UNISON has condemned Essex County Council’s decision to award the contract to deliver children’s health and family support services to Virgin Healthcare from April 2017.
Tim Roberts, Regional Organiser, said “It is almost unbelievable that Essex County Council has decided that vital services such as school nurses, health visitors and children’s centres are best run by a private sector organisation with no experience in this area.
“These services are currently delivered by the NHS and non-profit making social enterprises all of whom have invested heavily in the services in recent years and have a track record of delivering quality patient care.
“First the council announced they would cut the level of funding provided to these services and now they have allowed a private company to divert public money into shareholders’ pockets. This privatisation is going to hurt the most vulnerable families in Essex.
“I have spoken to many UNISON members working in these services and they are very upset. Our members are passionate about the care they deliver and there are a lot of unanswered questions about what this will mean in terms of teams, workloads and day-to-day work.
“But they are not just worried about their jobs. They are more worried about how this will affect the children, young people and families they work with.”
Ends