CCTV
The case for installing care home camera monitoring systems
Care Campaign for the Vulnerable director Jayne Connery explains the benefits, pitfalls and best practice of installing camera monitoring systems in care homes
Care Campaign for the Vulnerable (CCFTV) has been calling for the use of CCTV in care homes for several years. It is our belief that many of the sector’s troubles - such as lack of trust and confidence, excessive safeguarding incidence, reported and unreported abuse events, a significant level of unexplained injuries and regular but repeated bad press - all point to a need for a radical solution. We believe the silver bullet is independent camera monitoring that is consent-based and legally approved in terms of its use. Our preference is to see overt systems throughout care homes, both in communal areas and in bedrooms. Camera use in bedrooms would only be with consent of the resident or the appropriate advocate.
For those unable to consent, a
Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards Officer’s assessment should determine need for such. We would support the use of systems that offer functionality that is proportionate in terms of its deployment. That would not only include reviewing visual data for the purposes of investigating any incident, but also allowing the possibility of remote audit. The option to conduct a visual audit of care at any point in the day or night is something we believe to be of high value both to a care provider and a family.
CCTV options available Self-monitored CCTV in communal areas A handful of care providers already use CCTV systems. Most of those are in house managed by the care home and generally in a fairly ad-hoc manner. Effectively, when an incident occurs, a staff member is tasked with trawling through footage to search for
February 2022
www.thecarehomeenvironment.com
details that may be relevant to the matter in hand. The home can then decide whether to share the footage with concerned families. CCFTV believes this is inadequate for
several reasons. Firstly, having the footage retained at local level could compromise the possible integrity of any investigation. If an argument can be made that a provider has not been forthcoming with data or failed to allow stakeholders to view a copy, it is easy to jump to the conclusion that said provider has ‘something to hide’. Secondly, it is not a proactive use of the system if a level of independent auditing is not injected into the process.
Using CCTV only in communal areas completely misses the point and
Our view is that selecting an independent monitoring service via a third-party company is the best-in-class option
is essentially lip service to monitoring. Most untoward incidents happen in a resident’s private room. So not having the option of a camera in a bedroom misses the opportunity to learn about falls, unwitnessed events, incidents and matters of concern. The purpose of such a system is then lost to both the provider - who will face recrimination because of any unwitnessed injury - and the family, who will not know what happened to their loved one.
Complete end-to-end systems Cameras in all areas of a home are to be commended. Providers who recognise the value of such will in our view see much more of a quality and commercial return from widespread use. Homes that do have reported lower accident and incident rates, much shorter safeguarding investigation timeframes, improved trust and confidence with families and other stakeholders. Our view is that selecting an independent monitoring service via a third-party company is the best-in- class option. For us, that meets all the
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