Our Community Alarm scheme helps you stay at home if you are elderly or have a disability.
It is a personal alarm system that gives you the security of knowing you can call for help in an emergency. We are here if, for example, you fall and cannot get yourself up, at any time of the day or night.
How does the alarm work?
You wear the alarm as a pendant your neck or on your wrist, so it’s with you at all times. When you press the alarm, it sends a call to the 24-hour monitoring centre where our operators picks up your call.
Once you have signalled for help, the operator will speak to you to find out what the problem is.
If for any reason you can’t speak, or you cannot be heard, the operator will still arrange for help.
Depending on the situation, they will contact:
- Your keyholder (usually a neighbour, friend or family member)
- Mobile Emergency Care Service (MECS) or the emergency services if necessary.
If the situation is not an emergency, we will do all we can to help and advise. We may not always need to visit.
Mobile emergency care (MECS)
The Mobile Emergency Care Service (MECS) operates 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. This gives vulnerable people someone to call for help at any time of the day or night. The MECS team will attend to you if your keyholder cannot help or if we cannot contact them after you trigger your alarm.
MECS wear Fife Council uniforms, identity badges, including their photograph and name.
Please do not allow anyone into your home if they do not have photographic identity.
The MECS carers are not medically trained. If you are injured or unwell and require medical attention, they will contact the emergency services, GP, or District Nurse.
How we can help you in an emergency
The help you get will depend on what your emergency is.
We may:
- Contact your GP or emergency contacts
- Talk with you to reassure you
- Contact MECS if you have fallen and un-injured
- Call Paramedics if you are injured as MECS are not medically trained
Who can use the scheme?
You can have an alarm system fitted if you:
- Live alone
- Are at risk because of ill health, frailty, disability, sensory impairment, extreme anxiety or isolation
How do you get an alarm?
If you think you need a Community Alarm, use our Request a Community Alarm online form. We will contact you to arrange installation and will then visit you at home to install and explain how to operate the alarm.
If you cannot fill out the online form, you can call the Social Work Contact Centre on 03451 55 15 03 to request one.
If more than one person in your household requires an alarm, each person requiring an alarm (pendant or wrist) must complete an individual form. We can connect you all to the one alarm under the one cost.
You will be contacted to arrange an appointment for installation, within 5 working days.
How often do we check the equipment?
We request that you or your family, friend, keyholder do a 4-weekly test on your pendant and alarm.
How much does the community alarm cost?
The current charge for a Community Alarm is £3.24 a week as of 1 April 2025. This works out at £168.48 annually. You can pay weekly, monthly, quarterly, or yearly.
The alarm uses around one unit of electricity per week (depending on your supplier). The running costs must be met by the householder.
If your Community Alarm is installed partway through the year, you will be sent an invoice for this period until the end of March. You will then go onto the annual billing system.
See 'Paying an invoice' for how and where an invoice can be paid.
Faulty or lost community alarms and equipment
It’s important that all your Community Alarm equipment is working correctly. If any of your equipment stops working or is lost, contact us on 03451 55 15 03 or email us at SW.Contactctr@fife.gov.uk
If your Community Alarm is not working, call us on 03451 55 15 03, Monday to Friday, between 9am and 5pm. If you need to call us after 5pm or over the weekend, including public holidays, call us on 03451 55 00 99.
Returning your community alarm
If your Community Alarm is no longer required, you can return it to us. You can do this by filling out the Return a Community Alarm form.
We will then phone you to arrange the easiest way of getting the Community Alarm back to us. It may be that you can return it to us yourself. We can send out a pre-paid envelope or you can take it to your nearest Customer Service Centre.
In other circumstances, we can pick it up from your home.
If you cannot fill out the form, call us on 03451 55 15 03, Monday to Friday, between 9am and 5pm, to arrange to return your Community Alarm.
