Fears over drop in warden numbers
The health of vulnerable elderly people in Northampton is at risk because the number of housing wardens has dropped by more than 30 per cent in just over two years, a councillor has claimed.
Councillor Tony Clarke (Independent, Castle) has called for an urgent review into Northampton Borough Council's residential warden scheme after learning numbers of wardens had dropped from 53 in November 2006 to 37 currently.
The wardens check on elderly residents in 80 schemes made up of about 2,000 council-owned homes and Councillor Clarke stressed he believed they were doing a very good job.
But he said he feared they were becoming overstretched and frail pensioners could no longer rely on them.
Councillor Clarke said: "In the past residents have had immediate access to wardens in times of emergency, but now they have to cover three or four schemes which they have to travel between, sometimes on foot.
"They have an almost impossible task with being so overstretched. They are being set up to fail. We need to work with social services and the health service to identify a way of plugging the gap."
Although wardens are not medically trained they are part of a support network which keeps an eye on residents and flags up when they are in need.
The figures showing the drop in numbers of wardens were obtained by a Freedom of Information request by a member of the public which revealed there were 28 per cent fewer in 2008 than in 2006.
During the two-year period from November 2006 to November 2008, three co-ordinators were off ill for more than four weeks with work-related stress.
The borough council yesterday insisted it had decreased its warden staffing because fewer were needed to look after residents. It said it now had even fewer wardens than the request had revealed.
A spokeswoman for Northampton Borough Council said: "We currently have 37 staff; a mix of full-time and part-time staff.
She added: "In April 2007 we moved to a 'needs-led service' and the staffing levels reflect the requirement of the new service."
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