Alcove secures £15m deal to provide Suffolk County Council care tech

Suffolk County Council has awarded a £15m contract to Alcove to deliver the areas innovative care technology service over the next three years.

After a lengthy procurement process Alcove was chosen to deliver Suffolk’s Cassius service, alongside Rethink Partners and Provide CIC.

Cassius will give social work practitioners, occupational therapists and other front line professionals, new ways to support people to live better and independent lives.

Initially the service will launch with a high impact, targeted range of technology that will continue to grow into the full Cassius collection. It means the technology can be customised to meet people’s needs and to address individual challenges.

Cllr Beccy Hopfensberger, cabinet member for adult social care at Suffolk County Council, said: “We’re really excited to launch this new service with our partners. It will offer a simple, accessible, seamless and flexible approach which will help people to embrace the benefits of care technology and provide better outcomes.

“Our teams have worked hard over the last couple of years to create a vision of how we would like our digital care model to be – setting us aside from other local authorities.

“As we move away from the traditional analogue approach, we are embracing this opportunity to provide a pioneering and intelligent service that will evolve and adapt alongside societal needs.”

Alcove and other tech partners will be expected to deliver technology that promotes independence. In the first instance it will provide monitoring and assessment services that are data driven to provide useful insights into people’s needs.

This data will help inform more targeted care and support where it is needed, the council said in a statement.

Hellen Bowey, Alcove founder and chief executive, added: “Cassius is more than just technology to meet people’s needs – it provides innovative and agile ways for the people in Suffolk, who need care and support, to continue to live well in their own homes.

“Our partnership also brings together a balance of expertise around technology, culture change, data and information, community engagement and monitoring to ensure people will find the service provides them with confidence and empowers those that we are looking to support, while aligning with expectations around how technology can be used.”