Suffolk County Council, which has won government plaudits for the quality of its Supporting People service, has shocked providers by withdrawing funding for emergency alarm systems in older peoples’ homes. It has warned housing associations that it will stop paying for community alarms from April this year.
A spokesperson for the ODPM said it was not for the department to directly intervene ‘where decisions on local priorities have been taken by commissioning bodies…However, the ODPM will clearly be concerned where decisions such as this have implications for many vulnerable people who have received a community alarm service for many years and may not have the resources to pay for the service themselves.’ Suffolk was only facing a 2 per cent cut, he added.