Forestcare lifeline users in Bracknell Forest face a £6.19 weekly charge, up from £5.08, once their alarm goes digital before the January 2027 phone switch-off.
Bracknell Forest residents who rent a Forestcare lifeline alarm will pay £6.19 a week once their equipment is switched to digital. The council’s current price for the basic package in the borough is £5.08 a week.
The new rate is set out in a report that the council’s Cabinet approved on Tuesday 22 September. The same decision approves buying the new digital alarms and a replacement for the control centre system that answers every call.
Forestcare is the council’s own 24-hour alarm service, run from Bracknell. Its customers press a pendant or a button on a base unit to reach the control centre when they fall or need help.
Why the alarms have to change
The analogue phone network is being switched off nationally on 31 January 2027. The Cabinet report says existing analogue alarms “will no longer operate reliably” after that date. It calls Forestcare “a safety-critical service”.
The report gives the size of the job:
- the service supports over 8,000 users
- about 3,500 of them are customers Forestcare supports directly
- staff can fit about 116 digital replacements a week, alongside normal work
- the contract for the control centre system ends on 23 May 2027
What the new charges are
The report introduces two weekly rates:
| Customer | Now | After the digital upgrade | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bracknell Forest residents | £5.08 | £6.19 | up £1.11 |
| Customers in other areas | £5.40 | £7.20 | up £1.80 |
The current prices come from the council’s Forestcare pricing page, which says they exclude VAT. The Cabinet report does not say whether its new rates include VAT, so the comparison assumes both are on the same basis.
For a Bracknell Forest resident, £1.11 a week is £57.72 a year, a rise of about 22%. Outside the borough, £1.80 a week is £93.60 a year, a rise of about 33%.
Forestcare also installs lifelines in Reading, Wokingham, Windsor and Maidenhead, West Berkshire, Slough and parts of Hampshire, Surrey and Oxfordshire. Those customers pay the higher rate.
Why borough residents pay less
The gap between the two rates is a grant. The council has set aside £180,000 of Disabled Facilities Grant to pay for new equipment for eligible Bracknell Forest residents.
The report says the lower rate covers only the ongoing cost of the digital connection. The higher rate for customers elsewhere covers that and the cost of the replacement equipment.
Where the money goes
The report says Forestcare costs about £2.03 million a year to run and brings in about £1.74 million. That leaves a forecast deficit of about £288,000.
Going digital adds about £198,000 a year in costs:
- about £144,000 for the SIM connections the new alarms use
- about £54,000 in capital financing costs
The higher charges are forecast to raise about £198,000 a year. That covers the cost of the switchover, but it does nothing for the existing deficit. The report says a separate review of Forestcare’s costs, pricing and operating model will deal with that.
The report is also frank about the main risk. If customers cancel because of the higher price, both existing income and the new income fall. Its finance section warns the deficit would then grow.
The council will also need £270,000 of extra capital funding for the programme. Cabinet can only recommend that. Full Council has to approve it, and the next full Council meeting in the council’s calendar is on 25 November.
Can Forestcare finish in time?
The report says the programme is achievable if work starts by September 2026. Delays beyond that would need extra temporary staff.
At 116 replacements a week, the roughly 18 weeks from the end of September to 31 January allow for about 2,100 installations. The report does not say how many customers still have analogue equipment, or how many have already been upgraded, so the published papers do not show whether that is enough.
The equipment will be bought by direct award. The control centre system will go to a competition between suppliers. Cabinet delegated both contract awards to the Executive Director: People.
What it means for you
If you or a relative rent a Forestcare lifeline, you do not need to do anything to get the upgrade. The council’s page on the phone switchover says Forestcare will contact each customer to book an installation. It adds that the weekly charge “will increase once you have had a digital hub installed”.
There is one thing to do now. If your lifeline plugs into your phone line, the council asks you to tell Forestcare who your phone provider is. You can press your pendant to do it, or call 01344 786500 if the call will not connect. PocketPal and SIM-only alarm users do not need to call.
If your phone company offers you a digital upgrade first, the council’s advice is:
- ask the provider to put a marker on your account saying you have a lifeline
- ask for a free battery back-up unit, which keeps the service running for about an hour in a power cut
- tell Forestcare the engineer’s date
- make sure the engineer does not leave until a test call to the control centre has worked
The Cabinet decision can be called in by councillors until 29 September. If it is not, it takes effect on 30 September, according to the council’s decision record.
More local information
- Bracknell Forest council tax bands: what each band pays this year.
- Bracknell bin collection days: including assisted collections.
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