Cardiff’s Community Alarm has been praised for their work and service they provide to their users.
Following an audit undertaken by Insight Auditors on behalf of the Telecare Service Authority (TSA) the report concluded that Cardiff was a well run and managed service that had moved forward and embraced all elements of the TSA Code of Practice, accredited for three years.
The Cardiff team were set targets as part of the audit and in each area they exceed their targets, as the figures below show:
- Call Response Times: Target 97.50% Actual 97.75%
- Mobile Response: Target 80% within 20 minutes, actual 86.00% Applications processed: Target five working days, actual two working days. Fault and Collection Response: 90% within 48 hours, actual 100%
The Cardiff Community Alarm Service is available to all citizens and communities in Cardiff, offering monitoring and help for older people and people with disabilities, to live safely and independently.
The service is also available to repeat victims of crime including doorstep crime, domestic violence and racial abuse, and can provide lone worker solutions. The service also offers assistance to those who have been discharged from hospital, enabling them to leave with added security.
The Community Alarm Service is run by Cardiff Council’s Housing and Neighbourhood renewal department and has been operating since 1990.
Over the last few years the service has increased its capacity and has seen an unprecedented rise in its client numbers and in the last year alone 267,000 calls have been answered by the team making it one of the busiest services in Wales.
The service continues to develop and have recently acquired a defibrillator with all staff being trained to use it. This has helped to relieve pressure off the emergency services. An agreement has also been put in place so that mobile wardens can use the bus lane whilst responding to an emergency. This has resulted in a quicker response time, recent figures showed mobile wardens responded to 90% of emergencies within 20 minutes
Alongside the report the Community Alarm team have also conduced a client survey which asked user to comment on how they feel the service is run. In call handling and response 99% of those questioned said they were satisfied with the service in installation and 98% of those asked were satisfied with the service provided.
The team have also received a number of awards including being the first Authority in Wales’s to be accredited by the TSA in Installation, Monitoring and Mobile Response and the first in the UK to be accredited by the SSIAB against British and European Standards.
Executive Member for Housing, Communities and Social Justice, Cllr Judith Woodman, said: “The Cardiff Community Alarm provides a very important and much needed service to those who are vulnerable in our city. As the audit and client feedback has shown it is a service that is highly regarded by those who use it. It’s fantastic that both industry experts and more importantly service users have commended the service so highly.”
Those who feel they would benefit from the Community Alarm Service should contact Community Alarm Service on telephone number 029 2061 4852 or by email to [email protected]
