Cloudview is a ground-breaking cloud-based visual surveillance system, which aims to provide cost-effective visual protection of people, property and assets. Commercial enterprises have been quick to catch on to its potential, from utility companies who want to protect remote assets to major retailers safeguarding their brands.
However, the most positive response we have seen has been from organisations whose primary goal is to protect and empower vulnerable people wherever they live. While there are many thousands of dedicated care professionals providing the highest standards of care in social housing, care homes and sheltered housing, the media understandably focuses on cases where standards of care have fallen well below both what vulnerable people deserve and that which their families expect.
In the care home environment, this has created a demand from both service providers and the loved ones of residents for oversight of the care they are being given. This has driven the creation of a new service called Care Protect. This combines Cloudview’s visual surveillance system with professional, expert monitoring from independent observers to safeguard vulnerable people who are in care.
What’s this got to do with social housing? Well, there are many parallels to be drawn between the two. And there are also many valuable lessons, which the creators of Care Protect have learnt in the development of their product, to be shared.
Of course, the level of care expected in a residential home extends to 24-hour availability of help, medical expertise and catering facilities. But, social housing also has a duty of care to its residents, some of whom need help to ensure that they can enjoy independent living. From the very young to the very old, from single mums to vulnerable adults, social housing provides a vital service. Anything that can make that service safer and better, and reduce some of the harrowing incidents that we see reported in the media, will become a vital tool for the housing sector.
For the founders of Care Protect, Cloudview proved to be ’the missing link’ without which affordable, accessible and actionable visual monitoring would not be practical. Many of the issues that Care Protect have faced in developing their solution are applicable to that of housing providers. These include the ability to quickly scale multiple, affordable cameras in a variety of locations, the granting of variable permissions to specific users, the addressing of statutory privacy issues and the advantages of cloud-based secure storage and retrieval of imagery compared to the time-consuming process for hard-drive recorders.
In particular, an essential facet of the service, and one only available with a system such as Cloudview’s, is that any data collected does not become actual video until it is required by an authorised user. This is in stark contrast to traditional CCTV where access to the CCTV hardware is synonymous with access to footage.
This new method of harnessing visual data is already proving a success. In a pilot project exploring the effectiveness of Care Protect in a care home environment, a number of significant issues were highlighted and resolved thanks to the clear and incontrovertible visual evidence provided by the system. In addition, care home staff, who were at first the system’s biggest opponents, have become its best ambassadors as they have found it often vindicates their position.
We believe that housing providers can enjoy similar results by making the most of the Cloudview Visual Surveillance System. Working together we can develop solutions that will help to protect your tenants, staff and property, and ensure that our vision of safety and security for all is not just an ambition but a reality.
