Sheltered flats with missing warden.

ericpode

My mum has had her own flat in a very nice sheltered complex for the past few years. There has always been a resident warden, and the last one was really good, very helpful, and put a lot of effort into getting European grants to improve the garden etc.

That warden left about 6 months ago and they have been without a warden since then. The residents are really annoyed about this and they have been fobbed off with "in a couple of months" promises from the housing association that own the flats. For a while they had a warden from another complex to come in for a couple of hours twice a week, but that has now become more like once a week. They also used to call every flat every morning to make sure the redident was OK, but that has now become fairly infrequent too.

They finally has a neeting the other day and were told that they would not be getting a warden but it would happen " some time in the future". According to my mum they were just given a lot of waffle.

And of course the housing association are saving a lot of money by not having a warden to pay for, and ths rents are going up this month.

My mum says she's heard that this sort of thing is happening at other complexes too.

It is really annoying. Can anyone think of how pressure can be put on the HA to get a warden?

I don't think that anyone wants to write to the media about it as this will just tell criminals that the flats have no warden.

Ted_Hutchinson

Help the Aged – offering advice on care homes and pensions - Help ...
Age Concern England
Home - Counsel and Care
EAC Services to older people

All the above charities have contact numbers, helplines who would be able to give you appropriate advice. You may find that given an outsider to intervene on their behalf exerts sufficient pressure. If this doesn't produce a result then it may be worth WriteToThem.com - Email or fax your Councillors, MP, MEP or MSP ...
as a letter from your MP may help them reconsider their decision.

ericpode

Thanks Ted.

John_Gray

Eric Pode -- you are not from Croydon, perhaps?!

Surely it depends mostly on whether the "contract of occupation" ("lease", or whatever it is called!) states that a warden would be available, at any particular frequency/interval?

If there's nothing written down, then the best you can do is to apply moral pressure, as Ted suggests...

John

Sweet_Pea_2

Similar thing has happened at my mums warden control complex. They have a warden for a few hours a day from another complex as theirs has left. They are told if there are any problems to just pull the careline cord.
A couple of them went to see the MP in one of his surgeries and he wrote a letter to the council on their behalf, (its a council sheltered scheme) The upshot of this was that they were all invited to a meeting and basically fobbed off by council representatives.
HOWEVER, all the things they complained about are being sorted out, a new warden has been employed and is being trained at the moment, the gardens are being sorted out, bushes chopped back etc.
You could start with your mums MP and see what happens, as MPs letters do tend to push things on a bit.

ericpode

Eric Pode -- you are not from Croydon, perhaps?!

A couple of them went to see the MP in one of his surgeries and he wrote a letter to the council on their behalf, (its a council sheltered scheme)

This is run by a housing association. I'm not sure if this would make it easier to get results or not.

Dora_the_Explorer_5

Is the cost of the warden identified in her tenancy agreement/rentbook, in the same way as emergency call systems are? If so, then the HA is in breach of the agreement and perhaps a start would be to ask them for a copy of their complaints procedure and progress things from there. With the local elections coming up definitely get her local councillor on the case - that's what they are there for and never more eager to do their job than when standing for re-election. HTH

Savvy_Sue

ericpode wrote:

This is run by a housing association. I'm not sure if this would make it easier to get results or not.

Used to work for a HA, and believe me, an MP's letter used to make us jump!

glenstan

I thought the idea of sheltered housing was knowing that someone would keep in touch via telephone or in person every 24 hours. most folk see their own home as a shelter but to be designated as living in sheltered housing means, surley the person living there relies on another to ensure they are safe .

mikemoate

Housing support services are now funded by a "supporting people grant" administered by the "supporting people team" within the local authority. Housing associations (HA) have a contract with "supporting people" in respect of the services to be provided by the HA which covers not only the actual services but also their quality. Apart from all the good advice given above I would get in touch with the supporting people team who should be contactable through your local council.

ericpode

Thanks everyone. I haven't had much time to progress this, but I recently spoke to my sister who is a lot closer to the flats. She said that when the person from the housing association addressed the meeting, one of the things she said was that the government had recently changed the rules regarding the morning-ly telephone calls, and that it was now considered sufficient to just have the emergency pull-cords. Thus they were trying to justify why the morning calls were no longer being made (although they still are very occasionally).

I've also heard again about other sheltered flats in the area not having replacement wardens when one leaves. It seems to be rife. I wonder if this is something that is happening across the board with sheltered housing. And whether there really has been some change in law which is allowing the HA's to effectively withdraw wardens?

The HA person also said something about being low on funds which would be an obvious reason why they are not replacing wardens or having someone present each morning to make the phone calls. If they really are so poorly off then I wonder why they have not tried a major increase in rent - or are they perhaps constrained by the local authority who presumably pay the rent for many of the tenants?