Digital Switchover and Telecare Comms Campaign

Please see below an update on a national communications campaign that launched on 2 June covering the digital phone switchover and its impact on telecare.

 

 

We talked to you previously about communication providers retiring the analogue landline network (also known as the public switched telephone network or PSTN) and replacing it with a digital landline network. This digital upgrade is expected to be fully completed in January 2027. The digital phone switchover means traditional analogue devices, such as telephone handsets and telecare units that are currently connected to the analogue landline network, may fail to work. Upwards of 2 million people in the UK use telecare, the most common example being personal alarm pendants or buttons. Telecare services play an important preventative role across health and social care, helping individuals live independently in their home for longer and reducing the likelihood and need for hospitalisation or more formal care.

 

DHSC, working with DSIT, published the Telecare National Action Plan (TNAP) in February 2025, which sets out government’s expectations of stakeholders to safeguard telecare users during the digital switchover. Safeguarding telecare users during the digital phone switchover requires action from a range of stakeholders including communication providers and telecare suppliers, but also local authorities, housing providers and care providers who will need to upgrade all their telecare devices to digital. Since publishing the TNAP, we have carried out a programme of engagement to raise awareness of the switchover and action plan. This has included sessions with seven out of nine ADASS regions, a webinar hosted by the TEC Service Association (TEC) with 130 telecare stakeholders and presenting at dedicated Digital Care Hub and LGA webinars. An update on TNAP is due to be published in Autumn 2025, where we will report on progress to date.

 

 

As the digital phone switchover is industry-led, BT and VMO2 are jointly funding a national communications campaign which commenced on 2 June 2025.

 

The campaign is targeted at telecare users and their support networks and will be delivered across different channels including TV, radio, streaming services, and newspapers. The main objective of the campaign is to identify telecare users that have not already been identified by other means (such as data sharing agreements). Identifying telecare users means communication providers can put extra steps in place to ensure devices continue to work following the switchover. The campaign call to action is ‘if you or someone you know uses a telecare alarm; you must call the landline provider’.

 

The call to action and campaign have been tested to ensure messaging is clear, effective, and uses terminology that resonates most with telecare users, particularly the terms “landline” and “telecare.” The campaign branding will include ‘supported by UK government’. The LGA (with DHSC, DSIT and communication providers) have hosted webinars to help equip local authorities to respond to and amplify the campaign messages.

 

In DHSC, we are building on the comms campaign. We have identified care workers (particularly domiciliary/home care workers) as a key group of people who might be asked about telecare in response to the campaign. We have produced a two-page guide for care workers with FAQs attached on how to support someone to respond to the campaign. We have tested this with stakeholders, including care workers. This guide has been disseminated via several routes, including DCH, Homecare Association and the Care Workers’ Charity from 2 June 2025.

 

This industry-led campaign supports our objective that telecare users, their support networks and their service providers understand what the digital phone switchover is and what actions they need to take to safeguard telecare users.

 

Thank you,