The Telecare Alliance was established June 2005. It was an independent company that provided impartial telecare advice. Its mission was to help improve the lives of people who want to live independently for longer by providing specialist consultancy and training in the use of appropriate electronic technologies to its client care organisations so that they can better fulfil their responsibilities.

As of May 2006 The Telecare Alliance ceased trading as such. However, we have continued to provide you with a free Telecare Aware news service. Visit www.telecareaware.com

For further information or consultancy enquiries, please contact me.

Steve Hards

Steve's brief biog.

I have been a consultant/management contractor since 1992. Clients have included the Department of Health, NHS Trusts, GP practices and health authorities. They have made use of my:
•   project planning and management skills
•   analytical abilities
•   creativity in getting things done
•   wide-ranging experience of working with civil servants
•   document-handling skills (I am expert with Word and PowerPoint and wrote Create Impressive Documents, Gower, 1996.)

Achievements

April 2005 to June 2006 I set up and ran the Telecare Alliance consultancy alongside undertaking other consultancy work under my sole-trader entity, Briarwood 1000. Clients during this time included Essex County Council, Hampshire County Council, Teesside councils, Wirral Council and the Disabled Living Foundation and British Red Cross. I also initiated, and still run, the internet-based Telecare Aware news service.

From July 2004 to March 2005, I organised the Department of Health’s Telecare Policy Collaborative — a major experiment in policy development involving 60 stakeholder organisations and a contact list of more than 500 other people.

This was in addition to my main contract with the Department (which ran from 2000 to 2005, renewed each year) to manage the Integrating Community Equipment Services (ICES) Project for the Department of Health. In 2001 I coordinated the inputs of stakeholders to create the Guide to Integrating Community Equipment Services and made the case to the Minister to set up the national ICES support team, after which I was the team’s principal link into the Department. I initiated the popular ICES website, influenced the way in which the team operated, and liaised with Ministers, senior civil servants and various policy teams. I organised the ICES External Reference Group of stakeholders and was involved in changing the law in relation to councils’ powers to charge for the loan of community equipment.

Brief history

I qualified as a speech and language therapist in 1974 and worked as a clinician and service manager until 1990, when I moved full-time into general NHS management in the Community Health Services Unit in Cambridge. I had board-level responsibility for contracting, information and planning.

Concurrently with my work for other clients, and before it evolved into the National Institute for Mental Health in England (NIMHE) I was an associate consultant with the Centre for Mental Health Services Development (King’s College).

I am a member of the Department of Health’s Care Services Improvement Partnership (CSIP) Change Agent Team Expert Reference Group.