Preventing Undiscovered Deaths
& Increasing Customer Contact – Updated 2025 Guide Now Available
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The death of any tenant is tragic. If they subsequently go undiscovered for days or weeks, it’s even more so – especially as such deaths may be preventable.
In social housing alone, data shows that there could have been up to 1,600 people who have been left undiscovered for more than two days in the past five years. A staggering 500 of these could have been undiscovered for more than 5 days.*
At the start of 2025, a forerunner to this guide was sent to over 400 housing providers, with a plea for ideas to help reduce the number of undiscovered deaths in social housing.
Some will have even received a letter from Dame Esther Rantzen encouraging support of this campaign.
Over 200 organisations got back in touch, and between January and July, I travelled up and down the UK and had more than 50 meetings with housing executives.
With each conversation, the scale and impact of undiscovered deaths came into deeper and clearer focus. However, the process also revealed how many caring people there are working in the social housing sector, all brimming with a desire to tackle this tragic problem.
Thank you so much for being willing to discuss this openly, sharing ideas and taking action.
*From 2019 to 2023
What we also know is that, in respect of some of those people who have remained undiscovered for too long, it may have been possible to prevent death and provide help, through effective communication and by keeping closer to tenants. Bluntly, some of these tragic deaths are avoidable.
Of course, you are likely already aware that this could happen to one of your customers, in one of your properties, right now. The combination of a growing ageing population, the increase in the number of vulnerable residents (especially in general needs) and the impact that an undiscovered tenant death has on the community, colleagues and reputation means this is now too big an issue for you or anyone else in the sector to ignore.
Over the course of more than 50 conversations with social landlords about preventing undiscovered deaths, many of the same high-level themes surfaced time and time again with participants.
James Batchelor, Founder of Alertacall is a visionary technologist who has dedicated much of his life to developing technology to prevent these incidents and ensuring that properties in which older and vulnerable people are living are safe.
James has now updated his guide based on the knowledge he has gained from speaking with Chief Executives and Senior Leaders in Social Housing just like you.
Your free guide to preventing undiscovered deaths & increasing customer contact.
Thank you so much for taking the time to read this guide. It is the intention to continue gathering information and revising it regularly.
You can help by sharing this guide across the housing sector, with MPs, community groups and other figures who can support efforts to avoid undiscovered deaths and improve people’s lives. Your help with this would be greatly appreciated.
If you have any comments, questions or suggestions that you think could contribute to a future guide, or would like to discuss any of these issues, then please contact james@jamesbatchelor.co.uk
James Batchelor MBE
Sir Norman Lamb
SPONSORED BY
