4.1.9 Technology Enabled Care

1. Introduction

Technology enabled care (TEC), also known as assistive technology or telecare, is a service that uses technology to support you to continue to live at home for as long as possible by using sensors, wearables, trackables, alarms, apps and communication aids. These devices and apps help you maintain your independence, whilst also enhancing your personal safety.

2. Policy Aim

This policy outlines the benefits of TEC and encourages you to make full use of digital technologies to provide the best possible support and experience.

3. Principles

To support the implementation of our approach to technology enabled care we have adopted a set of guiding principles. This helps to provide a focus to our decision making and consideration in the use of TEC.

We will:

1. Inform you when technology enabled care is not for you.
2. Co-produce our developments with people who use services, carers and our workforce. See Involving People who use Services / Co-production.
3. Ensure our approach to TEC is underpinned by robust information governance, keeping all personal data secure and confidential.
4. Supply up-to-date digital technology that enables adults to receive flexible, efficient and effective care, wherever it is provided.
5. Ensure technology is easy to access and available for use in people’s homes and their communities.
6. Use technology to improve outcomes for the people and communities of Lancashire.
7. Integrate technology into system redesign so that technology is fully accessible and integrated into service delivery, which in some cases will mean ensuring that standard equipment can be adapted for use by people with a disability.
8. Promote innovation and personalisation in the use of TEC.
9. Ensure equality in our approach, so access to TEC is fair, consistent and free from discrimination.
10. Promote best practice in the use of TEC, whilst ensuring compliance with national standards.

4. How to Access the Service

4.1 Applying for the TEC service

If you live in Lancashire or are a local agency (such as the Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service) you can refer yourself  or someone else to our TEC service. Please use the online referral form on the Lancashire County Council website.

If you are already in touch with Adult Social Care, please speak to your social worker, social care support officer or occupational therapist. Alternatively, please contact the Lancashire County Council Customer Service Centre (see Local Contacts)

4.2 Assessment and installation

Our provider, Progress Lifeline, will complete an assessment and arrange installation. They will provide the most appropriate equipment to meet your individual needs.

Progress Lifeline will carry out the installation within the following timescales:

• Urgent – 2 days (Monday – Saturday)
• Non-urgent – 15 working days

4.3 Paying for the TEC equipment and service

There is no charge for the assessment, installation or for the equipment itself. The equipment belongs to Lancashire County Council and will be on long term loan until it is no longer required (see Section 4.5 Repair and removal of TEC).

There are three chargeable service levels to choose from, all include access to the falls lifting service:

Please note: these charges apply from 07 April 2025 until 31 March 2026 , and are reviewed annually.

You will receive an invoice every 4 weeks. The costs are subsidised and are available to all adults ordinarily resident in Lancashire, regardless of Care Act eligibility. All service costs are exempt from VAT.

If you have care provided by Lancashire County Council, and pay a contribution to your care costs, the charge for TEC may be considered a Disability Related Expense. The cost of TEC may be deducted from the contribution that you currently pay. For us to consider an additional disability related expense you should request a reassessment of your care contribution. See Non-Residential Care Charging Policy, Section 10.3 Disability Related Expenses.

Direct Payments should not be used to pay for the TEC service, as TEC is a universal, non-means tested service.

Disability benefits, grants and other financial support are available to help with the cost of this service. Learn about what you could claim using the Government’s Financial Check Tool.

TEC can be arranged and paid for privately but, for majority of people, such charges will be higher than the subsidised rates offered by Lancashire County Council. Alternative TEC service providers can be contacted through the TEC Services Association.

4.4 Changing your TEC equipment

Your need for TEC equipment might change over time, for example with changes to your support network, health, and housing. This may mean that additional equipment is required, or alternatively that it is no longer required. If this is the case, please request a new assessment by contacting Progress Lifeline by telephone on 03333 204 999.

4.5 Repair and removal of TEC equipment

If your TEC equipment is not functioning or working as it should, please contact Progress Lifeline by telephone on 03333 204 999 to arrange a repair or replacement.

They will replace or repair faulty equipment within the following timescales:

• Critical – 24 hours
• Non-critical – 5 working days.

If you no longer require your TEC equipment, please notify us by completing the online Decommissioning Form, by emailing us at[email protected] or by calling Progress Lifeline on 03333 204 999. Your service for TEC equipment will cease on the date of submission and your final invoice will be adjusted accordingly.

If someone else in the household requires TEC equipment, you can make a referral following the procedure in Section 4.1 Applying for TEC equipment.

4.6 TEC in care homes

If you live in a residential or nursing home it is the expectation, in line with other community equipment arrangements, that the care home provides the TEC equipment. In some exceptional circumstances, such as when a highly bespoke system is required, where the equipment is not/highly unlikely to be utilised for the benefit of other present or future residents, Lancashire County Council may make provision.

If you would like some advice or guidance around equipment, please contact [email protected]

5. The Objectives of TEC

The objectives of TEC are to:

• Create a local “technology first” culture so that TEC becomes a key part of the local health and care system.
• Listen to you, understand your needs and wants, and build a TEC solution around you.
• Develop an all-in-one monitoring and response service for TEC devices that manage your environment and your behaviour.
• Plan and intervene to minimise the impact of the digital switchover.
• Redesign the existing button and box telecare service, phasing out the use of analogue devices that socially isolate you in your home.

• Ensure all devices are interoperable and use open standards.
• Understand, test and deploy new technology, including 3^rd party devices such as smartphones, Fitbits and smart thermostats.

• Deliver a service that prevents need from arising or escalating.
• Provide artificial intelligence, predictive analytics and to use data to help our practitioners make better decisions.
• Put in place a process that identifies innovative solutions, products and approaches that address key local needs and priorities and can be adopted at scale into mainstream ‘business as usual’.
• Recruit and train Digital Facilitators (Lancashire County Council staff) who will have an enhanced level of insight, inclusion, capability, and understanding into the opportunities that TEC can bring, which will certainly extend to accessing your own technology and connectivity now and, even more so, in the future.
• Integrate TEC devices and self-care apps.
• Enable you to regain skills, using TEC during any period of reablement, and when coming out of hospital.
• Have a response and falls lifting service that is of high quality and reliability, well linked into our local communities.
• Routinely collect and analyse TEC care data and evidence what works, as part of service planning, improvement and delivery.
• Invest in evaluation, data and analytics to support service change and deliver better outcomes for local people.
• Target funding and investment in new ways of working, new models of care and innovative TEC.

6. Lancashire County Council’s TEC Vision

Lancashire County Council’s vision is to have digital TEC at the heart of our social care and health offer, to:

• Ensure you live safely in your own community and stay connected socially.
• Improve outcomes for you by focusing on prevention, anticipation and supported self-management.
• Empower you to improve your wellbeing and maintain your independence for as long as possible.

Lancashire County Council will deliver our vision by:

• Putting you first, being person-centred and outcome-focused.
• Ensuring TEC supports you to build on your strengths.
• Being innovative and adapting to change.
• Preparing for the big digital switchover.
• Reimagining how we deliver and use TEC.
• Training our workforce so that there is a clear understanding about what types of TEC are available, how to access them, what the benefits are, and how the process works.

Telecare services can be both reactive and proactive. Click on the image to view examples of how TEC can be provided in response to identified needs and to prevent or delay needs:

As the TEC service evolves it will use data to predict and prevent harm, rather than relying solely on alarms generated by a pendant wearer. We will deliver an early intervention to achieve improved, and more substantial outcomes for people who use the service and wider stakeholders.

Lancashire County Council has invested in TEC to achieve the following outcomes:

 Where we support you, we want to:

• Increase your confidence.
• Reduce your levels of stress and anxiety.
• Enable you to stay at own home for longer.
• Prevent health problems and reduce the need for hospitalisation.
• Promote independence and the home first ambition.
• Increase connectedness and reduce social isolation.
• Increase your sense of responsibility (as you look after your own health and well-being).
• Ensure you have a positive experience of the TEC services.
• Increase feelings of reassurance.

Where we support you as an informal carer we want to:

• Enable you to care for your family member for longer.
• Reduce stress and/or anxiety.
• Enable you to maintain some paid work and have short breaks from your caring responsibilities.

For adult social care, we want to:

• Reduce care home admissions.
• Avoid sleepovers.
• Provide more responsive care.
• Avoid short break care.
• Increase the health and self-care knowledge of our workforce.

For the NHS, we want to:

• Reduce avoidable/unplanned admissions to hospital.
• Reduce the number of delayed discharges.
• Provide better medication management.
• Increase people’s motivation to self-manage their health conditions.
• Embrace the convenience of undertaking monitoring at home.
• Reduce the number of health visits.

The service sits at the heart of our personalised care model that enables a wide range of TEC devices to function with a greater level of intelligence and interoperability, as TEC solutions become a central part of overall support and care arrangements.

For more information about the Lancashire TEC service, please see technology enabled care  on the council website.

7. Further Reading

7.1 Relevant chapters

Risk Assessments

Mental Capacity

7.2 Related Guidance

Personalised Health and Care, 2020: Using Data and Technology to Transform Outcomes for Patients and Citizens (HM Government)

Assistive technology: definition and safe use (gov.uk)

A plan for digital health and social care (gov.uk)

Data saves lives: reshaping health and social care with data (gov.uk)