Fears are mounting for the welfare of thousands of elderly and vulnerable Carlisle residents.

It comes as one city councillor has hit out at the “dictatorial attitude” of the housing association which is behind the move to scrap the vital Careline service.

Riverside has announced that 22 jobs in Carlisle are at risk as it overhauls the service and its Telecare operations elsewhere in the country.

The service helps more than 4,000 elderly and vulnerable people to live independently in their homes. About 1,200 of those are Riverside customers.

Customers pay for personal alarms and sensors to be fitted in their homes, which can be activated in times of need or an emergency.

Where alarms are activated, trained staff try to make contact with customers directly and arrange the best response.

Emergency services are called in when customers cannot be reached.


Councillor Ray Bloxham, who was involved when the city council transferred its housing stock to Riverside, said: “I am appalled.

“I think it is sad that they haven’t consulted their customers, the relatives of customers or the council.

“I despair of Riverside because when we handed the housing stock over to them we did so because they were community-minded.

“I don’t like their dictatorial attitude.

“I worry that call handlers won’t understand the geography of Cumbria.”

He added: “This is no way to treat people. Riverside should not be in the housing business if they can’t talk to people.”

News was broken to staff at a meeting on Tuesday afternoon. One worker told The Cumberland News that she feared for some of the vulnerable people that they look after.

She said: “Who is going to help those people who get out of bed in the early hours of the morning and wander off? We go out and get them back into bed. Some of these people have no next of kin and no friends. It’s heartbreaking.

“At the meeting we were not allowed to ask questions. It literally lasted for less than five minutes and then the director just walked out of the room.”

The worker said the service cost as little as £5.20 per week for private customers to install a monitor and alarm.

“Someone in a call centre in Liverpool is not going to know the geography of the area we cover or anything about the patient. I am devastated to lose my job.”

Following a 12-month review, Riverside has confirmed it is scrapping its Carlisle response service as it looks to plug a £7.5m hole in its finances.

Riverside says it has been “significantly affected”, like the rest of the housing sector, by the changes made by the Government in its summer 2015 Budget.

It says that, as a result of the Comprehensive Spending Review, all housing associations must reduce the majority of their rents by one per cent a year for each of the next four years.

Riverside must close a £7.5m gap in its budget, a figure which will increase to around £30m by 2020.

The organisation said that 22 roles within the Careline service have been placed “at risk”.

A spokeswoman said: “We have now entered into a period of consultation with Unite and those affected by these changes.

“At risk means that no decisions are made on any of the impacted roles until all consultation to mitigate the risk of redundancy is complete.

“We are also working directly with all service users to ensure continuity of service either with Riverside or a third party provider.

“If a Careline customer currently has a Telecare alarm service, Riverside will still provide this service for those customers.”

Riverside chief executive Carol Matthews said: “This is a very difficult time not just at Riverside but across the sector, however we will work with staff and our union colleagues to mitigate the impact of this as much as possible.

“An overview and timeline for these changes has been shared with all colleagues and they will continue to be fully informed at every stage.

“Our priority remains to provide excellent services to our customers whilst remaining a strong and resilient business into the future.”