=Paper=
{{Paper
|id=Vol-2059/paper6
|storemode=property
|title=None
|pdfUrl=https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-2059/paper6.pdf
|volume=Vol-2059
}}
==None==
https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-2059/paper6.pdf
Stockport Council - A municipality testing
robots and technology with Seniors
Andy Bleaden1
Stockport Council
andy.bleaden@stockport.gov.uk
Abstract. Stockport Council is a medium sized municipality in the
UK’s north-west with around 300,000 residents. Within the Council the
Adult Social Care Department aims to help older adults to continue to
live as independently as possible within the community. The paper intro-
duces the activities of Stockport Council regarding robot and technology
testing with older adults as well as experiences made.
1 Introduction
The Adult Social Care Department carries out an assessment of needs, prioritised
according to the urgency of the situation. If the assessed needs fit our eligibility
criteria, people are assigned a personal budget to spend on meeting their needs.
People can use their personal budget to receive support services such as home
care, day care, respite care or breaks for carers, as well as less traditional sup-
port options, such as employing a personal assistant. We also support people to
access residential and nursing care, where this offers the most appropriate type
of support to meet their needs. If the assessed needs do not fit our eligibility cri-
teria, people are supported to access a range of lower level preventative support
options, designed to increase their independence and delay their need for more
intensive social care support.
We also have a range of support services such as Customer Care, Information
and Publicity, IT systems, performance and project management functions and
strategy and policy development roles. Finally we are closely linked with NHS
Stockport and play a significant role around public health in Stockport (see also
figure 1).
2 European Involvement
Stockport Council has considerable and varied experience of delivering success-
ful European Cooperation Projects such as Interreg Projects, CIP Projects, FP7
Project and is currently involved in the following projects: CLIPS ICT-PSP,
FP7 Project Silver, SeNS Interreg NWE IV Programme and Cities In Balance
NWE IV Programme and more recently Ambient Assistive Living projects as
well as Horizon 2020 with Project Mario. We have also been involved with
Fig. 1. The Stockport Council
Grundtvig/Leonardo programmes and closely involved in the EU Year of Ac-
tive Ageing and Intergenerational Solidarity and the connected development
of European Innovation Partnerships where we took part in the Age Friendly
Cities pilot.We are also members of the ECH Alliance and AgeingWell Net-
works. Latterly our role has grown to become active members of the EIP-AHA
and Coral Networks. In 2016 Stockport became one of the founding members
of the Covenant on Demographic Change and also signed up to a commitment
for the EIP-AHA on Age Friendly Environments. We are also a key part part of
Greater Manchesters 3 star EIP-AHA reference site (see also figure 2 and 3).
3 Use of Technology
Stockport has been involved in two key robotics projects with European partners
and added to that have developed award winning IT solutions for Social Care
for Seniors.
3.1 Project Silver
This was a really successful pre commercial procurement programme funded
by the EUs 7th Framework Programme to set up a successful PCP process for
procurers of robotic assistance for older people to stay independent longer (see
also figure 4).
Such was the success of Project Silver the start up is now not only growing but
is ready to hit the market with a unique and versatile robot that will really help
older people preventing falls and maintaining independence in the community
(see also figure 5).
Fig. 2. The Stockport Council activities in Europe
Fig. 3. Ageing Statistics Stockport
Fig. 4. Project Silver
Fig. 5. Stockport Activities in Project Silver
3.2 Project Mario
Project Mario is another robotics project that is using the latest develoments in
robotics and a bespoke software platform targetting people living with Dementia
in the UK, Italy and Ireland.
It is testing the idea of whether people living with dementia can tolerate a
companion robot and whether it could be useful to target isolation.
Funded by Horizon 2020 this project brings together partners from across
Europe to develop one of the first robotics products targetting dementia and
will see the area of voice recognition and AI tested (see figure 6).
Fig. 6. The Project Mario
We are testing Mario in Stockport in community groups and in one to one
sesions as well as with staff and carers. We are surprised by the level of interest
not only from within these groups but also in the national press about this
although it is a concern to manage expectation in both areas as this is a prototype
(see also figure 7).
It has also been a new area for us to act as ethics lead in our area as well as
working with the local health organisations to organise testing as well as with
dementia drop ins and support groups but most important with people living
with dementia driving the user specification and the types of testing themselves.
Accessing new technology with user input right at the beginning is crucial
in Stockport and is central to our efforts around co production of services for
people by people in Stockport. An example of this is My Care My Choice which
was the Councils award winning Social Care platform (see also figure 8).
Fig. 7. The Stockport activities in the Mario Project
Fig. 8. Results from the Mario Project
3.3 Coproduction my care my choice
My Care my Choice was a web portal for people for all their social care needs
and information that was planned and designed by people from Stockport who
use the services themselves in a coproduced manner (see also figure 9).
Fig. 9. Connected Smart Cities - My Care My Choice
The idea is to have a service designed by the people who will use it to
find information and manage their own care. It has been now adopted by other
municipalities in the UK. Its design and look were created by and tested by
service users in Stockport.
Acknowledgment
This work is supported by the Horizon 2020 project GrowMeUp (Grant No.
643647).
Copyright c 2017 for the individual papers by the papers’ authors. Copying
permitted for private and academic purposes. This volume is published and
copyrighted by its editors.
Fig. 10. My Care My Choice - Webpage