NHS counsellors in Norfolk and Waveney are striking tomorrow over being underpaid by thousands of pounds a year, UNISON says today.
They are walking for a day out during Mental Health Awareness Week, which this year takes place between 12 and 18 May, to highlight their own contribution to tackling Britain’s mental health crisis.
The counsellors are currently employed by Norfolk and Waveney Mind to provide talking therapy services for patients with long-term or complicated mental health problems at Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust.
But they are being paid trainee rates despite being fully qualified, says UNISON. The union says staff doing the same job in the overwhelming majority of other NHS mental health trusts across the country are being paid more.
There are NHS guidelines that set out how talking therapies services should be delivered by trusts, including how much staff should be paid. But managers at Mind claim they don’t think this applies to the staff in Norfolk and Waveney.
The union has asked the Norfolk and Suffolk Trust to clarify the situation, but managers there have refused to get involved, says UNISON.
UNISON Eastern regional organiser Cameron Matthews said: “Mind is campaigning this Mental Health Awareness Week to ‘make sure that no mind gets left behind.’
“But it’s underpaying the people on the frontline of Britain’s mental health crisis by thousands of pounds a year.
“These counsellors are committed to their jobs and want to be out there helping patients, but the inflexible attitudes of their managers have forced them to strike.
“Almost every other NHS trust in the country pays its counsellors at the higher band that these staff are asking for. But local managers refuse to accept they’re in the wrong.
“Mind and the trust can still prevent this strike by recognising the work counsellors do and paying them what they deserve.”