Southampton City Telecare team gains TSA accreditation for health and social care service
The Southampton City Telecare team has been successful in obtaining accreditation with the Telecare Services Association (TSA) following a recent audit.
TSA is the representative body for technology enabled care (TEC) services in the UK, working towards the increased uptake of digital solutions and TEC into health and social care.
The service offers 24-hour monitoring and assistance to more than 6,100 city residents. Help is available at the touch of a button, whether that is a reassuring word or more practical support such as accessing other services or contacting family members in emergency situations. In addition, a team of responding officers provides emergency assistance in the home.
Lisa Haynes, Head of Supported Housing, Directorate of Wellbeing and Housing commented: “It’s been another very busy year for City Telecare Services, so we are so pleased to be able to say that the services we provide to the community continue to be of an exceptional standard.
“Many of our team have been with us for a long time and pride themselves on responding quickly and effectively; this audit is great recognition of that.”
The accreditation ensures that service users in Southampton can feel confident that they are in safe hands and can rely on the team to provide them with the reassurance and support to empower their continuing independence.
To achieve the accreditation, the team had to demonstrate compliance against a set of challenging standards including customer experience, safety, continuous improvement and innovation.
The City Telecare team evidenced that they had successfully met a number of challenging performance targets throughout the last year.
These included answering over 98.54 per cent of alarm calls within 60 seconds and Responding Support Officers assisting 975 people who had fallen in the home, arriving at a customer’s property on average within 22 minutes of the initial call for help.
Councillor Lorna Fielker, Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Adults, Housing and Health said: “Being able to keep living independently makes such a difference to quality of life for older and disabled people – and our City Telecare team makes it possible for more people in the city to live independent lives for longer.
“The speed of response gives them the assurance that there is help at hand when they need – and that makes a big difference not only for our service users but crucially also for their family and friends.
“The Audit confirms that our services in Southampton continue to exceed the national standards.”
Last year, Carmarthenshire-based company, Llesiant Delta Wellbeing, which provides technology-enabled care (TEC) solutions to support older and vulnerable people to live more independently, was awarded coveted TSA Quality Standards Framework (QSF) status.
