Achieving Targets

As per the previous post the only concern is that the whole project should be evaluated on the benefits of supplying telecare and there must be a thorough assessment and the appropriate equipment installed and not just putting Telecare in for the sake of it.

My concern is that this may be used for the specific point of hitting targets for the year I am aware that Local Authorities including Newcastle have based their success on the number of Telecare users they have and these targets/numbers are built into their business plans for the year. It has openly been discussed at TSA meetings and the question is always asked how many Telecare users do you have (a bit like bragging rights). I am also aware that a number of authorities used the PTG to hit their target numbers. It has been reported that within some services they installed flood detectors into every sheltered accommodation property and gave falls detectors to everyone in sheltered housing smoke detectors ect. (even if they didn't need one)this allowed the services to hit their targets and claim over 1000 telecare users.

I think until services concentrate on the quality of service and the correct installation of appropriate devices is the priority and not number of users then Telecare may struggle. I hope the above schemes are not just to get the numbers up maybe someone could let us know how the success will be evaluated.