UK
Solidarity with Barnet UNISON’s mental health social worker strike!
From Barnet UNISON
Background
There are three mental health social work teams in this dispute.
- Mental Health Social Work North Team = 13 staff
- Health Social Work South Team = 14 staff
- Approved Mental Health Professional Team (AMHP) = 5 staff
Barnet UNISON mental health social workers’ dispute with Barnet Council since 1 September 2023 has been over the failure to agree a recruitment and retention payment due to high turnover of staff across three mental health social worker teams.
On Monday 15 July 2024 UNISON wrote to Barnet Council suspending strike action and agreeing to go into talks to try and resolve the dispute.
Unfortunately talks broke down, as it became clear in the meeting that Barnet Council were not prepared to reconsider their position.
This report seeks to provide information about the dispute which is now one of the longest running disputes in UNISON’s history.
Leavers’ data
1. Did you know 50% of the permanent workforce will have left the three mental health social work teams workforce since 1 January 2024?
2. Did you know that 31 mental health social workers will have left one of the mental health social work teams in the last two years?
3. Did you know that 12 mental health social workers have left the mental health social work team North in the last two years?
4. Did you know that 17 mental health social workers have left the mental health social work team South in the last two years?
5. Did you know that the mental health social work team South has no AMHPs?
6. Did you know that mental health social work team North has no AMHPs as of 1 September 2024?
7. Did you know that only one out of a mental health social work team management team of four is an AMHP?
8. Did you know that two out of four managers mental health social work teams have no previous experience of working in mental health services?
9. Did you know that by the end of August 2024 of the four Lead Practitioner (LP) posts across North and South mental health social work teams there will be two vacancies, leaving only one LP with experience working as a mental health social worker and one LP with no previous experience working as a mental health social worker?
10. Did you know that 40% of AMHPs have left the AMHP team in the last two months?
11. Did you know that there are only 3 AMHPs across the three mental health social work team team?
12. Did you know that there are only 3 social workers left out of 14 who were in the mental health social work team North on 11 August 2022? Nine of the social workers have left. This represents 80% of the team. Please note that this team only employed social workers. Barnet Council introduced unqualified staff into the team in 2023 when social workers started to leave.
13. Did you know that there are only 3 social workers left out of 14 who were in the mental health social work team South on 11 August 2022? Nine of the social workers have left. This represents 80% of the team. Please note that this team only employed social workers. Barnet Council introduced unqualified staff into the team in 2023 when social workers started to leave.
Service user issues
1. Did you know that every time a social worker (either permanent or locum) leaves this means further disruption for mental health service users?
2. Did you know that there is still a 17-month waitlist for service users with mental health problems?
Barnet Council
1. Did you know that Barnet Council were asked to provide staff leaving data in July 2023 and only brought some data at a meeting with UNISON in March 2024? The data provided was not evidence of recruitment and retention issues.
2. Did you know that in July 2023 Barnet Council informed UNISON that they had a budget of £266k to resolve this dispute?
3. Did you know in a meeting with Acas in March 2024 with UNISON they doubled that figure to £532k?
4. Did you know that Barnet Council said they could easily settle our dispute because it was cheaper?
5. Did you know that it would cost £150k to settle this dispute?
6. Did you know that it took Barnet Council seven months before they would agree to a meeting with UNISON and Acas?
7. Did you know that in July 2024 UNISON wrote to Barnet Council suspending strike action? In that meeting with the knowledge that another 25% of permanent social workers had handed in their notice, Barnet Council brought no revised offer to the negotiating table.
8. Did you know that Barnet Council used a recruitment agency to strike break? They deny it was strike breaking, arguing that they outsourced the service. There has been no consultation about outsourcing services with UNISON.
9. Did you know that Barnet Council carried out a restructure of mental health social work teams? A report entitled “Adults Social Care Mental Health Service Restructure Consultation Report and Final Proposals, July 2022” was shared with staff.
Two years on and this is the list of their 17 outstanding actions:
- There will be further consultation and engagement with staff to review team criteria; improve processes and pathways; and ensure there are effective ways to work alongside health colleagues for the benefit of the residents we support.
- Move of MH Front Door to SCD – suggested this is postponed until referrals criteria are confirmed and training for SCD staff is provided on this basis
- To develop and implement a retention strategy for mental health social work staff
- To review existing staffing ratios in mental health service to ensure sufficiency and that teams can operate safely and will not be at risk of burn out.
- Further need for data cleansing (those noted on Mosaic as having a mental health as a primary need are accurately recorded as such) and addressing backlog of updating contacts in Mosaic
- Co-production with people we support to find out what they think and what changes are necessary.
Ideas to explore further in transformation process:
- A multi-agency crisis team
- Staff specifically dedicated to conducting Care and Support Plan reviews
- Specialist worker for carrying out CHC checklist or using existing resources in CHC.
Risk highlighted:
- End of Think -Ahead Students placements impacting negatively on capacity (students are currently holding large number of cases)
- Backlog of reviews.
- Gaps in service availability need to be addressed by the commissioning plan.
- Additional business support resource was added to the original proposal.
- The transfer of the MH front door to SCD has been postponed until September, to ensure criteria are clear and staff have been trained on this basis.
- Further work will be undertaken as part of the workforce strategy and business planning process to look at the capacity of teams across adult social care given the pressures of demand that the service faces.
- Duty arrangements will need to be finalised and discussed with managers and staff to reflect the move of initial contact to SCD.
- Mental Health Teams wished to maintain access to Rio.
Publicity about the dispute
1. Did you know that Community Care published 15 articles about this dispute which you can read here on our website?:
2. Did you know that UNISON wrote to CQC outlining our serious concerns about the crisis unfolding across mental health social work teams?
https://www.barnetunison.me.uk/wp/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/FINAL-LETTER-TO-CQC.pdf
3. Did you know that UNISON wrote to Association of Directors of Social Services (ADASS) outlining our serious concerns about the crisis unfolding across mental health social work teams?
https://www.barnetunison.me.uk/wp/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/FINAL-LETTER-TO-ADASS.pdf
4. Did you know that UNISON wrote to Social Work England outlining our serious concerns about the crisis unfolding across mental health social work teams?
https://www.barnetunison.me.uk/wp/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/FINAL-LETTER-TO-SWE.docx
5. Did you know that UNISON wrote to Executive Director of Adult Social Care Dawn Wakeling outlining our serious concerns about the crisis unfolding across mental health social work teams?
6. Did you know that UNISON wrote to Director of Adult Social Care James Mass outlining our serious concerns about the crisis unfolding across mental health social work teams?
7. Did you know that UNISON wrote to Leader of Labour controlled Barnet Council Barry Rawlings outlining our serious concerns about the crisis unfolding across mental health social work teams?
8. Did you know that UNISON produced a community newspaper (Barnet VOICE) for Barnet residents outlining our serious concerns about the crisis unfolding across mental health social work teams?
9. Did you know that 20,000 community newspapers were delivered to Barnet residents?
10. Did you know that Guardian Journalist Aditya Chakrabortty wrote an article about this dispute entitled Euphoria felled by reality and scant ambition – I have seen what could be Labour’s future?
11. Did you know the Tribune newspaper covered the dispute in this article?
‘It’s Soul Destroying’: Why Barnet Social Workers Are on Strike https://tribunemag.co.uk/2024/06/its-soul-destroying-why-barnet-social-workers-are-on-strike
12. Did you know that an Early day motion was submitted about the Barnet UNISON mental health social worker dispute, which you can view here?:
https://edm.parliament.uk/early-day-motion/61831/barnet-mental-health-union-dispute
13. Did you know that hundreds of trade union members have signed a public statement calling upon the Leader of Barnet Council, Cllr Barry Rawlings to stop the use of agency workers to strike break? View statement here:
- This article was originally published by Barnet UNISON on 4/9/2024.
- You can follow Barnet UNISON on Twitter/X and Facebook, and UNISON nationally on Facebook, Twitter/X, Instagram and TikTok.
In Our NHS, in-house is best
Labour Outlook is sharing this petition from UNISON opposing the outsourcing of NHS support staff in East Suffolk and North Essex- it is crucial that we build opposition to proposals like these which are directly opposed to the interests of both staff and patients.
East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust has announced plans to sell hundreds of cleaners, caterers, porters, security and other support staff out of the health service.
It means facilities services will be run by a private company responsible to their shareholders, not patients. Private contractors run services as cheaply as they can — cutting corners and slashing staff pay and conditions — so that they can make a profit.
Colchester services are currently in house, but at Ipswich facilities services are outsourced.
The £50m contract runs out in April 2025. Instead of taking the chance to bring everything in house and run directly for the benefits of patients, the trust board has decided to privatise all services as a job lot.
Sign the UNISON petition to send a message to the trust board: we want NHS services to be delivered by the NHS!
You can add your signature here.
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