Technology Strategy Board to invest £18 million in technology that supports independent living

The Technology Strategy Board is to invest up to £18 million over four years to show how new technologies and innovative services can help support independent living for older people and people living with long-term conditions, and improve their quality of life.

The DALLAS programme – Delivering Assisted Living Lifestyles at Scale – will establish up to 5 sites across the UK with a minimum of 10,000 users per site and will show how assisted living technologies and services can be used to promote well-being and provide top quality health and care, enabling people to live independently.  The programme will also help to grow the sector in the UK and help British companies to take advantage of increasing global demand for assisted living.

Universities and Science Minister David Willetts said: “British companies have made great progress in developing new independent living technologies. The market for these services is now growing rapidly in the UK and across the world. This investment will provide opportunities for British companies to showcase themselves in valuable new ways.”

Minister of State for Care Services Paul Burstow said. "Assistive technology, like remote monitoring and personal alarms, provide a great opportunity for improving health outcomes and supporting independence.  We want to see the results from our Whole System Demonstrator programme help the development of technology at a scale that will bring benefits to as many people as possible. To that end, I think the DALLAS approach will provide an impetus that can make a real difference to patients and staff."

Iain Gray, the Technology Strategy Board’s Chief Executive, said: “This demonstrator programme will be the next step towards the aspiration of providing assisted living services for millions of people across the UK.  The key objective behind the programme is to take the next step towards integrating new healthcare and well-being technology and services across the public sector, the private sector and the third sector, including by charities and  social enterprises.”

The programme will also show how cost savings could be made alongside the provision of improved health benefits for both public and private provision, while opening new markets in social innovation, service innovation and wellness.

There will be a total investment over four years of £23 million.  The Technology Strategy Board will invest £18 million in the UK-wide programme while the Scottish Government has agreed to invest a further £5 million, to establish one of the sites in Scotland.  Earlier this month the Technology Strategy Board and the Scottish Government signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to establish a Scottish Assisted Living Demonstrator with each committed to invest up to £5m.

A competition for contracts to establish the DALLAS sites will open in June 2011.  Further information about the competition will be published by the Technology Strategy Board in June.