EDP: Mental health trust grapples with problem of one in three staff leaving within 12 months of joining

Nicholas Carding of the Eastern Daily Press reports:

One in three staff who join the region’s mental health trust leaves again in less than 12 months, it has emerged.

Meanwhile, levels of stress, anxiety, and depression among workers at Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) is higher than any other mental health trust in the east of England.

The problems, which campaigners say have been caused by “chaotic cuts”, were discussed at a meeting of NSFT’s board of directors yesterday.

Campaigners say chaotic cuts cause staff problems

The leaked Alexander Report and NHS Staff Surveys have shown the tremendous pressures on NSFT staff, particularly in Central Norfolk, caused by the disastrous ‘radical redesign’, a spokesman for Campaign to Save Mental Health Services in Norfolk and Suffolk said.

“The loss of funding and experienced staff as a result of those chaotic cuts has never been fully corrected.

“Many staff are leaving or seeing their own health suffer because there simply aren’t enough professionals to deliver services safely for patients or themselves.

“While the trust is finally beginning to recognise the value of its own staff, nursing bursaries have been abolished nationally and local commissioners have yet to fund mental health properly.

“NSFT is a people business and needs an experienced HR professional on its main board.”

If commissioners had funded Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) on a par with the physical health trusts, it would have an annual budget nearly £70m higher and mental health services would be transformed.

Of course, it doesn’t help when NSFT underpays more than one hundred of its staff working anti-social hours, as has happened this month. Getting payroll right really matters.

Read Nicholas Carding’s excellent article in full on the EDP website by clicking on the image below.

Better still, support the investigative journalism which is critical to our campaign by buying a copy of the newspaper today.

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