Barking and Dagenham

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Colleagues may be interested in this press release from CPHVA.  I'm not sure if it will encourage others in a better position, or worry them that this may come their way next!  Attached, and pasted below for those who do not receive attachments.    11 December 2008                                                                        PRESS RELEASE  BARKING AND DAGENHAM FAMILIES ‘AT RISK’ East London families miss out on services as health visitor workforce ‘in crisis’ The possibility of tragedy is on the cards in Barking and Dagenham, following a steep decline in the number of health visitors, Unite the Union has warned.             Unite, the largest union in the country, says that with the health visitor vacancy rate running at 45%, hundreds of East London families are not receiving the support they deserve in one of the capital’s most deprived boroughs.  Unite, which embraces the Community Practitioners’ and Health Visitors’ Association (CPHVA), has written to the Barking and Dagenham Primary Care Trust (PCT) outlining its ‘serious concerns’ about how the depleted health visiting workforce can cope with individual caseloads of up to nearly 4,000 children.  Unite/CPHVA Professional Officer, Dave Munday said: ‘From my experience across England, this PCT is the worst example of a crisis in the health visiting service. The PCT is putting children, their families and their staff, to whom they have a duty of care, at serious risk which is totally unacceptable.’ ‘From figures supplied to us and shared with managers, the PCT used to have 32 whole-time equivalent (WTE) health visitors, but with 14.3 WTE posts vacant, the workforce has been nearly halved. Individual health visitor caseloads range between 344 and 3,989 children. One clinic, staffed by two health visitors (one of them part- time), has 2,320 children on its books and 60 children with child protection plans.’  ‘The PCT’s culture is one where staff views have been ignored for the last 18-24 months, even though they have been identifying serious concerns regarding the safety of the service.’ Unite is due to have crisis talks with the trust tomorrow (Friday, 12 December) and Dave Munday said that the union was keen to work with the trust ‘in any constructive way possible to reverse the current situation for the benefit of the whole community’.  -ends- sarahcowley183@...http://myprofile.cos.com/S124021COn