Government report warns of slow pace of digital switchover by telecare users

A government report has warned that telecare users are not migrating to digital telephone networks as quickly as expected in advance of the planned switchover from analogue to digital phones in two years’ time.

Britain’s telecoms providers are currently transitioning their telephone services from analogue to digital networks, with an intention of completing the switchover by the end of 2025. 

However, the change presents challenges in relation to telecare users. Telecare is a monitoring service that offers remote support to elderly, disabled and vulnerable people who live alone in their own homes. Taking the form of equipment such as fall detectors and personal alarms, telecare detects when there is a problem and sends alerts to a call centre which then organises help.

In a foreword to a policy paper published last December, Lord Markham – a junior minister at the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) – warned ‘many vulnerable telecare users’ were at risk of losing their services on the day their phone line goes digital, as telecare is mainly provided through analogue equipment which may not be digitally compatible or perform reliably on digital networks.

Lord Markham wrote that the need to mitigate this risk was ‘urgent’. But in a new update to the telecare stakeholder action plan, the DHSC has admitted that progress among individual telecare users is slow.

‘There has not … been the expected acceleration in the numbers of telecare users being migrated from the analogue PSTN to digital telephone networks,” the update said, ‘except where individuals have elected to do so, for example when updating their broadband package. More telecare users will now be switched over during 2024 and 2025 than was originally envisaged.’

There are an estimated half a million telecare devices in care homes, supported housing and sheltered living arrangements, including 25,000 specialist housing developments with hardwired telecare systems.

Digital systems could improve telecare services, but transitioning away from analogue networks is complicated by the wide number and variety of service commissioners and providers and equipment suppliers and manufacturers.

It is thought that most telecare users are BT customers. BT plans to run a nationwide awareness campaign, while other telecare providers are working to increase service users’ knowledge of the switchover.

‘It is important that action continues to be progressed to ensure risks are mitigated ahead of the December 2025 deadline for the telecommunications industry-led public switched telephone network (PSTN) switch-off,’ said last week’s update. ‘Since the publishing of the initial action plan, planning by telecare service providers has increased in adapting their services to digital. There remains, however, variation in the digital maturity of services, including the switching of alarm receiving centres (ARCs) and the availability of finance to upgrade or replace equipment.

‘This is a particular issue in group or sheltered housing where telecare devices and wiring are typically older and more difficult to replace. While progress has been made under the actions in the action plan, timescales have been revised so that further progress can be tracked throughout 2023 and 2024.’

The DHSC update asked telecare equipment suppliers to provide more technical and operational advice on existing and new telecare devices, and more information on what purchasers need to consider in terms of cyber security requirements.