Council outsources mental health service to cover social work strike

A council has outsourced a mental health service in order to cover a strike by its social workers.

Barnet Council has engaged recruitment firm Imperium Solutions to provide a mental health duty service for 10 weeks in the midst of a nine-week strike by about 20 of the London borough’s practitioners.

While agencies are prohibited from supplying locum workers to do the work normally carried out by staff conducting a legal strike, Barnet said its arrangement with Imperium Solutions was “fully lawful” because the firm was delivering a contracted-out service.

However, Barnet UNISON, which represents the striking social workers, has contested this and dubbed the action “strike breaking”.

The union also said it was “deeply troubling” that the service was being managed by Imperium Solutions, rather than by the authority itself.

About the dispute

Staff from Barnet’s north and south mental health teams and its approved mental health professional (AMHP) service are starting their fifth consecutive week of strike action today, in a dispute over staffing levels and high turnover rates.

In total, they have taken 56 days’ action since September of last year.

According to Barnet UNISON, 30 staff are due to have left the council’s mental health service over 22 months, including planned departures.

Though staff have been replaced, Barnet UNISON said that, overall, the level of mental health experience on the teams has reduced.

Union ask and council offer

It is asking for a 10% recruitment and retention payment for the mental health practitioners, on top of their salaries, in order to stem the “exodus” of staff from the teams.

Though this is half the union’s original ask, the council has rejected it on the grounds that the teams have turnover rates in line with the national average.

Instead, it has offered a much bigger group of staff – about 200 social workers, occupational therapists and senior practitioners in adults’ services – payments worth 5% of salary.

While the union has said that the council is free to make this payment, a 10% payment for the mental health social workers is a “red line”.

‘A fully lawful step’

In a statement to Community Care, a Barnet 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 have commissioned an outsourced service to ensure we can keep residents safe and deliver our statutory responsibilities throughout the strike. This is a fully lawful step for the council to take and would provide a minimum level of cover to ensure we meet our statutory responsibilities. No agency is supplying the council with agency workers.”

Outsourcing ‘deeply troubling’

However, as well as contesting the legality of the arrangement under strike-breaking regulations (see box above), the union said it was “deeply troubling” that the service would be managed outside of the council.

“The idea that these social workers can safely operate outside the line management of a council manager is laughable and worrying,” said Barnet UNISON.

The union has written to Imperium Solutions asking it to withdraw from providing the service, as happened with fellow recruitment firm Flex360, after it was engaged by the council to provide a similar service.

Imperium Solutions has been approached for comment.