What is the Community Care Alarm Service?

Our service provides emergency help if you are elderly or disabled, or have other special needs. Anyone living in Newcastle can join the service, no matter what type of accommodation you live in or who owns your home.

The special alarm in your home is linked by phone to our central control room which runs 24 hours a day. If your alarm goes off, you will automatically be connected to an operator at our central control room. The operator will immediately know your name, address and any other information you have given us. They will phone for any help you may need, for example, your doctor, a relative, a friend or an emergency service.

Visit the Community Care Alarm Service section to find out more

What is Sheltered Housing?

Sheltered housing helps people live independently in a safe, secure and friendly community. We aim to provide good quality homes within our sheltered housing schemes and provide advice and support with dedicated officers at each scheme, and within housing management services.

Visit the Sheltered Housing section to find out more

Local offers for sheltered housing

• We will offer a free financial assessment to all applicants who are offered a sheltered housing tenancy, to help them decide whether they can afford to live in the property.
• We will offer an enhanced property standard for sheltered housing properties which includes stripping and painting all rooms if the property needs to be decorated.
• We will offer a low cost packing and unpacking service along with a removal service to all new sheltered housing tenants.
• We will offer an enhanced furniture package which can include carpets, curtains and a specialist bed for new sheltered housing tenants if they need them.
• We will offer a free financial assessment when completing a support plan for all sheltered housing tenants.
• We will provide a small fund for environmental improvements for every sheltered housing scheme during 2011/12, and provide guidance on what the
  money can be spent on, so that everyone can get involved in improving where they live.
• We will consult all sheltered housing tenants, either through meetings or individual visits, before any sheltered housing improvement work is carried out.

Our service standards

• We will answer 98.5% of all alarm calls within one minute.
• When you need help our Mobile Wardens will come to your home as quickly as possible. We aim to be with customers within 30 minutes for 90% of all alarm calls.
• We will complete either a ‘data check’ or a Support Plan with you depending on your needs. We will do this once a year, so that the information we use to provide your services is correct and up to date.

If you live in one of our sheltered housing schemes:

• We will complete a support plan with you once a year, and will review your support plan after six months.

What else you can expect from our service

Service standards show how we are performing. However, we also do more to help our customers such as:

• We will call the emergency services for you if you need them.
• We may sometimes arrange a ‘follow-up visit’ to check everything is okay after you have used our response services, or if you return home after being discharged from hospital. This visit is usually on the day following the response or discharge.
• We will collect information about you when you join the service. We may share this information with partner agencies and services if this helps to support you or improve our services to you. We will not share the information if you ask us not to do so.
• We record all alarm calls and telephone calls we receive for training and monitoring purposes. This helps us to improve our service to you.
• If there is a fault with your alarm call equipment we will check it within 24 hours and repair or replace it as soon as possible. You will still be able to contact us in emergencies by telephone on 0191 278 8699.

If you live in one of our sheltered housing schemes:

• Your Sheltered Housing Officer will check the alarm call system in your home four times a year to make sure it is working properly. They will also check that you know how to use it.
• Your Sheltered Housing Officer will hold at least four ‘house meetings’ a year in your scheme. The meetings give you a chance to give us your views, ask questions and get information about any changes in our services. Notes from the meeting will be displayed on the scheme notice board.
• Twice a year your Sheltered Housing Officer will give you information about fire safety procedures in the scheme. This is usually done at house meetings.

Click here to download a full copy of the CCAS and Sheltered Housing Standards leaflet