Council to buy in service to cover social workers during 9-week strike

A council plans to buy in provision to cover mental health social workers during a current nine-week strike over staffing levels in their teams.

Barnet Council said the move was necessary to keep residents safe and fulfil its statutory duties during the walkout by practitioners in its north and south mental health teams and approved mental health professional (AMHP) service.

It also rejected claims by Barnet UNISON, which represents the social workers, that it was planning to engage in unlawful strike breaking.

The law on covering strike action

Regulations prohibit employment agencies from supplying workers to an organisation to cover the duties of a striking employees or other employees covering those on strike, so long as the industrial action is legitimate (regulation 7 of the Conduct of Employment Agencies and Employment Businesses Regulations 2003).

However, guidance on the 2003 regulations stipulates that employers can cover a striking worker’s work by contracting out the service, which appears to be what Barnet Council is planning to do.

About 20 practitioners are currently involved in a nine-week strike, which started last week and is due to extend until 12 July, after Barnet UNISON escalated its action last week.

Buying in service ‘needed to manage risk and meet duties’

A council spokesperson said: “We are now at the point where the industrial action has significantly reduced our ability to respond to residents’ requests for support with their mental health. Given this, we are looking to buy services from an external provider to ensure we can keep residents safe and deliver our statutory responsibilities throughout the strike.

“This additional resource will be needed imminently to manage the risk and to enable the council to effectively respond to urgent referrals in a reasonable timeframe.

“This service is lawful and would provide a minimum level of cover to ensure we meet our statutory responsibilities.”

Strike breaking claim

In response, Barnet UNISON said: “Barnet Council are using agency workers to carry out roles that our members would be carrying out if they were not on strike. This is the second attempt by Barnet Council to use agency workers to break the strike. Instead of wasting money on agency workers they should be settling this dispute.”

The union was referring a similar council plan to cover practitioners’ previous, two-week, strike in April, which did not come to pass after the agency it engaged pulled out of delivering the service. As is the case this time, the council said that that plan was lawful.

The practitioners are striking to secure recruitment and retention payment worth 10% of salary – a reduction from their original 20% claim – to stave off what Barnet UNISON has described as an “exodus” of staff from the three teams.

The union said that, including planned departures, 25 mental health social workers will have left the service over the course of 22 months. Though staff have been replaced, Barnet UNISON said that, overall, the level of mental health experience on the teams has reduced.

Union and council remain at odds

Both sides said they were open to talks, including in ensuring minimum service levels during the strike. However, their positions remain far apart, as evidenced by the union’s decision to escalate its strike action last week.

The council has increased its previous offer and is now proposing to provide recruitment and retention payments worth 5% of salary to 200 social workers, occupational therapists and senior practitioners in adults’ services. This is up from an offer of £1,000 annually, or an estimated 2.5% of salary on average, for two years.

The authority’s position is that social work recruitment and retention is a national issue, and there is no “no evidence or rationale to justify…a payment solely to mental health social workers”, with the three teams having turnover rates in line with the national average.

Mental health social work pay competitive, says council

“We have reviewed other London boroughs’ salary levels and their recruitment and retention payments and we are confident we pay well compared to other outer London boroughs,” the council spokesperson added.

“Arrangements vary across London for remuneration of approved mental health professionals (AMHPs), but even taking account of the recruitment and retention allowance in some boroughs, the Barnet pay offer is very competitive.”

They said the additional 5% payment would “place us in the top 40% of outer London boroughs for social worker pay and is justifiable under our recruitment and retention policy”.

10% payment a ‘red line’ for social workers

However, Barnet UNISON has said that 10% is a “red line” for the mental health practitioners and the three teams faced a “recruitment and retention crisis” not seen in the rest of the adult social care department.

It has also argued that the council can easily afford to settle the dispute given the scale of its offer to the wider group of staff.

In a statement last week, union branch secretary John Burgess said support for the strike remained strong.

‘Overwhelming support’ for strikers

“We know there is overwhelming support for our strikers,” he said. “This support is not confined to Barnet UNISON members but is also found in the wider UNISON family. Messages of support are coming in from across the UK including thousands of pounds in donations to our strike fund.

“The response from Barnet residents has been humbling, we have residents dropping off food parcels, donations, and messages of support.”