HOME helps in Darlington believe council bosses could be on the verge of phasing out care in the community, after a raft of reforms was announced.

Darlington Borough Council is to review its services for the elderly in line with new directions from the Government - but carers in the town believe the changes could lead to them losing their jobs.

Alan Docherty, the Darlington branch secretary for public sector workers union Unison, said members were yet to find out what the plans entailed.

"We need to find out exactly what the council intends to do and we will decide how to approach it then," said Mr Docherty, who represents home helps employed by the council.

"We have a meeting at the end of this week with the home help staff.

"It is Government policy to farm work out to the private sector but, as a union, we would resist that and that is something we have made clear."

One home help, who did not wish to be named, said: "Our work has been dwindling for the past few years because the council has been sending more and more work to the private sector.

"We get the impression that the council is trying to save money."

She added that most of elderly people in the borough needing help were now being referred to extra care schemes - sheltered accommodation with full-time resident carers - instead of being given assistance at home.

"It looks as though the council is phasing out home care in the community," she said.

"We don't know if we will still have jobs at the end of this, and the clients we have built up a relationship with want to know what is going to happen.

"We're not happy because we don't know what's going on."

A spokesman for the borough council said: "We are having to review our present in-house home care service, in light of Government changes, and we will initially be concentrating on providing support in our extra care schemes.

"Staff have been offered better contracted hours and, once that has been established, we will start to look at the situation with our community staff.

"The trade unions have been involved every step of the way."