Paul Carter: It’s time to finally harness technology to enable independent living

Today’s changing demographics give calls for independent living extra force, writes the chair of the Commission on Smart Homes and Independent Living, and former leader of Kent CC.

In its recent national disability strategy, the government said that its long-awaited plans to reform the adult social care system would provide disabled people with more choice and control over their lives. It committed to using technology to join up services and to making housing more accessible, including by improving the disabled facilities grant.

The government’s commitment to making better use of technologies in social care is extremely welcome. Despite enormous advances witnessed over the last decade, technology provision in the context of social care services is stubbornly antiquated.

That's why I'm chairing a new Commission on Smart Homes and Independent Living with cross-party thinktank Policy Connect. I’m joined by an eminent steering group including Liz Twist MP (Lab), the Disabled Living Foundation, the National Care Forum, NRS Healthcare and other leaders in technology and social care. The commission is sponsored by both Bournemouth University and Coventry University.

Already a colossal opportunity is being missed to unleash the potential of readily available and affordable technology which could be transforming the lives of so many individuals: tackling loneliness and isolation, enabling longer term independent living and helping GP surgeries to improve distance management of long-term conditions and health outcomes.

Our commission has grappled with the barriers that have inhibited rapid roll-out of technology. We will be making recommendations to the government on how the latest technologies for the home – many of which have been available for a number of years – can be used to help disabled and older people lead healthy, independent and socially rewarding lives.

We have held three roundtables and a call for evidence to gather information from frontline health and social care commissioners and practitioners, technologists, academics, elderly and disabled people.

The independent living movement dates back to the 1950s and 1960s, when a generation of disabled students in the United States began to protest that their ability to participate in society was being held back by a combination of environmental and social factors.

By the 1970s, the movement had spread to the UK, where disabled people campaigned to leave institutional care settings, resulting in the Community Care Act.

Today, changing demographics gives the call for independent living extra force – and expectations grow that people should be able to exercise control over how and where they live throughout their lives, including having ownership of personal budgets.

Already, many more people are living independently but so much more needs to be done. There is pent-up demand for supported and extra care housing to enable disabled and elderly people to live behind their own front doors.

But the failure of successive governments to fix the many problems facing the adult social care system in England has left many disabled and older people without the support they need to live independently in the community. Accessible housing is the cornerstone of independent living, but the Housing Made for Everyone coalition estimates that some 400,000 wheelchair users are living in homes that are neither adapted nor accessible.

We see an opportunity to advance this agenda. The increasing prevalence of smart homes presents new opportunities for people across the spectrum of impairments to enjoy unprecedented control over their surroundings at relatively low cost. The assistive technology sector is more vibrant and innovative than ever before. The analogue-to-digital switchover of the UK’s telephone network due to be completed in 2025 provides further impetus to ensure that everyone can benefit from the technological breakthroughs of the last few decades.

Assistive technology and telecare services have long been established fixtures of the local adult social services landscape. But they and health partners have often struggled to fully harness the potential of technology for the people they support and have failed to roll it out sufficiently.

The evidence we have gathered so far puts forward a number of reasons for this.

One is that a lack of joined-up provision and buy-in at local and national levels – from local adult social services and housing departments to the NHS and Whitehall – means that funding continues to flow inflexibly to services and practices that are reactive rather than proactive and fail to take advantage of significant advances in technology.

Training and professional development for health and social care practitioners is also essential. Inadequate training and limited professional development opportunities have resulted in disabled and older people not receiving the support they need to use technology. This is exacerbated by the fragmented landscape in products and services which has produced markets that even the most savvy individuals and families would find hard to navigate.

We are also uncovering examples of local authorities and providers successfully cutting through the complexity to provide better services to their residents, including by employing specialist assistive technologists to provide expert advice and support to service users and staff.

In a report later this year, our commission will set out the long-overdue steps policymakers must take to realise the potential of technology in the home to help disabled and older people live as they choose.

View the public call for evidence here.

Sir Paul Carter (Con), chair, Commission on Smart Homes and Independent Living; former leader, Kent CC

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