AMHPs to stage walkout as social work strike action hits sixth council within a year

Strike action involving social workers will hit a sixth local authority in England within 12 months this weekend.

Approved mental health professionals (AMHPs) in Cumberland Council’s urgent care team will stage a 48-hour walkout from 15-17 March in protest against the authority’s decision not to regrade their role.

According to their union, the GMB, the practitioners requested a regrading in July 2022 – when services were run by the former Cumbria County Council – in the belief that their role had been incorrectly evaluated.

But, 20 months, this has not been agreed, prompting GMB organiser Fran Robson to say that they had been “left with no choice but to strike to get the recognition they deserve”.

Council ‘not recognising emotional toll on AMHPs’

“Cumberland’s urgent care team does an extremely difficult, often dangerous, and always emotionally draining job,” she added.

“They are on the front line at all hours, conducting Mental Health Act assessments in a range of settings including people homes. They regularly deal with situations where immediate detention may be necessary for safety concerns, making decisions which can conflict with an individual’s wishes.

“But Cumberland Council has completely refused to recognise the emotional toll our members face while navigating distressing and sometimes dangerous situations.”

Practitioners’ regrading request ‘given due consideration’

In response, a council spokesperson said that the decision not to regrade the AMHPs’ role “was given due consideration and was made based on all the relevant evidence”, with the GMB involved in the discussions.

They added that the authority had agreed with unions a three-stage process for resolving disputes, involving two internal stages and a third involving talks overseen by employment relations body ACAS.

In this case, the GMB had resorted to strike action without the third stage having been implemented, the spokesperson said.

They added that the council had asked staff not involved in the action to cover services this weekend to “ensure safe levels of support and continuity of care”.

Sixth council to face social work strikes

Cumberland, a unitary council created last year from the reorganisation of local government in Cumbria, becomes the sixth authority to face industrial action by social workers since April 2023, following South Gloucestershire, Swindon, Barnet, Brighton and Wiltshire.

All of the disputes have involved issues around pay, including payments for working unsocial hours and whether staff should receive market supplements for their roles.

Cumberland’s is the third of the disputes to involve practitioners working in out-of-hours social work teams, following Swindon and Wiltshire.