Telecare standards for local authorities
A trusted and compliant monitoring partner
With over 35 years’ experience as a trusted partner to a wide range of social housing, independent living providers and charities, we’re recognised for collaborative working, flexibility and technology-agnostic innovation.
As one of the UK’s largest providers of personal alarms and monitoring services we’re proud to support over 180,000 vulnerable people, and partners with accredited, compassionate and reliable around the clock TEC support.
The safeguarding of our service users is embedded throughout our company. With TSA Quality Standards Framework and ISO 9001:2015 Quality Management accreditations we deliver the trusted proven performance and the reliability, safety and compliance your service demands.
Telecare Services Association
We are a fully accredited member of the Telecare Services Association (TSA) and unlike many other telecare providers, we go beyond the TSA's requirements with three UK based alarm monitoring centres and ISO 9001:2015 Quality Management Systems accreditation.
As part of our TSA membership, we undergo a stringent annual audit of our processes and services. We are also audited to the TSA's TEC Quality Standards Framework (QSF).
TSA Quality Standards Framework
QSF accreditation is particularly important in the TEC industry. As an independent audit and certification programme for the sector, regulated by the TSA (the telecare industry’s advisory body) it’s a sign of safety and quality.
In a highly competitive, and largely unregulated industry, having a QSF certification is the best way to demonstrate that our emergency alarm monitoring services reach an exemplary level and demonstrate a benchmark of safety and quality that our partners not only respect, but rely upon.
“From the outset it was evident that Taking Care is focused on ensuring the customer is at the centre of everything they do and that they persistently strive to provide service excellence through strong governance; good communication; continuous improvement; transparency and collaboration with customers, colleagues and partners.” QSF independent auditor
ISO 9001:2015 Quality Management Systems (QMS)
Taking Care is certified to ISO 9001:2015, providing independent assurance that our services are delivered through robust, consistently applied processes. For local authorities and housing associations, and our other partners this supports compliance with procurement, governance, and contract management requirements.
Achieving ISO 9001:2015 QMS certification means Taking Care’s procedures and systems meet the Quality Management System requirements. Holding the certification contributes to our culture of continual improvement and covers our monitoring centres, staff, training, services and equipment. Aligning our business with ISO 9001:2015 standards means we deliver better customer satisfaction through best practice methodology.
This gives our partners confidence in a compliant, well-governed provider delivering safe, consistent, and measurable outcomes.
Approved Supply Partner of Consortium Procurement
Consortium Procurement provide public sector bodies with a compliant and trusted procurement route. As an approved supply partner, you can be confident that we are fully compliant, fair and transparent.
Business continuity and disaster recovery
Our services can be lifesaving for vulnerable residents. We never forget this and plan for the worst so we can deal with crisis such as power cuts, extreme weather or national emergencies. We have three UK-based alarm monitoring centres, and this enables us to keep our services running across locations in the event of a disaster. There are no occasions where we anticipate restricted service, and we are committed to ensuring a business-as-usual service is maintained regardless of any unforeseen disruption.
Each site has its own Business Continuity Plan, overseen by our Quality Assurance department, who in addition to regulated KPIs apply internal measures to evaluate our effectiveness. The plans are regularly tested and audited, as demonstrated by the ISO 9001:2015 certified Quality Management system.
'Dementia Friends' training
We are committed to being a ‘Dementia-Friendly’ organisation and work with the Exeter Dementia Action Alliance to ensure we have Dementia Champions throughout the organisation.
We are keen to embed dementia awareness sessions into our culture and provide coaching support from the Advanced Safeguarding Team and run an Alzheimer's Society Dementia Friends training programme.
Policies and standards
All our processes are audited by the TSA and ISO 9001 inspections. Our data security, privacy and governance policies adhere to the highest standards and our key company policies are available online.