Councillors work on Carelink's closure
The difficult decision to close the Carelink alarm care service has been discussed by councillors at the first meeting of the Carelink Working Group this week and at a Full Council meeting last night.
The Carelink Working Group was set up with cross party membership, to work alongside an internal Carelink Project Board, to manage with care and empathy the withdrawal of the service at the end of September.
Both these meetings were required to be held in private as they discussed information relating to the financial affairs of those staff affected including the Council as the holder of that information. Councillors had previously scrutinised a recommendation to close the service at a meeting of the Community Select Committee on 20 May, before the Executive made its final decision on 11 June.
Executive Councillor for Housing, Fiona Sloman, was present to explain that the decision was not taken lightly nor was it a decision based on the need to make financial savings. It was taken purely on issues of safeguarding.
She explained: "The service, which is a discretionary one, involves helping vulnerable people and so safeguarding has to be the number one priority for the Council. This means meeting our legal obligations to provide a safe and robust service and delivering on our contractual requirements. This has become a critical issue for us and despite concerted efforts to improve the situation it is, sadly, worsening and therefore action needs to be taken.
"Those contractual requirements revolve around our continuing inability to maintain adequate staffing levels. We have eight staff, but we need 20 to run a safe service. Recruitment is very challenging despite repeated attempts to recruit and retain new staff. Similar services in the private sector are chasing the same small pool of potential workers and there has been the loss of a potential workforce we could once recruit from following the UK's withdrawal from the EU.
"Despite this Council offering higher hourly rates than similar providers, we struggle to find staff for various reasons including the challenges of getting around the large High Peak area, the often-unsocial hours, and the need for our eight staff to do extra hours to meet customer demands which is not sustainable and potentially a dangerous situation if it leads to tired staff.
"Unfortunately, it is a complex service to run as many other councils have found, and so I thank my fellow councillors for their valuable contributions to the working group, and hearing directly from them at last night's meeting on their concerns and those of residents they represent about closing the service.
"As we have said publicly and in letters to all our customers and their carers, we don't want anyone to worry about the decision we have made. We are in the process of speaking to all our customers personally over the coming weeks to provide information about other providers of telecare services available to them that they can access and help them arrange alternative support if they need it.
"We are equally grateful to our Carelink staff who continue to provide quality, dedicated services in difficult circumstances."
The Carelink Working Group of seven nominated councillors will continue to meet each fortnight.
A Carelink web page includes a list of alternative alarm call and telecare providers and a set of FAQs to guide service users and their carers. It can be found at Carelink Service
Published 3 July 2026
