Staff anger over Learning Disability Service Sell-Out

Staff who work for the Learning Disability Service (LD) currently run by Heywood and Middleton Primary Care Trust (PCT) are devastated by news that their employer will not apply to run the service any more when the current contract expires in January 2007. The PCT have announced that they will not be submitting a tender bid.

Branch Secretary Pete Hinchliffe said, “It would be difficult to overstate the anger of our members who feel that they have been sold-out by an employer who place’s scant value on the excellent service that they provide.  These staff look after some of the most vulnerable members of society; some of whom exhibit very challenging behaviour and we are worried that this service could be broken up into small pieces to be run by whoever tender’s the lowest bid. The LDS has always been a top quality, fully integrated service. For staff and clients to be treated in this way is wholly acceptable. We will be writing to the Strategic Health Authority and local MPs in order to get this decision reversed. We also intend to hold meetings with our members and are not ruling out any forms of action at this stage, such is the strength of feeling on this issue.”

Unison PCT Steward Andy Taylor went on to say, “We have a Partnership Agreement with our employers yet this announcement was made to the Trust Board after only a cursory meeting with us three hours beforehand. Apart from this, there was no consultation whatsoever with staff or trade unions, let alone clients and their families. We are professional carers and the last thing we want is to create panic but we feel that we have been treated very shabbily and we will fight very strenuously to defend the service that we have spent years building up.”