Hampshire County Council take steps to improve homecare delivery efficiency as they award Panztel the largest homecare monitoring contract in the UK
Hampshire County Council have awarded a new contract to Panztel for their eziTracker service that provides electronic verification of homecare service provision. The largest electronic homecare monitoring contract in the UK, it will involve around 2,700 carers from 121 independent care providers, serving over 8,000 individuals across the County.
28 October 2011 – Hampshire County Council have awarded a new contract to Panztel for their eziTracker service that provides electronic verification of homecare service provision. In common with other local authorities Hampshire County Council contracts out homecare (also called social or domiciliary care) services to independent service providers, many being charities operating in a local area. The largest electronic monitoring contract in the UK, it will involve around 2,700 carers from 121 independent care providers, serving over 8,000 individuals across the county.
As the ultimate funding authority, Hampshire wanted some form of electronic verification of service provision. Panztel’s eziTracker is already in use by over 30 other local authorities in the UK. By using the best technology available for this type of monitoring of remote staff it will help Hampshire save money and deliver a better service. Other benefits include alerting management to any service breakdown whilst safeguarding care workers.
The eziTracker service uses the telephone network and data capture technology to provide real time information on the whereabouts of social care workers, enabling management to fully and effectively monitor the remote staff employed by independent home care providers.
Panztel’s eziTracker care management system was chosen following a competitive tender process. Commenting on this development, Myles Walshe, Procurement Manager for Hampshire County Council Adult Services, said, “We are anticipating that the eziTracker service will enable us to realise significant cost efficiency savings whilst also giving us the capability to more effectively monitor the quality of commissioned care delivered by our providers. I should stress that the introduction of electronic homecare monitoring will be a collaborative project between Hampshire County Council’s Adult Services Department and our providers, and there will be benefits to all concerned. In particular, lone working care workers should benefit from the greater personal safeguards afforded by the eziTracker service”.
Commenting on the award of this contract by Hampshire CC, Jonathan Hudson, managing director of Panztel (UK) Ltd, said, “Since May 2010 and the cutbacks that followed, local authorities have placed greater emphasis on electronic proof for the provision of domiciliary care that is now contracted out to independent home care providers, and that is the primary benefit of our eziTracker service.
“In Hampshire’s case in means the hundreds of care workers operating alone in a domiciliary setting every day will be monitored to verify service delivery, avoid possible service breakdown and offer a crucial safeguard for the wellbeing of staff working alone. Local authorities that have already adopted eziTracker have found that service levels improve whilst overall costs come down”.
For more information about eziTracker hm contact Panztel on 0845 453 4156 or visit: http://www.panztel.com.
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Issued on behalf of Panztel (UK) Ltd by Next Step Marketing Ltd
Media enquiries to: Heather Lambert
Tel: 44 (0)1256 472020
Fax: 44 (0)1256 471010
Email: heather@nextstepmarketing.co.uk
Note to Editors
Established in 1998, the Panztel Group has separate trading companies in each of its key geographical markets: Australia, New Zealand and the UK. All the companies supply and support the same key branded services: eziTracker, eziTracker hm and Loneworker Companion. Local authorities currently make up the biggest sector of registered users of Panztel services. Most of the demand comes from Adult Social Services departments where Panztel provide an invaluable service in the monitoring and safeguarding of domiciliary care staff.
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