Alyson Bell

Alyson is a service provider representative for England on the TSA’s Board, and was elected as Chair in May 2012.

Alyson has been a founding member and driving force of many care and service improvement partnerships and projects in the north east, taking a lead role in the development of strategies, multi-agency focus groups and steering groups. She led Newcastle’s first telecare pilot study in 2003 and was a key player in the subsequent development of the Telecare Strategy For Newcastle Upon Tyne, launched in April 2008. In her role as Care Services Manager at Your Homes Newcastle she is leading the implementation of the strategy and has already increased the number of people using social alarms in Newcastle from 5,000 to over 7,000, including over 1,000 true telecare users.

Alyson quickly spotted the potential for regional cooperation in telecare and co-founded a regional benchmarking group (the Community Alarms Regional Managers group, or “CARM”) to share best practice and streamline the flow of information between the TSA and its members in the North. There are currently 11 members of CARM, including localities from Richmond to Blyth, and Alyson uses her influence and knowledge to actively represent her partners and their interests at TSA meetings.