Co-creating a new remote service for and with elderly people in the Netherlands

Costs and savings

The costs for this project have been financed by the organisations in the client consortium, together with a contribution from the regional government. The main costs were for the public engagement, the concept development, the prototype development and the validation tests, all coordinated by the agencies involved. The hours spent on the project by the people from the client team were covered from their normal operational budgets. As one of the starting points for the project was to work with existing technology, no major costs for technical development was needed. In this nine month project, the cost of the initial design research with older people and their supporters, as well as the concept development and the Service Blueprint prototype, was about £60,000 (at 2009 prices), excluding the time of employees in the care organisations.

In the long run, the use of the new WSG service will generate savings for the care organisations, as they can now communicate more easily with their customers and deliver many more of their services remotely. The client consortium already has ample experience with remote care services for people who are in need of primary care. However, delivering services to older people who are still at the stage of not yet being dependent on care is new for these organisations, although it is seen as a well-worthwhile investment, shared with local councils who are keenly aware that they need to invest in making their communities stronger by supporting older people to be active participants. Services such as the Story Relay service help them to do that, in particular when it ties in with existing initiatives by citizens in the local area. Therefore, such services are seen as the best possible investments in a community to make it stronger,rather than being seen as investments seeking a financial return. The care organisation is looking for savings by piggybacking these new services onto its existing participation, support and care services. It expects to be able to scale up and introduce these services to 21 councils in the area.