The latest on our hubs campaign
We’ve now passed the one-year anniversary of the funding cuts for NHS Staff Mental Health and Wellbeing Hubs, and we're doing all we can to keep this issue in people’s minds.
26 April 2024
By Sarb Bajwa
The society marked this anniversary by joining forces with a number of other organisations to write to the health secretary and call for funding for staff mental health services.
The ongoing importance of this issue was starkly highlighted in March with the release of results from the NHS Staff Survey, which painted a bleak picture of our healthcare staff's mental health.
Some of the most concerning results from the survey included that 42 per cent of staff said they felt unwell because of work-related stress in the last 12 months, nearly one-third often or always feel burnt out because of their work, and nearly one-third of staff said they often think about leaving the organisation.
These simply can't be seen as acceptable conditions for any workforce, and the results emphatically underline the importance of funded and effective staff mental health and wellbeing services.
The muddled thinking around similar services was highlighted by the situation around mental health support provided by NHS Practitioner Health to secondary care staff.
It was initially announced that NHS England had withdrawn funding for these services and, while this was quickly reversed, it showed that uncertainty is continuing to be created by short-term funding decisions which leave services operating on the brink of closure, a situation we've seen with the hubs.
Alongside the reversal of the decision to withdraw funding from these services, NHS England announced a review of mental health and wellbeing services for the whole of the health and care workforce – we look forward to seeing the full scope and timescale of the review, and will continue to fight to ensure NHS and social care staff can continue to access the mental health support they need.
Away from the campaign, I want to highlight our 2024 election, with voting now open to eligible members on the roles of President-Elect and Elected Trustee.
I was delighted by the response that we had during the nomination period and the amount of interest in the roles, and it's great that we have seven great candidates on the ballot across the two roles.
This election is an opportunity for our members to have their say on two vital positions, both of which sit on our Board of Trustees and play a role in charting the society's direction.
Voting is now open until 28 May – I'd really encourage you to get to know the candidates and what they stand for then cast your vote – more information is available on our website.