Walnut Court residents express concern about 'falling through the cracks', as they received minimal reassurance from councillors during a public meeting yesterday regarding the closure of Ealing Careline services.

The meeting on Wednesday, 24 April at 11am, organised by Ealing Reclaim Social Care Action Group, Campaign for Action in Sheltered Housing and Acorn Community Union, gave residents and Ealing Careline users a chance to ask questions to cllrs about the service's termination.

Back in March, those people in sheltered housing were informed by the council that if they wanted to continue having careline support they would have to find their own providers such as from Age UK.

It was a move that has faced criticism from a number of sheltered housing blocks including Walnut Court.

Involved in the decision to shut Ealing Careline, Council Leader, Peter Mason, Cllrs Bassam Mahfouz and Josh Blacker sent their apologies for non attendance, which reportedly concerned those present.

However, Cllrs Ben Wesson and Kate Crawford from Labour; Cllrs Athena Zissimos and Jon Ball from Lib Dems; Cllrs Julian Gallant and Seema Kumar from Conservatives attended and listened to the worries of those present.

Around 50 people were in attendance at yesterday's meeting, most of them living in Sheltered Housing or recipients of Adult Social Care, and users of the Careline (24/7 emergency contact) service.

Testimonies were provided about the impact of the closure of the service on some of the most vulnerable of Ealing residents with some people being left without any emergency cover.

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Residents from Walnut Court in Ealing relied on careline services from the council (credit: Rory Bennett).

Some residents were left confused as to whether they have emergency cover or not and about the financial consequences of the service being passed over to a private company rather than in-house service from the council.

The lack of engagement with users, an inadequate 'consultation' process, and a very poorly handled transition process are other concerns raised in the meeting.

Maggie Beirne, from Ealing Reclaim Social Care Action Group (ERSCAG) said: "There is also grave concern that many people may be falling through the cracks and may not (by reason of frailty, age or disability) even be aware that they no longer have an Ealing Careline service."

The cllrs present took on board testimonies received, pledged to relay ERSCAG's concerns to council colleagues and committed to stay engaged with the campaign for either reversing the Careline closure or securing an equivalent service.

In a separate Ealing Council meeting last week Alex Cowan, Chair of Direct Payment User Group, asked members about the implementation of the replacement service.

She asked Cllr Blacker: "When will a responder service be set up and running for Ealing residents because at present there is no responder service using Harrow Careline or any other Careline provider?"

The cllr said that there was an interim service in place that was already providing Care Quality Commission-certified assistants who have already responded to three alerts.

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