Tunstall press release highlights its contribution to Cheshire’s success.
Having secured £1m Government funding from the Preventative Technology Grant (PTG), Cheshire Social Services has successfully mainstreamed telecare across the county, by January 2008 providing tailored telecare packages to a total of 600 service users with long-term care needs.
If that’s so, that’s a cost of £1,666 per client, when the PTG funding assumed a funding or £500 per person supplied. So what was the additional £1,166 overhead? In fact, on the basis of £999,000 PTG funding over the two years, Cheshire was expected to contribute 1,998 new telecare users to the national target.
So who, other than Tunstall’s accountants and sales department, sees this as a success? Read the press release here.
Without doubt, the many sensors installed will have a significant impact on service users. Its great news, and the result of a lot of hard work without doubt. However, the challenge may be to establish a sound business case for further investment at this level of cost per service user, especially if no cost savings have been identified. That said, the cost per user may well be much less than £1,666, as the service is extended to the rest of people in Cheshire who need it. Sometimes the sensors are not compatible with the Community Alarm Service software even when both are sourced from the same supplier. So the key question for sustainability is how much of the £1m has been spent on such one off investments, and what impact does that have on available funding for purchasing future client equipment.