Caregiving · Telecare · Safety at Home
How to Monitor Elderly Parents Remotely: A Practical Guide for UK Families
If your mum or dad lives alone and you don't see them every day, it's natural to want some way of knowing they're okay — without hovering, and without taking away their independence.
There are more ways to do this than most people realise: personal alarms, GPS trackers, home sensors, video calls, and simple daily check-ins. This guide covers what's actually available to UK families looking at how to monitor elderly parents remotely, what each option is genuinely good at, what it can't do, and how to choose between them — including one upcoming change that's easy to miss but matters a great deal.
A quick note on doing this with your parent, not to them
Before getting into the options, it's worth saying plainly: every tool in this guide works best — and feels far less intrusive — when it's chosen together with your parent, not decided on their behalf and installed without much discussion.
The main ways to monitor an elderly parent remotely
Here's the full landscape of options available to UK families, and what each one is actually for.
| Option | What it does | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Personal alarm / pendant | A button worn around the neck or wrist that connects to a 24/7 response centre | Falls and emergencies, for someone who can press a button |
| Fall detector | Automatically senses a fall and raises an alert, even without a button press | People who might not be able to press a button after falling |
| GPS tracker | Shows location when your parent is out and about | Risk of getting lost, dementia, or anyone still active outside the home |
| Home sensors | Trigger an alert for specific events — a door opening at night, no movement for hours, smoke detected | Wandering risk, fire safety, unusual inactivity |
| Video calling devices | Simple video chat, often on a screen designed for older users | Staying socially connected — not built for emergencies |
| Daily check-in (Hea) | A short daily conversation about how your parent is doing | Knowing the general picture between visits — not a crisis tool |
Each does one job well. None of them does everything, which is exactly why it's worth understanding the differences before choosing.
Telecare vs personal alarms — what's the difference?
These terms get used inconsistently, even by providers, so it's worth untangling them.
Telecare is the broader term for the whole system: a piece of equipment in your parent's home connects, usually via a base unit, to a 24-hour monitoring centre (sometimes called an Alarm Receiving Centre or Emergency Resolution Centre). When triggered, a real person at that centre tries to talk to your parent through the unit, and arranges help — contacting a neighbour, family member, or the emergency services if needed.
A personal alarm is the specific device your parent presses — the pendant or wristband. It's the part of telecare that your parent actually wears or carries.
Some local councils provide a basic telecare service, sometimes free or means-tested, alongside private providers like Careline365, Telecare24 and Age UK's alarm service (run through Taking Care). It's worth contacting your parent's local authority adult social care team to ask what's available before paying for a private service, since council provision can be considerably cheaper.
An important deadline most families don't know about
Here's something that catches a lot of people out: the UK is in the process of switching every landline from the old analogue network (PSTN) to a digital one, with a final deadline of 31 January 2027. This isn't a minor technical detail — it directly affects telecare.
Why this matters for telecare
Many older personal alarms and home sensors connect through the same analogue phone line as a traditional landline. When that line is upgraded to a digital service, older devices that rely on it can stop working properly — and the practical risk is real enough that the regulator, Ofcom, has already fined one major provider, Virgin Media, after an investigation found it had disconnected telecare customers during early stages of the switchover.
Providers are now required not to move someone onto a digital line until it's confirmed their telecare device is compatible. But the responsibility to flag a device often falls on the customer or their family — if your parent has an older alarm, it's worth a quick call to the provider now to check it's compatible, rather than discovering it's stopped working after the fact. Newer devices that connect via a SIM card or broadband generally aren't affected.
Costs — what to expect
Prices vary by provider, but as a rough guide for UK families:
| Option | Typical cost |
|---|---|
| Basic personal alarm (no monitoring centre) | £5–£20 one-off |
| Monitored pendant alarm | £30–£50 set-up + £15–£20/month |
| GPS tracking alarm | £30–£50 set-up + £20–£30/month |
| Fall detector | £30–£50 set-up, often bundled with monitoring |
Some local councils offer a basic telecare service free or at reduced cost, particularly following a needs assessment from adult social care. It's worth asking before assuming a private provider is the only route.
What these tools can't tell you
Personal alarms, fall detectors and home sensors are all reactive — they're designed to respond when something has already gone wrong. That's exactly what they're for, and it's valuable. But they're not built to tell you how your parent has been feeling generally: whether they've seemed more tired than usual, whether their mood has dipped, whether sleep has been off for the past week.
Between visits and phone calls, it's easy for these slower, quieter changes to go unnoticed — not because nobody cares, but because nothing dramatic enough to trigger an alarm has happened. A fall sets off a pendant. A few weeks of low energy and disrupted sleep usually don't.
How Hea fits alongside these tools
Hea isn't a replacement for a personal alarm, telecare system or fall detector — it does something different. Each day, Hea chats with your parent on WhatsApp, the app they likely already use, about how they're feeling, their medications, and what's on their mind. There's nothing new to install and nothing for your parent to learn.
You get a clear weekly picture of how things have actually been — sleep, mood, what's changed — built up over time rather than guessed at from one phone call. Before a GP appointment, Hea also puts together a summary of recent symptoms and concerns, so nothing gets lost in a ten-minute slot. And if something genuinely needs your attention sooner — a new symptom, a missed medication, a worry your parent didn't mention to you directly — you'll hear about it straight away rather than waiting for the next scheduled call.
If your parent already has a personal alarm, Hea works alongside it rather than instead of it: the alarm is there for the moment something goes wrong, and Hea is there for the ordinary days in between, when nothing dramatic happens but it still helps to know how things actually are.
An alarm tells you when something's gone wrong
Hea tells you how your parent's actually been — the quiet, ordinary days in between. Used together, very little goes unnoticed.
See how Hea worksFrequently asked questions
Is monitoring my parent remotely an invasion of privacy?
It depends entirely on how it's done. Choosing a tool together, explaining what it does, and respecting your parent's right to say no to something they're not comfortable with turns this into support rather than surveillance. Anything introduced without their knowledge or agreement risks feeling like exactly that — an invasion of privacy — even if the intention behind it is entirely caring.
Do personal alarms work outside the home?
It depends on the type. Basic home alarms only work within range of the base unit, typically within or close to the house. GPS-enabled alarms are designed to work anywhere there's mobile network coverage, so they're a better fit for someone who's still out and about regularly.
Will my parent's alarm stop working because of the digital switchover?
Possibly, if it's an older device connected through an analogue phone line. It's worth contacting the alarm provider directly to ask whether the specific device is compatible with digital lines, rather than assuming either way. Providers are required to confirm compatibility before migrating telecare customers, but it's safest to check proactively.
Can local councils provide a personal alarm for free?
Some do, usually following a needs assessment by the local authority's adult social care team. Provision and cost vary by area, so it's worth asking directly rather than assuming a private provider is the only option.
Sources
- NHS, Personal alarms, monitoring systems (telecare) and key safes — nhs.uk
- GOV.UK, Find a telecare provider — gov.uk/guidance/find-a-telecare-provider
- GOV.UK, Moving landlines to digital technologies — gov.uk/guidance/moving-landlines-to-digital-technologies
- Ofcom, Moving landline phones to digital technology: what you need to know — ofcom.org.uk
- Age UK, Are landlines being phased out? Changes to landline telephones — ageuk.org.uk
- House of Commons Library, The switch to digital landlines (Research Briefing CBP-9471, April 2026)
