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Housing with Care and Support: SMaRT
Award winning SMaRT moves into South Yorkshire
A SMaRT car and driver receive instructions
During the year South Yorkshire Housing Association became the first to partner with our Housing with Care and Support department so that they could use services from their Support Management and Response Team (SMaRT).
They recognised that some of their services could be modernised to provide more effective and person centered services with greater efficiencies than old style traditional support.
And they are not the only ones showing an interest in the service, which provides 24 hour cover to supported housing schemes, gives customers a greater sense of security and privacy and reduces out of hours costs. The award-winning service was developed with a clear vision and leadership of HWCS, the help of NCHA’s in-house IT specialists and most importantly our customers.
It combines Tunstall Telecare, developed originally for sheltered housing, with CCTV to provide a 24/7 support and security service in 40 NCHA supported housing schemes, providing support to 600 customers including people living in their own homes.
Staff no longer work at night in the schemes, a change welcomed by our service users who enjoy the greater sense of safety, security and privacy offered by the SMaRT approach. They sleep safe and sound at night knowing help is always available. When the day staff go home, SMaRT takes over. Customers can call trained and experienced support workers, if they have a problem.
Advice or support is provided over the system. Call types include emergency maintenance for our properties, health advice, reports of anti-social behaviours and emotional support including crisis situations. In some cases a mobile response team responds swiftly to emergency calls from a fleet of SMART cars. The service also ensures the safety of all HWCS lone workers through a computer monitoring system.
Advice or support is provided over the system. Call types include emergency maintenance for our properties, health advice, reports of anti-social behaviours and emotional support including crisis situations. In some cases a mobile response team responds swiftly to emergency calls from a fleet of SMART cars. The service also ensures the safety of all HWCS lone workers through a computer monitoring system.
With 20 highly trained staff, the service supports vulnerable people across the East Midlands in rural and urban areas. It offers a bespoke service as part of individual care packages. It can, for example, be tailored to monitor falls and night-time movement, provide fire alerts and screen bogus callers.
SMaRT call centre provides 24 hour cover to service users
Using CCTV, support workers monitor entrances, common areas and corridors. Customers have overwhelmingly welcomed the extra security in what are often volatile households where bullying and violence are not unknown.
"HWCS has successfully introduced their IT solutions by directly involving service users," said the judges who presented the Ceretas IT Innovation Award for 2007 to HWCS for the SMaRT initiative. The award was accepted by service user Louise Frettingham on behalf of the organisation.
Further reading
For more information about SMaRT’s work, please visit the SMaRT pages on the NCHA website or read the press release below:
23 May 2007: SMaRT thinking wins national award
