| What is Helpline?  The Care Centre is South Kesteven District Council’s 24 hour, 365 days per year monitoring and operations centre. Our current customer base is 5,600.
The Care Centre was established in 1988 to provide back up services to Resident Wardens in sheltered housing schemes throughout the South Kesteven area. The introduction of the facility replaced the Relief Warden and effectively gave full 24-hour cover to residents for the first time.
The Care Centre presently monitors 39 SKDC managed sheltered housing schemes and also 22 Housing Association, Charity and Almshouse schemes throughout Lincolnshire, Cambridgeshire and the East Midlands. This covers a total of 2,291 dwellings.
It also receives calls from nearly 2,000 private individuals connected to the Care Centre via the special Helpline telephone system. As the system connects callers to the Centre via the normal telephone network, it is possible to have customers anywhere in the country. We currently have customers as far away as Essex, Newcastle and Staffordshire.
The staff are highly experienced in responding to a diverse range of situations, from speaking with clients simply wanting a 'chat or reassurance', to those who may be lonely and have no regular callers to their home, right through to those in a real emergency situation. They are not all older people - the system is used by disabled clients, those suffering mental illness - young and old alike.
Using the latest in communications equipment and technology, the Care Centre provides a prompt, efficient and caring response to all types of calls, 24-hours a day. There are 8 telephone lines accessing the Care Centre’s computer system, all of which are recorded on the latest digital system for future retrieval and reference.
It is intended to extend the range of services further to provide monitoring services for those affected by domestic violence, harassment and bogus callers. The facility has proved extremely useful for businesses with Lone Workers, both in small and large factory units.
It is hoped the equipment can help Social Services, the Health Authority and GP Practices with their work in planning care management, to prevent admission to hospital or care / nursing homes as well as monitoring progress following discharge from hospital.
Receiving a Call from Clients Contact with the Care Centre is made by a resident pressing the large red button on the special telephone unit or activating the pendant which should be worn by the resident.
When a call is received at the Care Centre the computer system identifies the equipment and resident calling and selects the appropriate residents’ data from the central computer and presents the information onto the PC screen.
Using this wealth of information and whilst maintaining a link with the caller, the Care Centre operator can
* call any emergency service - fire, police, ambulance
* contact their doctor
* contact a relative or friend
* contact a representative of their landlord (for example for repairs)
If the client can’t speak or communicate, we assume they need help and will arrange for the most urgent, appropriate response using the data we have about the caller and their contact arrangements.
The Care Centre offers the reassurance that in an emergency, day or night, appropriate action can be determined and assistance or help obtained for the resident, quickly and easily.
Care Centre Standards The Care Centre is currently working toward compliance with the ASAP (Association of Social Alarm Providers) National Code of Practice. The Code has been introduced to ensure that alarm users receive a reliable, safe and consistent service, which they have a right to expect and, where judgements need to be made by Control Centre staff, they should reflect the needs and safety of the user.
Some of the main Operational Standards of the Code are :-
* answer 80% of calls within 30 seconds and 98.5% within 60 seconds.
* initially regard all calls as potential emergencies
* be able to provide immediate reassurance and advice to clients in distress
* take account of the wishes of individual users when determining actions taken
* have a procedure manual giving guidance to staff
* regularly check clients records and keep information as up to date as possible
* record all calls on disk and retain for 12 months
* comply with minimum staffing levels, including 24 hour cover every day of the year
* have a complaints procedure
* have a code of conduct covering honesty and integrity, confidentiality, needs of vulnerable groups.
CARE CENTRE & HELPLINE SERVICE OUR AIM IS TO GIVE OUR CLIENTS
* INDEPENDENCE
* REASSURANCE
* SECURITY
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