Anchor wins council contract to run its social alarm and telecare call monitoring services

Housing charity Anchor has won a contract to supply Social Alarm and Telecare 24/7 monitoring services and an out-of-hours emergency answering service for tenants in the Hillingdon borough.

Anchor, which is England’s largest not-for-profit provider of housing and care for older people, has taken over the service which supports 4,500 tenants, the majority of whom are over the age of 55.

The charity, which works with 40,000 customers in its 1,000 retirement housing properties and care homes, has a dedicated team which has provided its Anchorcall telecare service to housing customers for 25 years.

The Hillingdon contract will lead to 12 more posts being created in the Anchorcall team, with Anchor looking to offer its services to other local authorities.

Graeme Hall, Anchor’s Head of Customer Service, said he was delighted to have won the contract with Hillingdon Council.

He said: “Our Anchorcall service is seen as an essential service by our customers and we work hard to provide the best service possible. The Telecare Services Association (TSA) recently accredited us, recognising the quality service we provide.

“This is the first time we have bid to provide an out-of-hours service for older people living with other organisations and we are very much looking forward to working with the council and Hillingdon’s tenants.

“The current economic climate with government cutbacks means that more financial pressures are being placed on councils across the country so we are happy to provide a value for money service which not only benefits the council but the thousands of tenants we will be supporting.”