A six-month mission involving using good sensors at a retirement housing growth in South Lanarkshire has demonstrated advantages for each tenants and housing suppliers.
It concerned sensors being positioned round communal areas and 10 particular person properties on the retirement housing growth, Langvout Court docket in Biggar, to observe property circumstances similar to temperature, humidity and movement.
The mission ‘Evaluating care supply in rural settings’, showcased the expertise improvements and was funded by the UK authorities’s Division for Science, Innovation and Know-how as a part of the Glasgow Metropolis Area (GCR) 5G Good and Linked Locations Programme.
It concerned Glasgow-based digital well being innovator Archangel alongside Bield Housing and Care and the Digital Well being and Care Innovation Centre.
The information was relayed to Archangel’s ambient assisted residing safe expertise platform and robotically monitored across the clock to handle any potential points which may come up in relation to the residing circumstances of tenants.
The sensors had been linked through the Angelnet resilient connectivity community, with the info being made obtainable to all stakeholders through the Archangel platform.
Gavin Wright, head of property administration at Bield, stated: “This mission exemplifies how considerate innovation can help older folks to stay independently, safely and with dignity.
“We’re proud to have performed a key position in a partnership that’s delivering actual, optimistic change.
“The good expertise we trialled at Langvout Court docket has introduced clear price financial savings and improved security.
“Because of this, we’re now exploring how this strategy might be rolled out throughout our wider property.”
The mission delivered an annual £7,670 saving in heating prices and an annual £2,825 saving in upkeep prices.
“An £18.5 million annual saving can also be estimated when factored out throughout all of Scotland’s sheltered housing developments.
The mission underwent an evaluation by Edinburgh-based digital expertise consultancy agency FarrPoint.
The closing report on the mission, produced by FarrPoint exhibits the affect that using good sensors can have within the housing sector.
The primary advantages listed embody lowered utility prices, lowered upkeep prices, lowered guide checks, enhance tenant security, and improved regulatory compliance.
Kate Milne, economist at FarrPoint, who led the evaluation, stated: “As impartial consultants, we regularly do research evaluating the actual affect that expertise can deliver, and I’m happy that this specific evaluation confirmed optimistic advantages of clever sensors to residents at Langvout Court docket.
“Not solely did it improve their sense of security and wellbeing but in addition supported Bield workers to ship extra well timed, knowledgeable responses.”
In October 2024, Digital Well being Information reported that Mersey Care NHS Basis Belief was working with Liverpool housing affiliation Prima Group on a mission that integrates social care housing knowledge into NHS information to enhance well being outcomes.
The pilot, which began in August 2023, aimed to securely integrates housing knowledge, encompassing residing circumstances, accessibility and locality, into NHS well being information, with the intention of bettering the standard of help providers given to tenants.
