Nurses and health visitors in Staffordshire could lose their jobs due to council budget cuts, Unite officials are warning.
Staffordshire County council is moving ahead with £2.5 million of cuts to its children and young people’s health and wellbeing services, a decision made by the council three years ago.
According to Unite, the plan is for the number of health visitors to be reduced by seven whole time equivalents (WTE) from 42 to 35. Unite also estimates that each health visitor has responsibility for about 400 families, and if seven health visitor jobs were lost, up to 3,000 families could be adversely affected.
Services are being redesigned and a new Children and Young People’s Health and Wellbeing Programme, for children and young people aged between 0 to 19 years of age was launched in April across Staffordshire and combine health visiting and school nursing services into one, but with staff reductions.
Full story in The Lowdown, 15 June 2021