For healthcare professionals

A clearer view of how someone is managing at home.

Signal Homecare gives reablement, occupational therapy and physiotherapy teams privacy-first insight into daily patterns at home, so you can spot change earlier, support discharge-to-assess pathways, and have better-informed conversations about whether someone is managing safely and independently.

Book a professional demo Talk about a pilot

No cameras. No microphones. Trends, not surveillance.

Reablement Occupational therapy Physiotherapy Discharge to assess Community rehabilitation Local authority / ICB commissioning

Why this matters now

2.02m

new adult social care requests from new clients in England in 2024/25

244,000

reablement / ST-Max episodes for new clients in 2024/25

77.1%

needed no further ongoing support immediately after reablement

60.7%

of people aged 65+ discharged into local-authority reablement remained in the community 12 weeks later

Source: Adult social care activity report and ASCOF measures, England, 2024/25. The 12-week community measure uses the current CLD-based ASCOF methodology and should not be compared with the older SALT-based 91-days-at-home series.

The gap between visits is where uncertainty lives.

Reablement teams are often asked to make high-stakes decisions with incomplete information. A visit shows you a moment. Family feedback gives useful context. But neither always shows what everyday life looks like across the rest of the week.

Signal Homecare helps fill that gap.

It uses discreet in-home sensors to surface patterns over time — movement, presence, door activity, appliance use, light and temperature. That can help teams see whether daily life appears stable, improving, drifting or becoming more concerning.

The aim is not to replace professional judgement. The aim is to support it with better evidence between visits.

How Signal Homecare can support reablement and community rehabilitation

Track change between visits

See whether morning activity, bathroom duration, front-door use, kettle use and general movement are becoming more consistent, less consistent, or dropping away over time.

Support independence decisions

Use trend data alongside professional judgement to help evidence whether someone appears to be coping at home, plateauing, or showing signs that merit a closer review.

Spot deterioration earlier

Highlight unusual inactivity, prolonged bathroom stays, night-time activity shifts, missed routines or environmental issues that may suggest something needs attention.

Bring families into the same picture

Give relatives a clearer, more objective view of what is happening at home, so conversations about risk, progress and support become easier and less subjective.

Patterns, not intimate moments

Signal Homecare does not use cameras or microphones. It uses discreet, privacy-first sensors to observe routine signals — not private footage.

  • Movement and presence patterns
  • Front door and room-to-room activity
  • Time spent in places like the bathroom
  • Appliance routines such as kettle use
  • Light patterns that suggest normal daily rhythms
  • Temperature and home environment indicators

It knows that the kettle was used, not what someone was wearing. That distinction matters for dignity, acceptability and proportionality.

Where this can be useful in practice

After discharge following a fall, fracture or illness

Support Home First and discharge-to-assess pathways by seeing whether the routines that matter are returning once someone is back in their own environment.

When reablement gains need testing in real life

Someone may mobilise or transfer well during a visit. The bigger question is whether that translates into daily routine across the rest of the week.

When frailty, confusion or cognitive change make routines meaningful

Pattern change can matter before a crisis becomes obvious. Signal Homecare can help surface changes that may justify an earlier review.

When families are worried but evidence is thin

Signal Homecare can help move the conversation from anecdotes to trends, so decisions are based on a clearer picture of day-to-day life.

Why passive monitoring matters

Not every problem happens during a visit, and not every person can or will press an alarm.

In England, there were 219,155 emergency hospital admissions due to falls in people aged 65 and over in 2023/24. Research cited by the Health Research Authority notes that around 20% of falls in over-65s result in a long lie of more than an hour.

Important: Signal Homecare should not be described as a fall detector, a diagnostic tool or an emergency response system. But it can help surface patterns consistent with someone being inactive for too long, spending unusually long in the bathroom, or deviating sharply from normal routine — so teams and families can review sooner.

Aligned with the direction of current policy and practice

NICE and reablement

NICE says to offer reablement as a first option to people being considered for home care where reablement could improve independence.

"Offer reablement as a first option…"

Home First / discharge to assess

Hospital discharge guidance says the vast majority of people are expected to go home, and that assessing longer-term needs at the right point of recovery improves outcomes and use of resources.

"the vast majority of people are expected to go home"

Therapy-led community rehabilitation

NHS England's community rehabilitation and reablement model is therapy-led, person-centred and explicitly supports digital interventions that can help monitor progress.

"support remote rehabilitation or monitor progress"

Commissioning and Better Care Fund priorities

The Better Care Fund 2026/27 asks ICBs and local authorities to improve reablement outcomes, reduce demand for long-term residential and nursing care, and assess how technology can contribute to reducing admissions, care home admissions and discharge delays.

A commissioning conversation, not a consumer gadget pitch

Signal Homecare is not a replacement for hands-on care, clinical assessment or emergency response.

Its value for commissioners is different. In a workforce-constrained system, the case for Signal Homecare is not that it replaces people. It is that it can help scarce professional and care time go where it is most needed, while giving families a clearer role and making it easier to see whether someone appears to be coping at home.

Adult social care in England still had 111,000 vacant posts in 2024/25, and homecare vacancy rates were just over 10% in March 2025 — more than double care homes.

Indicative commercial context

Current indicative commercial model: £600 per month per home on a 24-month contract, including installation and maintenance.

At current England average local-authority rates, that is about 25.5 hours of external home care per month, or just under 6 hours a week.

Across the full 24-month contract, Signal Homecare costs £14,400 — roughly equivalent to about 12 weeks of residential or nursing care at the England average.

This is cost context for commissioning conversations, not a claim of proven savings. Signal Homecare does not yet have its own cost-effectiveness evidence.

This makes Signal Homecare suitable for conversations about pilots, pathway testing, preventative commissioning and targeted use in cohorts where uncertainty between visits is clinically or operationally important.

Built to be useful without becoming intrusive

Signal Homecare was built around a simple principle: help people stay safer at home without turning home into a place of surveillance.

There are no cameras. No microphones. No video. No audio.

Signal Homecare uses discreet sensors to detect routine signals such as movement, presence, door use, appliance use, light and environmental conditions. It tracks patterns, not intimate moments.

For professional audiences, that matters. It makes the system more proportionate, more dignified, and often more acceptable to families than camera-based monitoring.

Where professionals and families use the same information, access should sit within appropriate consent, capacity and information governance processes.

Who this page is for

  • Reablement teams

  • Occupational therapists

  • Physiotherapists

  • Discharge-to-assess teams

  • Community rehab and frailty services

  • TEC / assistive technology leads

  • Adult social care and local authority commissioners

  • ICB partners exploring preventative and integrated care pathways

Common questions from professionals

References and sources

  1. NICE: Intermediate care including reablement (NG74)
  2. GOV.UK: Hospital discharge and community support guidance
  3. NHS England: A new community rehabilitation and reablement model
  4. GOV.UK: Better Care Fund framework 2026 to 2027
  5. GOV.UK: Adult social care activity report, England: 2024 to 2025
  6. GOV.UK: Measures from ASCOF, England: 2024 to 2025
  7. GOV.UK: Adult social care finance report, England: 2024 to 2025
  8. OHID / NICE CKS: Emergency hospital admissions due to falls in people aged 65 and over
  9. Health Research Authority: Impact of having a long lie after a fall
  10. Skills for Care / CQC: Workforce vacancy and homecare pressure data, 2024/25

Interested in a reablement, community rehab or local authority pilot?

Book a professional demo to explore fit, privacy, information governance and commissioning options.

Book a professional demo Contact the Signal Homecare team

Accessibility

Text size
100%
High contrast