Invicta Telecare celebrates 25th Anniversary

Published by Barbara H for Invicta Telecare in Housing and also in Communities, Education, Environment, Health, Local Government

Staff at Invicta Telecare came to work dressed in silver to celebrate 25 years of providing a life saving alarm service that helps over 93,000 residents to live independently at home.

Invicta’s first monitoring centre was officially opened in 1986 by HRH the Duchess of Kent, and was set up to supplement the resident warden services at Tonbridge & Malling Borough Council’s 11 sheltered housing schemes – now owned by Group partner Russet.  It provided a community alarm service to 300 residents and employed just a handful of operators responding to around 450 calls a day based in one small office at Larkfield in West Malling.  

Today it is a 24 hour 365 day service responding to an average of 4000 alarm calls a day and employs closer to 200 staff based at three offices at Borough Green and Larkfield in Sevenoaks, and Andover in Hampshire.

In a typical month Invicta calls the emergency services 1,580 times, asks a doctor or district nurse to attend 520 times and helped over 875 vulnerable people who had fallen at home whilst alone.

Wendy Turner, Director of Invicta Telecare said: “It’s wonderful to be celebrating Invicta’s Silver Anniversary.  We’ve grown from a small, local provider to a market leading centre looking after the well-being of thousands of people in theUK.  But we don’t intend to stop here.  We passionately believe in the benefits of our service and realise its value to our clients, the health and social care sector and the communities we support.  We have exciting plans to reach more people and continue to provide much needed jobs in the local area.”

Invicta is well known for its dedication and commitment to provide lifesaving services in extreme conditions and challenging circumstances.  Last winter when airports shut down, trains stopped and offices across the country closed as Britain experienced the heaviest snowfall in years Invicta staff rallied round and made it into work.  They not only kept their own services up and running but also managed emergency calls on behalf of other organisations who were unable to cope due to lack of staff and additional calls generated by the adverse weather. 

Joyce Benstead, an Invicta client living on her own at a scheme in Leybourne, recently told us of her own personal experiences. “I have been a client of Invicta Telecare for over 14 years now and I wouldn’t be without my lifeline. I suffered a heart attack in the early hours of the morning a few years ago, and I am certain that the telecare advisor saved my life!”

Invicta Telecare is part of Circle – one of the UK’s leading providers of affordable housing - Invicta Telecare provides a comprehensive range of Telecare services to over 93,000 homes enabling vulnerable people, both young and old, to live safely, happily and independently in their own home.