Welcome to the ALL Inn Blog
ALL Inn offers the rare opportunity for innovators and product developers to connect with AT end users, and a wide range of Health and Social Care professionals to gain valuable feedback on their ideas via tailored consultation sessions.
We can also utilise evaluation, design and research support from Leeds Beckett University.
What does ALL Inn aim to achieve?
The purpose of ALL Inn is to help drive product innovation within the field of Assistive Technology. Adult Social Care service users often give feedback on the products provided by the Leeds Community Equipment Service (LCES) and Tele Care. Designers, suppliers and manufacturers of these products often mention that they struggle to engage with end users of their products. ALL Inn aims to close the gap to ensure that service users and health and social care professionals can contribute feedback on products earlier in the design process, leading to better, more innovative products which meet the needs and demands of their users more of the time.
How did ALL Inn come about?
ALL Inn is a nine month pilot of a new service that will build on the services offered by Assisted Living Leeds (ALL). It was always the intention that ALL would become a central location for Assistive Technology services and information in the city. Phase 1 involved refurbishing a new site in Clarence Road at Leeds Dock to host the Leeds Community Equipment Service, Telecare, Blue Badge Assessment and staff training facilities.
Assisted Living Leeds
The scope of phase 1 did not include any redevelopment to the west side of the building where an existing structure provides around 1000 square metres of floor space over two floors. The successful completion of phase 1 now offers potential for a phase 2 to host additional facilities and further enhance the services on offer.
Phase 2 of ALL will allow the Leeds health and social care community to act in new and enterprising ways aimed at further improving the services on offer. A number of ideas and proposals have been suggested but after lots of consultation the following proposals are being taken forward and their feasibility explored. These include:
- Smart House – A fully functioning house used to demonstrate existing and new Assistive Technology products within the context of a real home
- Retail Unit – a place where visitors to ALL can exercise choice and control in their purchase of equipment
- ALL Inn – an space which hosts consultation between service users, Health and Social Care Professionals and designers / producers of Assistive Technology with the aim of encouraging innovation in product design
- Dementia Awareness space – a facility aimed at supporting dementia sufferers and sharing good practice in dementia care and treatment
As part of the process to examine the feasibility of the wider Phase 2 project, funding for a short term pilot of the ALL Inn concept was secured. This will cover set up costs and allow us to appoint a full time Project Officer who can run ALL Inn on a day to day basis.
When will ALL Inn be open?
In October 2015 we advertised the opportunity for Assistive Technology companies to apply for a free trial of the consultation services on offer through ALL Inn. This acted an opportunity to promote ALL Inn and also enable us to test our own processes ready for paying customers in the future. We were really overwhelmed by the feedback and many more application than expected. Because of the fantastic response two companies were selected as winners. The first was Buddi, who have developed a Telehealth wrist band and wanted to gain service user and professional feedback on design and barriers to take up of the product. Doability, the second company, intended to use the session as an opportunity to improve the design of existing daily living aids. We hope to run these sessions in January / February 2016.
This sounds interesting; I’d like to take part…
Over the coming nine months we will be running a number of consultation sessions with companies in the Assistive Technology sector. If you would like the opportunity to have your say and influence product and service design of the future please contact suzanne.morton@leeds.gov.uk.
allinnsite.wordpress.com 