How TEC can support the next Government

02 July 2024

On the week of the general election, we wanted to update you on TSA’s campaigning work over the past few weeks, and what we have planned, post-election.

We believe TEC has a vital role in helping the next government to deliver on their pledges around health, social care and housing.

That’s why we’ve created a seven-point summary: ‘How TEC can support Government’ which our chief executive, Alyson Scurfield has been communicating with government officials, and senior leaders within NHS organisations and national care bodies over recent weeks. These messages were also hammered home at Housing 2024 last week.

How TEC can support Government

• TEC empowers older and disabled people to lead ‘technology enabled lives’, boosting independence and wellbeing and helping them to access early support, closer to home.

• TEC gives peace of mind to unpaid carers. Families can access technologies and services that provide reassurance, reduce burn-out and support them to remain in work.

• TEC keeps people out of hospital. 85% of people who’ve fallen, remain at home if their call is handled by a TEC falls team. A&E conveyances drop by 68% when proactive TEC is used.

• TEC gets people home from hospital quicker. TEC services reduce hospital discharge by an average of five days, helping people to feel safe and supported in their own home.

• TEC cuts pressure on statutory services, monitoring people’s health needs so they can access early support, closer to home, before problems become emergencies.

• TEC supports the workforce, increasing efficiency and productivity, quality of work, job satisfaction and retention. TEC helps staff to join up data so people at risk are prioritised.

• TEC is shaping our AI digital world. It is at the core of many preventative TEC products and services, for example, predicting behaviour so early support can be provided.

We’ve also been outlining how TSA, as the national advisory body for TEC, can support the next Government.

How TSA can support Government

• By convening over 350 TEC organisations: Drawing together expertise and data from tech suppliers, service providers and commissioners to build evidence and develop ideas.

• By being a positive voice in the sector: We see real hope in social care and believe TEC can play a key role, supporting people to live good lives, in the places they call home.

• By fostering innovation in social care: TSA’s work with technology suppliers and sector experts allows it to horizon scan and nurture technological innovation, including AI-led TEC.

• By ensuring the safety of innovation: TEC Quality runs TSA’s Quality Standards Framework (QSF), the only independent, UKAS-accredited quality assurance system for TEC in the UK.

• By upskilling the workforce: TSA has solid experience of growing the tech confidence of over 5,000 care workers through its immersive Virtual House and TEC training programmes.

• By protecting vulnerable telecare customers through co-ordinated work with telecoms providers as landline services change from analogue to digital.

   

And we’ve been communicating our priorities to Government:

Our Ambitions of Government

• Promote the potential of the TEC sector to drive economic growth alongside reducing the burden on statutory services. In the UK, the average total wealth of people in their early 60s is almost nine times as high as those in their early 30s. If this older third of the population was more aware of the possibilities of TEC, they may well invest in it.

• Develop a digital and AI strategy for adult social care:including national guidance for the inclusion of TEC in social care and health in England.

   

Our Asks of Government

• Endorse TSA’s Quality Standards Framework by embedding standards within service requirements and raising public awareness through a national UKAS-accredited scheme.

• Champion TSA’s blueprint for safe digital migration of vulnerable telecare customers, right across government, so guidance, training and standards can be rolled out nationally to TEC providers, TEC suppliers and telecoms providers.

   

Post general election

We will write to the next Secretary of State for Health and Social Care and the next Social Care Minister immediately after the general election, reinforcing these priorities. We have shared these ambitions and asks with partner organisations meeting government over the next few weeks and Alyson will continue her work to ensure the value of our wonderful sector is recognised far and wide.