Ms Linda Kelly:

“A rose by any other name would smell as sweet” has been my overriding response. There is a lack of transparency and honest conversation about where we need the health service to be. From a trade dispute perspective, we are talking about vacancies. Members are coming to us because they see the service suffering. That is what they are concerned about. They see their clinics’ waiting lists growing and services being curtailed. Just this week, I spoke to a group of psychology members. According to an audit in September, 30% of psychology posts across all services in the country are vacant. This should alarm people, given the state of our mental health services. There needs to be maturity. Spinning in the media rather than actually getting into a real negotiation about what a workforce plan needs to look like is immature and not what citizens deserve.

The pay and numbers strategy looks very much like an embargo from the ground. Sticking with mental health services, let us say that a vacancy arises within the parameters of the pay and numbers strategy in 2024 because someone retires. There is no dispute about the fact that this was an employee and that he or she is due to be replaced. However, we are hearing that it is taking months for him or her to be replaced and no one is coming into that post. Information goes up the line from the local service but people hear nothing back. There is a sense that this is a fait accompli and we should all just move on. This is problematic.

I wish to reference a matter we included in our submission but have not had an opportunity to discuss. There has been a devolution of decision-making to REOs so that, within their respective regions’ pay and numbers pots, they can decide whether to fill ten vacancies in nursing, clerical administration, the health and social care professions or whatever the mix is on any given day. REOs have the power decide to employ 20 speech and language therapists and no clerical administrators. This is making it a gig economy within healthcare regions. It is about dividing and conquering different services. There is no protection for services in terms of whether their staffing levels are going to continue. Someone referred to it as having become the Hunger Games for staff. It makes it difficult for people to get up and go to work in services. Services should be secure in their staffing levels. They should have a clear idea about whether they will get replacements and if the services they provide will be maintained if people leave. They should not have to go into an REO’s pot, make the case for replacements and not know if the services they provide will still be there in a couple of weeks’ or months’ time, yet that is the reality of the pay and numbers strategy.