TEC Services Association (TSA) opened the webinar by reminding us of the importance of moving from analogue to digital – which has been covered in a white paper published by the TSA in 2017. She reassured participants that there is so much work going on in the background to ensure a safe transition and most importantly that vulnerable people are protected. She advocated a proactive, rather than preventative model of care. She stated, ”we need to move to a digital state so that we can share data and make sure it’s getting to the right people to deliver good quality outcomes”.
John Livermore, ALL IP Industry Engagement Manager at Openreach, gave a detailed account of the state of play with the digital switchover, covering off the common challenges and what housing and care leaders need to do now. He said “Openreach is an independent engineering company who look after the premises back to the telephone exchange. The UK’s telephony network was last upgraded in the 1980’s to Digital Telephone Exchanges. This equipment is now failing and needs to be withdrawn”.
He told us that “in 2018 the industry agreed on a 7 year programme ending in 2025 to move all lines from this legacy equipment to new exchange equipment, which would be based on glass fibre technology. We are over 4 years into that programme. We have carried on producing the replacement which is glass fibre in the ground. Openreach’s job is to produce the network. The migration itself is done by each one of the 690 different communications providers (CP). On the day that your CP migrates whatever is sitting on the telephone socket, that device will no longer work.”
He closed his session with a stack warning to the sector, “On Dec 31st, 2025 all lines that rely on copper from the exchange to the cabinet will be disconnected from the exchange equipment. This will remove power from the line and the ability to make voice calls”.
The conversation continued with Phil Cain, Industry Vendor Liaison, TalkTalk, who gave an update on the progress to date and equipment that have been through test labs.
“We are one of over 600 Communication Providers and everyone is at a different stage. We’ve had several manufacturers and signalling suppliers come in to test analogue and digital equipment to make sure there are no issues come migration. In general these things work however there are often some things that don’t and a tweak need to be made to the equipment. I really encourage suppliers to come in and test their equipment either directly connected to the network or to the Analogue Telephone Adaptor (ATA) which is on the back of the route that TalkTalk send out”.
Tim Mulrey, TSA, informed us of a roundtable they had with the minister of innovation back in September, “the key action was around promoting the testing of analogue equipment on digital networks but also getting real world feedback as well”. Results for testing he said will be released shortly. He informed attendees that the TSA are looking to have a repository of information on their website. He concluded with a noteworthy statement, “we don’t recommend analogue over digital.”
Nick Earle, CEO, Eseye, covered off the opportunities for data to transform the care experience enabled by the digital switchover and reinvent business models. He stated that the IOT uses cellular which is why it’s not dependent on the digital switchover. In his words, “this equipment has been around for many years and you don’t need to wait for the switchover. This new model implies that every single thing in the world that can have power will have an IP address and can submit data. What that does, is that it enables providers such as Everon, using AI, to build a personalised behaviour model of a resident at home”. He emphasized the need to create personalised, proactive and pre-emptive care.
See podcast – How IOT is changing the world of remote patient monitoring
Pete Kerly, MD Everon UK, discussed future proofing your digital strategy and moving from reactive to proactive model. He said “the GSM technology has been out since 2007 and the Nordics especially are fully digital and our system has been deployed across Finland, Sweden, Germany as well as the UK now”. He called on the various organizations to swiftly get on with the task to transition from analogue to digital as we only have 26 months to complete the upgrade and there are 1.7m users in the UK who are dependent on this.
Pete highlighted key advantages of the Everon solution stating among others, that Everon is ISO and TSA QSF approved, their solutions require no wiring, are Cloud based – utilising Health Housing and Social Care Data – Open API’s, utilises machine learning and artificial Intelligence to deliver a proactive model of care and are compatible with all Alarm Receiving Centres. Pete stressed that for real impact, the industry “needs to get to people before they have an issue, so the use of AI to identify falls, slumps, staying in bed, UTIs etc. can all be used to design appropriate interventions”.
Alyson Scurfield, Chief Executive of TEC Services Association (TSA), shared an update regarding funding relating to housing; informing attendees that there is £300m funding available for new models of care with more details coming in January.
Jeremy Porteus, CE, Housing LIN gave an update on TAPPI demonstrator sites. He thanked Everon for the work they’ve done to help inform and give evidence to the TAPPI work programme. He stated that “the Housing LIN is a UK wide ideas lab and do a lot of knowledge exchange for free to support a better understanding about that integration piece across housing, health and social care”. They work closely with the government and TAPPI has identified a policy gap. In terms of the digital switchover, he stated that it’s not just about telecare but also about thermal comfort, climate change, building management systems, energy efficiency and more.
The speakers closed the event with one key message they wanted attendees to take away:
John Livermore – “Do an audit. Whether you run an estate of products, whether it’s your own personal line or a business you’re involved in, and think about what is plugged into the socket today. And ask yourself the question, if there’s going to be a router there for the first time. How am I going to connect to the router, how do I keep it alive in a power cut and is it going to work reliably for me”.
Nick Earle – “Start off with the experience you want to deliver. And then ask yourself, how could getting more proactive data in a cloud platform enhance that experience and then work that way in”.
Phil Cain – “You’ve got to do something about this, you’ve got to have a plan. That timeframe for doing this is getting smaller and smaller. We started this 4 years ago. We’re now less than 3 years from this happening”.
Pete Kerly – “We shouldn’t be frightened of deploying gsm based solutions. They work well. They’re proven, especially in Europe. We need to be working together to push the boundaries, the change from a 40 yr. old reactive model to a proactive model is the future. We have that objective and want to work with like-minded commissioners who want to adopt and push those boundaries”.
Jeremy Porteus – “We need to move from talking to do the walking. We don’t have a lot of time. 23m homes in the UK of which 1m are housing people who are really vulnerable.
Alyson Scurfield – “Work together, be stronger together, keep the communication and collaboration. For everybody on the call who wants to commission safely there is some commissioner’s guidance through the TSA”.
To watch a recording of the Webinar “Myth Busting the Digital Landscape”, access the slide deck or to learn more about our speakers, click the link.
