Mental health social workers return to work after nine-week strike

Mental health social workers returned to work yesterday after a nine-week strike.

The Barnet Council practitioners, represented by UNISON, have taken 81 days’ strike action in total since September 2023 in a dispute over staffing levels in their teams that the union describes as “unsafe”.

Barnet UNISON has now suspended strike action and is in the process of agreeing dates for fresh talks with the council on resolving the dispute.

Call for 10% pay boost to stem staffing ‘exodus’

The union is asking for a 10% supplement to annual salaries for the approximately 20 practitioners to stem what it has described as an “exodus” of staff from the authority’s north and south mental health teams and its approved mental health professionals’ (AMHP) service.

According to Barnet UNISON, 29 practitioners, including several with significant mental health social work experience, will have left the teams over the course of 22 months, including planned departures.

It said a lack of staff had led to significant waits for people requiring mental health support, with waiting times of up to 17 months for Care Act needs assessments.

Offer from council 

In response, the council has offered a much wider 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, it has said that a 10% payment for the mental health social workers is a “red line”.

However, the council has argued that it is not justified on the grounds that the three teams have turnover rates in line with the national average and their pay is good compared with practitioners in similar roles in other outer London boroughs.

Row over ‘strike breaking’ claim

During the nine-week strike, the dispute was intensified by a row over the council engaging a recruitment firm, Imperium Solutions, to cover the work done by the striking practitioners.

Barnet UNISON said this was “strike breaking” and contrary regulations prohibiting employers from hiring agency workers to cover the work of a staff member on strike or anyone covering for a striking worker.

However, the council countered that its actions were perfectly legal as it had outsourced the service to Imperium Solutions, meaning the authority itself was not engaging agency staff to cover the strike.