New technology trial for Biggar retirement housing complex

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A “groundbreaking technology project” to monitor health and wellbeing indicators such as motion and property temperature is to be piloted at a Biggar retirement housing complex.

The six-month scheme will see “unobtrusive sensors” placed inside the 25 homes and around the development at Langvout Court, with data sent to a technology platform and constantly automatically monitored to inform care and housing staff and help address any issues being faced by tenants.

It is being carried out by Glasgow technology firm Archangel in partnership with development owners Bield, who welcomed the connectivity trial, and is also being supported by South Lanarkshire health and social care partnership.

The sensors are connected via Angelnet, the Archangel certified partner, resilient connectivity network, with the data then becoming available to all stakeholders via the Archangel platform. Angelnet includes broadband, mobile and wireless LoRaWAN (Low power long range wide area network) connecting the IoT (Internet of Things) sensors within the properties and communal areas to provide a resilient, scalable and future-fit solution for housing and care by enabling wider connectivity.

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The “evaluating care delivery in rural settings” project is one of 11 across the Glasgow City region – which includes both North and South Lanarkshire – to have received UK government funding from the Smart & Connected Social Places 5G Innovation fund.

Information gathered from sensors in Langvout Court properties and communal area will be immediately relayed to the “ambient assisted living” technology platform and continually monitored.

Archangel chief executive and founder Tom Morton said: “Data related to social housing, health, care and wellbeing is currently fragmented across multiple vendor systems and siloed datasets. This disjointed approach creates inefficiencies and hinders the large-scale adoption of IoT due to the costs associated with numerous single purpose systems and specialised skills required to manage them. It also weakens efforts to support integrated healthy, sustainable homes initiatives.

“This project showcases a smarter more cost-efficient approach to resolve these challenges using social housing data collection and presentation from multiple IoT devices via a unified communication infrastructure. It offers a single, holistic view of individuals and their home environments, allowing for collective decision-making and timely interventions.”

Gavin Wright of Bield Housing added: “This project enables us to explore IoT expansion as part of our digital strategy and aligns closely with the Smart Social Housing initiative which aims to tackle a major challenge in housing, health and social care: the fragmentation of data across disconnected systems.”

Professor Soumen Sengupta, director of Health and Social Care South Lanarkshire, told how better supporting “people with particular needs to live independently in the community in a suitable, sustainable home” is a key objective of the area’s local housing strategy.

He said: “Integrated deployment of digital technologies will have an increasingly important role in this, and I am looking forward to the sharing of the lessons learnt from this project across our local authority, the wider Glasgow City Region and the country as a whole.”

Archangel successfully applied for the funding with support from the Digital Health and Care Innovation Centre (DHI), whose director of planning and performance Janette Hughes said: “This is ultimately about making housing safer and more responsive to personal circumstances for communities and allowing people to live happier, longer and more secure lives in their own properties.

“It is fantastic to see a Scottish business securing this type of funding as our role is to support research and innovation into digital health.”

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