Staff at Greenwich Council have threatened to walk out in protest over proposed cuts to council support vulnerable adults. The council’s Telecare scheme allows elderly and vulnerable people to call for help 24 hours a day via a button worn around the neck and is currently used by over 2,000 people in the borough.
But proposed cuts will mean that emergency calls are answered by one rather than two members of the scheme’s seven staff, which they say will leave them unable safely to lift a vulnerable person who has fallen.
The council also intends to reverse its policy of not charging those on housing benefit for using the Telecare scheme. The Unite union, which represents the workers, says that this will mean that vulnerable and elderly users are forced to give up using Telecare.
