Agenda item

Consentricare

Minutes:

Bill Palmer, Executive Partner, gave a presentation that updated on Consentricare and its progress since Consentricare’s last presentation to the Committee in June 2018.

 

Since 2018, Consentricare had released a new family of apps in addition to its original product Carehound. Houndation Suite was a managed service platform for a series of apps, which provided the technical underpinnings, for staff wellbeing apps, process and compliance apps and health and safety at work apps. Customers for the apps ranged from corporates to public sector organisations and charitable organisations.

 

The Carehound concept continued to simplify the “Care Conundrum” by providing guidance and listing national and local health and social care sector suppliers. The app also facilitated the broader management of the affairs of elderly relatives and supplied a list of services outside the local health and social care sector including solicitors, tradesmen and financial advisers. Carehound enabled relatives to access contact details for care providers, log calls and emails, and add and share calendar appointments with other users.

 

Arising from Members’ questions and comments the following points were noted:

 

·         Carehound had 100+ users within Surrey Heath and 200+ downloads nationally.

·         Consentricare’s apps were GDPR compliant and they were working towards being ISO/IEC 27001 accredited. The apps’ data was stored in UK Data Centres.

·         Relatives of elderly people often weren’t aware of the services which were available in the “elderly care ecosystem” including Council provided services such as Community Alarms and Meals at Home.

·         Carehound was already being used in partnership with Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) and Health Trusts in Berkshire and it was hoped that Carehound would be recommended in GP surgeries in the near future.

·         Carehound was free of charge to the user. Bilateral agreements were in place with some of the larger service providers listed on the app, such as solicitors and financial advisers. Commission fees were received by Consentricare, where business had been generated via the app. When licenses for Houndation Suite were sold, Consentricare received both a one off license fee and recurring annual fee. A proportion of this money was then reinvested into Consentricare.

·         Houndation Suite’s target market was companies which had large, mobile, distributed workforces, such as those in the construction, supply chain and logistics and the energy and facilities markets.

 

Members thanked Bill Palmer for his informative presentation and it was agreed that the Council would offer Consentricare a feature article in Heathscene.

 

 

 

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