Elected Member Briefing - Technical issue affecting Community Alarm system

About this Briefing Note

Report by: Jacquie Pepper, Chief Officer, Health and Social Care Partnership 

Date: 7 March 2025

Subject: Technical issue affecting Community Alarm system

Details

Purpose

This briefing is to update Elected Members on a technical issue which is affecting our Community Alarm system.   

Briefing Information

The Community Alarm system is currently experiencing a technical issue which we believe is being caused by a problem with the national digital network.  

Some service users are experiencing one-way audio when making a call to the service. Community alarm call handlers can hear clients, but clients are unable to hear handlers. The service is still able to provide support.   

This issue is also affecting telecare systems that control smoke detectors, heat sensors, door contacts and epilepsy monitors. 

Some other Health and Social Care Partnerships in Scotland are having similar problems. Some Partnerships have reported that they are experiencing a delay of around 20-40 minutes in receiving calls to their Community Alarm service, but that has not been the case so far in Perth and Kinross.  

The Scottish Digital Office is currently working with Chubb and EE to resolve the issue. 

If a call is received and the service user cannot hear the call handler, staff will call the service user on their landline or mobile phone. If we cannot contact a service user by phone, their emergency contacts will be reached.  

Additional Community Alarm staff have been deployed over the weekend to deal with the situation.  

Information will be posted on the Council's social media channels this evening to inform people of the problem, with reassurance that all calls to Community Alarm are still being responded to by staff.  

Scottish Fire and Rescue are aware of the situation.  

We will provide you with updates as necessary.