TEC programme data review and evaluation: summary report

About the TEC Programme

Launched in late 2014, the Scottish Government’s Technology Enabled Care ( TEC) Programme is a circa £9 million a year Scotland-wide programme designed to significantly increase citizen choice and control in health, well-being and care services. Due to the start-up time required by many of the projects, the first phase of the programme will conclude in September 2018. Building on this, a second phase of work focusing on scaling up and adoption will commence from April 2018.

The TEC Programme was set up to respond to the need for service transformation in the context of rising demand for health and social care. By providing central funding to a dedicated programme, the aim was to drive deployment at the local level alongside national infrastructure and support work, and to place Scotland at the forefront of innovative approaches to technology enabled care.

Technology Enabled Care is defined as “where outcomes for individuals in home or community settings are improved through the application of technology as an integral part of quality, cost-effective care and support”. The Programme has been structured over five interelated workstreams:

Expanding Home and Mobile Health Monitoring ( HMHM)

Expanding the use of video conferencing ( VC)

Digital platforms

Further expanding and embedding the use of telecare

Improvement and support

Scotland’s leadership in this area has been recognised by the award of ‘4-star Reference Site’ status by the European Commission’s Innovation Partnership for Active & Healthy Ageing in December 2016. This award, which is the highest standard under the system, was in recognition of its work on technology enabled care in an integrated care setting. Only 8 out of 74 sites were awarded 4-star status.

The Digital Health and Care Strategy for Scotland, published in April 2018, will build on achievements of the programme to date and set out future developments and priorities to ensure effective integration of TEC with wider digital health and care objectives.