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Council saves more than £2 million using care technology for Notts adults

By Lauren Monaghan, Junior Local Democracy Reporter

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Nottinghamshire County Council saved more than £2 million in nine months by using technology-based care including automatic sensors which detect falls and spot changes in people’s habits.

The council has run a Technology Enabled Care (TEC) service since 2007,  helping adults across the county stay independent their independence and remain in their own homes for longer.

Recent improvements in the technology which have driven savings include home sensors to help detect falls, incontinence and unusual patterns in daily habits which all automatically alert staff at a 24-hour monitoring service.

Similar services exist for live-in carers, allowing them to not constantly be in the same room monitoring the person they’re caring for, along with door and object sensors that trace a person’s independence at home.

The council’s Adult Social Care and Public Health Select Committee met today (March 3) to discuss progress on the plans.

In March 2024, the council’s cabinet approved the Adults Technology Enabled Care (TEC) strategy from 2024 to 2027, is expanding the programme.

The TEC service and its systems currently support around 4,600 people.

In December 2024 it identified and arranged a response for 63 falls, 83 incontinence incidents, 22 low temperature alerts and three alerts needing a response from the Fire Service.

Between April to December 2024, the council recorded a total cost reduction of £2.75 million in its TEC service – against a target of £1.84 million.

A £4.46 million savings target over the next three years has been included in the council’s financial plans.

Katy Ball, the council’s service director for commissioning, said: “We know we would have spent more than £2 million more if we hadn’t put technology in, so we’ve had quite significant cost reduction.

“We’ve been making sure that as people are coming in, we are doing a tech first part of our thinking. Its much easier to do that with someone when we’re first putting support into place.”

The service and strategy appear to be meeting or on track to hitting its targets before the current financial year ends.

Currently, 647 carers who have been identified as high risk of carer breakdown have been supported with TEC against a target of 442 by the end of March 2025.

TEC has also enabled 237 people who are high risk of needing long-term residential care to stay in their own homes instead of going into care, against a target of 390 by the end of March 2025.

Staffing targets are also on track, with 834 staff trained in TEC against its target of 1,000 by the end of March.

Councillor Callum Bailey (Con) asked: “For the next year, what are we doing to make sure, we can’t just hit the KPIs, we have to go beyond them”

Cllr Jonathan Wheeler (Con) said: “It’s hard to hit targets especially at the start of the year, it takes a lot of work.

“People with long-term care, high risk, it’s very complex, so with the technology we want to make sure it’s right for that person.”

Cllr Reg Adair (Con) asked: “This facility is not well recognised in the community and there are people who probably could benefit from it but are not, how do we get that message across?”

Cllr Wheeler said more effort will go into “educating” people on the service.