Press Release
18th October 2012
New community alarm responder
After a thorough re-tendering process, Shetland Islands Council has awarded Hanover Telecare the contract to manage the Community Alarm response service.
Over recent weeks, SIC and Hanover Telecare have been working closely with the existing provider, Tunstall Response, to find the most efficient process for the handover. Every effort has been made to ensure that the transition is seamless and customers who receive the Community Alarm Service will not be inconvenienced or affected in any way. It is expected that the handover will commence during October and letters will go out to all users outlining the details of the changes due to take place.
Hanover Telecare is part of Hanover Scotland Housing Association, a registered charity and one of Scotland’s largest not-for-profit providers of housing and related services for older people. Their Telecare service operates 24 hours a day, 365 days a year and has been successfully monitoring community alarms and other telecare connections since 1987.
Hanover are fully accredited to the Telecare Services Association (TSA) Code of Practice and provide telecare monitoring to over 30 organisational customers, including local authorities and other providers of housing and care services for older people. Shetland Islands Council will become their 3rd local authority customer.
Sally Shaw, Interim Director of Community Care Services at Shetland Islands Council, said:
"The Community Response Alarm Service is a vital part of how we continue to support people to remain at home, rather than move to an institutionalised setting. Given the ageing population, it is vital that we continue to provide such a service. Currently this service supports more than a third of Shetland’s over 75yr population to be supported within their own homes and this is envisaged to be a growth area within Community Care provision. It is therefore imperative that we have a quality provider such as Hanover, with their length of experience and track record. Our work in the first instance will be to ensure we help to facilitate a smooth transition so customers do not experience any disruption to current service provision.”
Helen Murdoch, Chief Executive of Hanover (Scotland) Housing Association, said:
"We’re delighted to expand our telecare monitoring services in to Shetland. Members of our Telecare team have already enjoyed a very productive visit to the Islands to discuss how we will work with the Council to implement the new contract.
"Our key priority is to ensure a continuous service is provided during the transition of the contract and avoid any disruption to Shetland’s telecare users, wherever possible.
"We are committed to providing a value for money service to all our customers, whilst not compromising on quality, and we look forward to working in partnership with Shetland Islands Council and with those connected to its community alarm service.”
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