Care Call annual report 2022-2023

This report provides an overview of the performance of The Care Call Service from April 2022 until March 2023.

Background

The Care Call Service has operated from the Security Control Centre for 25 years. We install and monitor a variety of Telecare equipment including, but not limited to, Pendant Alarms, Fall Detectors, Door Sensors, Bed and Chair Sensors, Key Safes and Medication Dispensers.
The Care Call Service has been a member of the Telecare Services Association (TSA) accreditation scheme since 2017.

Overview

North Lincolnshire Council Care Call continues to provide reassurance to the elderly and vulnerable residents of North Lincolnshire. It has enabled countless residents to live independently in their own homes and offered reassurance to them and their families, that support is there 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
It is envisaged that by 2025 all current analogue phone services provided to clients will have been replaced with digital. We are in the process of exchanging the analogue units for the new Tunstall Smart Hubs. We have already installed over 1000 Smart Hubs, into residents’ homes that have already had digital line upgrades completed or have been advised the upgrade is imminent.
In some circumstances, the new smart hubs allow us to remotely upgrade, diagnose issues and repair without the need for attending.

Contact us

If you have any concerns or queries about the digital line upgrade and or the telecare equipment, you may contact us at any time by simply activating your pendant alarm, or by telephone or online:

• 01724 276444 (Control Centre – 24 hours)
• 01724 849768 (Care Call Administration)
• 01724 297000 (North Lincolnshire Council)

Email – Carecallservice@northlincs.gov.uk
Website – Care call

The Care Call service

North Lincolnshire Council’s Care Call service provides and monitors telecare assistive technologies to enable elderly and vulnerable people to live healthy, independent lives. Telecare equipment sends an emergency call signal to the Control Centre when triggered. Operators are prepared and ready to deal with any situation, from simple accidental activations to life threatening emergencies.

Care Call provides:

• Affordable safety alarms and devices, which are simple to use.
• 24-hour accredited monitoring and assistance.
• Reassurance, welfare, and reminder calls.
• Peace of mind – even if a service user is unable to speak to operators; a response will always be arranged.
• Greater independence in the home and community by providing remote support and reassurance that help is always available at the touch of a button.
• Friendly and experienced operators who are trained to deal with a wide range of issues and spot potential safeguarding needs.
• Flexible support packages, which can be tailored to suit the needs of individual service users.
• Signposting to other agencies for support needs.
• Professional and informative advice about installations, repairs, and other general enquiries.

Easter 2023: Customer satisfaction survey

Care Call distributed 1,200 customer satisfaction cards to service users during Easter 2023. We asked:

1. Do you feel safe with the system installed?
   YES – 99.25%
2. Do you feel confident that you know how to use the system?
   YES – 100%
3. Do you think the service is good value?
   YES – 98.88%
4. If you have had a problem, was it resolved quickly?
   YES – 98.51%
5. Out of 10, how friendly have you found our staff to be?
   Average score: 9.87/10
6. Out of 10, how would you rate the quality of our service?
   Average score: 9.84/10

Service user feedback

Each year we send a selection of service users customer satisfaction cards. We are pleased to share the results above and testimonials we have received.

• ‘Very grateful of these guardian angels. They relieve my daughter of worry.’
• ‘I have only contacted you a few times, service has been excellent. Team always polite and helpful.’
• ‘You’re perfect and I am very grateful for your service. Thank you.’
• ‘I have not had the need as yet to ask for assistance but call once per week as instructed to test. Every operator I have spoken to has been exceptionally pleasant and helpful. Please thank everyone concerned.’

Call handling and monitoring

Between the 1 April 2022 and 31 of March 2023 Care Call handled 72,211 calls. These ranged in needs including test calls, false alarms, emergency services attendance, smoke alarm activations, medication reminders, carbon monoxide detectors and heat detectors. These also include out-going calls following up calls for assistance, medication checks and reassurance calls.

• 98.00% of these calls were answered within 60 seconds. Our target for calls answered within 60 seconds is 97.5%.
• 99.70% were answered within 180 seconds. Our target for calls answered within 180 seconds is 99%.
• There were 1,153 requests for assistance from the NHS (NHS 111, Ambulance, District Nurses and Doctors).
• Humberside Police were contacted 18 times, and Humberside Fire & Rescue 30 times, to assist service users.
• 10,102 test calls were completed. It is very important for all service users to test their equipment on a weekly basis to ensure there are no faults or interruptions to the service.
• There have been over 1200 falls recorded this year from our service users.
• Over the course of the whole year there were 103 exceptional calls taking longer than 3 minutes to answer.

Installation and monitoring

We aim to complete all demonstrations, installations, and maintenance in a professional, timely manner. Our installers regularly undertake training to keep up to date with new technologies, and the ever-changing needs of our service users.

From April 2022-March 2023, we completed 585 new demonstrations. There were 459 regular installations and 86 complex installations. There were 40 installations refused at demonstrations.

We responded to 814 maintenance reports, of which 296 were classified as ‘critical’ faults (e.g., lost pendant or faulty unit) and 518 as non-critical (e.g., low battery).

Business Continuity

Elisha and Caroline from the Council’s Safer Neighbourhoods Team have both been trained in emergency call handling and reporting. Both are on hand to assist in the event of high levels of demand for service during critical periods.

Additionally, a number of casual staff members have been recruited, and trained in multiple aspects of the job roles within the Security Control Centre. This includes call handling and the installation and programming of the new Smart Hubs.

The web-based monitoring platform allows remote access to call handling, with three members of staff having this set up on their laptops, allowing them to take calls from home at times of pressure.

Home First Community support

Care Call works closely with North Lincolnshire Council’s Home First Community Support Team. Home First provides short-term rehabilitation and reablement support to adults across North Lincolnshire. They work in partnership with other social care and health professionals to prevent avoidable hospital admissions, and to facilitate appropriate early discharge.

Care Call provides telecare systems free of charge for up to six weeks for people who may be waiting for discharge, or have recently been discharged from hospital, under the rehabilitation and reablement scheme.

Home First responds to around 200 calls a month from the Care Call service to assist service users. Calls for assistance include personal care, minor medical issues and lifting uninjured people who have fallen. Their response can often negate the need for ambulance attendance, thus reducing pressure on the emergency services.

For more information about Home First, visit our Home First Community webpage or contact Adult Social Services on 01724 297979.

The Herbert Protocol for Dementia

The ‘Herbert Protocol’ is a national scheme adopted by Humberside Police. It is a simple risk reduction tool to be used in the event of a person with dementia or other mental vulnerability going missing.

The person with responsibility for care should complete the ‘Herbert Protocol’ documents, available via the links below. The completed form should be kept in a safe place alongside a photograph of the vulnerable person. The documents must be stored in an accessible place so they can be handed to the police immediately in the event of a vulnerable person going missing.

In the event of a vulnerable missing person, contact the police immediately on 999 and have the protocol form to hand.
For more information visit Humberside Police website.

Alternatively, contact North Lincolnshire Council on 01724 297000 or Humberside Police non-emergency line on 101.

Reassurance and safeguarding

Safeguarding duties apply to anyone who:-

1. Has needs for care and support (whether the local authority is meeting any of those needs or not).
2. Is experiencing or is at risk of abuse or neglect.
3. Is unable to protect themselves from either the risk of, or the experience of abuse and neglect.

If a safeguarding, welfare concern or care need is identified during an alarm call, operators will discreetly ask questions to ascertain an understanding of what is happening. Concerns are then raised with the relevant authority or agency on the same day.

If there is an immediate threat to life or risk of serious harm, the emergency services will be notified.

Operators can also assist service users who are feeling lonely, or those who have concerns, which do not necessarily meet safeguarding criteria.

If Care Call cannot resolve an issue directly, operators can recommend other agencies who can help. A list of contact details for services can be found at the bottom of this page.

Some service users request regular reassurance calls from Care Call – this can be for any reason from medication reminders to welfare checks. We also offer short-term reassurance call solutions, which are ideal if a service user’s primary carer is temporarily away.

Future development

The Care Call service will continue to develop its services to meet the continually changing and diverse needs of its service users.

A member of the installation team is part of the local ‘Telecare Champions’ panel which aims to bring different services together to discuss new, effective ways of delivering telecare services to a diverse range of service users.

With the procurement of the Tunstall Service Manager package, which is awaiting installation, this will greatly improve the stock system and assist not only the call handlers in the Security Control Centre, but the installers on the road. It allows them to make important changes without impacting on the call handling staff.

Useful contacts

This report was published in April 2023.