Target met for 60,000 new telecare users

Local authorities have achieved their target of enabling more than 60,000 new users to benefit from telecare in the last financial year using the first part of the two year Preventative Technology (PT) grant.

Performance information on telecare from England’s 150 social care authorities compiled by the Commission for Social Care Inspection (CSCI) show that 53,761 new users benefited from projects run by local authorities alone with a further 29,981 users benefiting from projects run in partnership with another agency making a total of 83,742 new users.

Local authorities are encouraged to work with other organisations to make the best user of the money including primary care trusts, housing associations and third sector organisations.

The intention behind the government grant of £80m over two years was to enable at least 160,000 additional older people to benefit from telecare by the end of 2008 but was split with £30m given to local authorities in 2006/7 and 50 in 2007/8 equating to a 60,000 and 100,000 split in new users over the two years. Local authorities are predicting that a further 111,578 new users will benefit in 2007/8 although that figure could now be lower than expected after an announcement in July that the grant can be carried over to 2008/9.

According to the Care Services Improvement Partnership outturn figures for expenditure were £17.9 m on infrastructure and £29.9m on equipment and services in 2006/.7 compared to the telecare grant of £30m.

CSIP states: “This suggests that a significant proportion of PT Grant is being used to fund services for new users.”

CSIP states that there is no evidence that local authorities have overcounted or inflated the figures and suggests that some local authorities may rather have underestimated the number of new users benefiting from telecare.

Figures for each of the 150 social care authorities appear in an A-Z listing in the latest CSIP telecare newsletter and are also available on the CSIP website.