Technology enabled care
Support provided or funded by local authorities in Scotland 2024/25

About this release

This annual release by Public Health Scotland (PHS) provides information on Technology enabled care (TEC) funded by local authorities in Scotland throughout financial year 2024/25. TEC supports people to live safer and independent lives by reducing the risks of falls and vulnerable situations through technology and equipment such as community alarms and telecare.

A community alarm is a technology-based service that allows a person to call for help quickly if they feel unwell, have a fall, or experience an emergency at home. It typically includes a pendant or device that connects the user to a 24 hour monitoring service, ensuring that assistance can be provided when needed to support safety and independence. Telecare systems can detect risks such as falls, fire, or changes in daily activity and automatically alert a monitoring centre or responder if help is needed. This support is designed to prevent harm, enable rapid assistance, and promote wellbeing in the community.

This release reports the number and demographic profile of people receiving TEC, the type of support provided (community alarm and/or telecare), and information on people’s living circumstances, including whether they live alone. It also includes the distribution of TEC recipients by deprivation, and the proportion of people with a community alarm and/or telecare who also receive Care at Home. Care at home is care tailored to the needs of an individual that is provided in a person’s own home including support with personal care and other tasks around the house.

Not all local authority areas were able to provide data on Technology enabled care services and estimates are included in trends where possible. Further information on data completeness and estimation are provided in the dashboard.

Main points

• During 2024/25 there were an estimated 125,685 people who received Technology enabled care. This is slightly higher (2%) compared to 2023/24 (123,020).
• During 2024/25, the majority of people (86.9%) receiving Technology enabled care were aged 65 or older with the split of 14.6% aged 65-74, 34.4% aged 75-84 and 37.9% aged 85 & over. The remaining individuals were younger adults - only 0.4% were under the age of 18.
• In 2024/25, people living in the 20% most deprived communities (as measured using the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation) had the highest level of support through Technology enabled care with just under 28,000 people compared to just over 19,500 people living in the 20% least deprived communities. This pattern is consistent across all reported years (2018/19–2024/25).
• In 2024/25, of the people who were in receipt of Technology enabled care 41.9% were also in receipt of Care at home services. This is similar to 2023/24 (42.0%).

This is a line chart with four lines showing the number of people receiving a community alarm only, receiving telecare only, receiving both a community alarm and telecare and the total receiving a community alarm and/or telecare from 2015/16 to 2024/25. The estimated number of people with only a community alarm decreased from 90,380 in 2015/16 to 72,035 in 2017/18 and then increased with some fluctuation to 79,775 in 2024/25. The estimated number of people with only a telecare service decreased from 6,920 in 2015/16 to 4,710 in 2016/17.  The number of people with only a telecare service then increased to 16,215 in 2017/18 and fluctuated to 15,755 in 2022/23 before increasing to 19,545 in 2023/24. The number of people then decreased to 15,105 in 2024/25. The estimated number of people with both a community alarm and telecare increased with some fluctuation from 29,490 in 2015/16 to 37,705 in 2018/19.  The number of people then decreased to 31,100 in 2020/21 since when the figure has fluctuated to 30,805 in 2024/25.  The estimated total number of people with a community alarm and/or telecare has fluctuated from 126,790 in 2015/16 to 125,685 in 2024/25.

Close

Number of people in receipt of a Technology enabled care package; Scotland, 2015/16 to 2024/25

Background

Information is provided by local authorities on people who are in receipt of TEC during the reporting period. Further information on the types of TEC support packages can be found on the  PHS Technology enable care section of the website.

TEC data is submitted by local authorities as part of the Source Social Care dataset. PHS collects and annually publishes a suite of statistics on local authority funded social care

Local authorities are one of the strategic partners delivering health and social care along with NHS Boards and Integration Authorities. The analyses in the dashboard are presented by the local authority area funding the package of care.

In order to develop these statistics and due to the changes in the collection and processing, the figures in this release are classified as ‘Official Statistics in development’. Further information on the data collection is available on the PHS website.

Scotland's social care system is undergoing a transformation, and changes are needed to how data is collected, shared and used to improve outcomes for people using and delivering services in Scotland. The Social Care Data Intelligence Programme Board (SCDIPB), consisting of representatives from across the social care sector, are leading efforts to modernise the national social care data landscape.

More details are available at Transforming social care data in Scotland. We welcome feedback on the TEC statistics and these wider data developments.

Further information

The next release of this publication will be 2027 (date to be confirmed)