NEWS

Digital Telecare for Scottish Local Government has launched a brand-new National Briefing Document to raise awareness of the urgency and importance of the transition to digital telecare.

As soon as 2023, analogue telephone services in the UK will be switched off and replaced by digital systems using internet protocol (IP) technology. Telecommunication suppliers are well on their journey to making this switch to ‘IP networks’ and will not wait for telecare service providers to fully prepare themselves. They will be left behind and as a result, service users’ will be at risk of receiving an unreliable service.

Scotland’s telecare service providers including health and social care partnerships, housing associations and many other organisations who use analogue connectivity to deliver their services, will need to upgrade, inevitably. Some may have already started their transition journey however those who have now, should now be starting to feel the pressure to do so.

Previously, there was major uncertainty of what the journey to digital telecare would look like and there was a need for a programme which would produce a roadmap and deliver a collaborative approach in a coordinated and timely manner. Digital Telecare for Scottish Local Government was established in early 2017 to plug this gap by working with telecare service providers to identify their requirements to ensure a smooth, safe transition to a digital service for those in receipt of telecare in their home environments.

Today, Digital Telecare for Scottish Local Government has published a National Briefing Document to raise awareness of the urgency and importance of the switch from analogue to digital telecare for all telecare service providers. 

The document provides:

• An overview of the digital telecare landscape;
• A roadmap detailing the process of upgrading from analogue to digital telecare, aligning with the accelerated deadline of 2023;
• An estimated timeline with an in-depth breakdown of the timescales to complete key operational components of the transition;
• Estimated resources and costings for the transition;
• Information on the impact that the transition will have on service users;
• Potential benefits and opportunities of a digital telecare service;
• Risks to be considered during the transition to digital telecare;
• Recommendations that telecare service providers should follow to minimize disruption to their service users and;
• Information on resources available from the Digital Telecare Programme which will support the transition journey.

Read National Briefing Document

*Please note that this document is interactive and you may need to click on various elements for further information.

Telecare service providers must take urgent action and follow the outlined information in the National Briefing Document to ensure they transition to a digital telecare safely, securely, and prior to the analogue network switch off.

If you have any questions relating to the National Briefing Document, please get in touch.