Pay threat to mental health services staff - Camden and Islington Foundation Trust unveil cash-saving plan

MENTAL health bosses have unveiled plans to save cash by downgrading the pay grades of expert staff.

Camden and Islington Foundation Trust announced a consultation on the changes on Monday.

Nurses and staff working with people with severe mental health conditions like schizophrenia and bipolar are threatened by the pay scale review that includes plans to axe 60 posts.
 

The “major reorganisation” – revealed internally in an 80-page document on Monday – has caused anxiety among the Trust’s 700 staff. 

Trust chief executive Wendy Wallace said: “With a reduced budget, this is impossible unless we change the way we deliver our services, which will affect some of our staff’s jobs and grades. Through the staff consultation process, we want to keep as many of our hardworking and talented people as possible.”

The New Journal understands more trainee postgraduates will be brought in to take therapy sessions with patients.

The changes follow a decision to close two mental health hospitals and move patients onto two sites. The loss of buildings and more than 100 beds – at Queen Mary House and the Grove Hospital at the Royal Free – mean the jobs of trained staff will change as they work in the community.
 

A Trust spokesman said no redundancies were expected and the changes would improve the services on offer to patients. He added that, despite unprecedented cuts, the Trust has managed to maintain expensive outreach services to help patients living at home.

Shirley Franklin, chairwoman of the Defend Whittington Hospital Coalition, which is campaigning against mental health cuts, has called a protest outside St Pancras Hospital today (Thursday). 
 

She said: “This is diabolical and very worrying. The changes will threaten people’s jobs and the patients, who are very dependent on their key workers. The people they get in the future are likely to be less experienced. 

You need to have experienced good people.” She added: “I always thought C&I was good for mental health services and it is really worrying if that’s going to change. There is not enough to cover the level of need.”

The pay of Trust chief executive Wendy Wallace, and her deputy Sylvia Tang, rose last year to £160,000 and £150,000 respectively, according to the Trust’s latest annual report.