Over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, adult social care services in the UK have consistently been disrupted by widespread staff shortages brought about by the rapid and ever-changing spread of the disease.

A surge in staff absence has put tremendous pressure on the sector, which was already seriously understaffed and underfunded prior to COVID. Therefore, the health and wellbeing of many vulnerable people living in social housing may be negatively impacted.

To make matters worse, a recent report published by the Housing Ombudsman highlights the poor conditions in thousands of social housing properties across the country, with damp and mould presenting a common problem for residents.

The proliferation of damp and mould in social housing poses potentially serious respiratory issues for those vulnerable residents whose care has been disrupted by the pandemic and could place even more strain on the already pressured adult social care sector.

Luckily, our IoT technology can tackle both these problems simultaneously through the deployment of a single solution.

Our simple-to-use IoT battery-powered sensors have been installed in the homes of vulnerable residents to discreetly safeguard their health and wellbeing by monitoring their day-to-day activity patterns without cameras or microphones.

In response to any sudden changes in activity, the sensors send an alert message to care providers, enabling appropriate action to be taken. Deployment results have shown that the technology is highly effective at minimising the risk of severe injury and even death.

By unobtrusively monitoring a resident's daily activity, this low-cost technology not only helps to protect their health and safety but also alleviates financial and logistical pressure on care providers whose services are already stretched so thinly.

This same solution can also monitor the environmental conditions in a vulnerable person's social housing property that could be a sign of damp, which leads to the growth of mould.

By placing our IoT monitoring device in the room of concern for damp, the level of humidity present within can be continuously and automatically monitored. If humidity levels rise to concerning levels over a prolonged period, an alert can be sent to pre-defined individuals by email or SMS so that appropriate action can be taken swiftly.

The continuous data that IoT technology can provide in monitoring damp removes the need for time-consuming, costly, and disruptive manual checks to be made periodically, and is also far more reliable.

While the adult social care and social housing crises are significant challenges indeed for councils, IoTSG is playing a vital role in supporting public services and helping vulnerable residents live more safely and independently in their homes.