The future of Tendring Careline – which helps people to stay independent in their own homes – looks brighter after new proposals for the service were announced.
Last year, Tendring District Council (TDC) said it might bring in a private company to run the service, which supplies fall bracelets, watches and pendants, and lifting services to around 1,850 people in the district. It also runs TDC’s out-of-hours capabilities and CCTV control centre, which supports services such as emergency planning, environmental health and housing.
The council said it would look at other options because its in-house service faced growing competition from private companies.
But following consultation with customers and others, a plan to merge the service with Colchester City Council’s (CCC) Helpline has emerged. This would involve transferring Careline service users and staff to the Helpline service, provided through CCC’s arms-length company Amphora, which will then expand to serve residents across the entire North East Essex area.
A report due to be discussed by TDC’s cabinet says that a merger would also align with possible proposals for local government reorganisation which could see Tendring, Colchester and other councils across Essex combine together to form larger unitary authorities.
The cabinet’s support would be contingent on Colchester Helpline guaranteeing service coverage across Tendring, maintaining fast response times, and transferring existing staff to the expanded service under their existing terms of conditions.
If approved, the merging of the Colchester and Tendring services will take place within the 2025/6 financial year and the current Careline service will remain active 24/7 throughout any transition period.
Councillor Gina Placey, TDC’s cabinet member for partnerships, said: “Careline has been a major success for TDC, providing an essential service for almost 40 years and the response to last year’s consultation told us that residents would prefer to see the service continue into the future.
“However, with significant changes in the telecare industry, growing competition from private providers and the challenges of maintaining a high quality service that offers good value for money to service-users and Tendring tax-payers, we needed to look seriously at different options.”
