15nr Sheltered Housing Complexes - Design & Installation of Warden Call Systems

Tender description

North Lanarkshire Council currently operates analogy warden call and telecare systems across 15 sheltered housing. These systems provide a critical service to vulnerable tenants, enabling emergency assistance to be summoned in the event of falls, medical emergencies, welfare concerns, or other incidents where immediate intervention is required. The existing systems were installed using analogue telecommunications technology. However, the telecommunications industry is undergoing a nationwide transition from analogue to digital infrastructure, with analogue services scheduled to be withdrawn. This transition presents significant challenges for legacy warden call and telecare equipment which were not originally designed to operate on digital networks. To mitigate this risk, Tunstall, the Council's existing provider, together with the Digital Office and wider industry partners, developed and promoted a solution commonly referred to as a "Black Box" device intended to enable existing analogue systems to continue operating over a digital connection. The Council delayed full system replacement across its whole estate on the basis that this solution was expected to provide a viable interim mitigation while a longer-term replacement programme was developed which the council has started with 15 properties complete to date. Lot 1: Recent industry experience has demonstrated that the proposed Black Box solution has not delivered the level of reliability originally anticipated indeed it fails to work at all. This issue is not unique to North Lanarkshire Council and is being experienced across the public sector with a stakeholder group currently set up around this. The Digital Office and industry stakeholders have advised that there can be no assurance that the Black Box technology will provide a reliable or permanent solution. Furthermore, there is no guarantee that any future delay to the analogue switch-off programme will be implemented or maintained. As a result, the Council now faces a significant and immediate operational risk associated with the continued use of legacy technology that may cease to function correctly when analogue services are withdrawn.. Economic operators may be excluded from this competition if they are in any of the situations referred to in regulation 58 of the Public Contracts (Scotland) Regulations 2015.