Lincolnshire health visitors step up pay campaign with week-long strike

Lincolnshire health visitors take strike action outside county council gates

Source: Unite the union

Health visitors in Lincolnshire locked in an increasingly bitter battle with their employer over pay will stage a week-long strike next month, their union has announced today.

A war of words between Unite and Lincolnshire County Council heated up as the union confirmed its health visitor members would be stepping up their campaign for better pay.

“Hardline council bosses are choosing to bury their collective head in the sand”

Steve Syson

The local authority was forced to deny accusations from the union that it was making no constructive efforts to resolve the impasse and that the row was affecting service delivery.

The dispute centres on Unite’s calculation that its 58 health visitor members have lost more than £2,000 a year since they were transferred from the NHS to Lincolnshire council in October 2017.

The week-long strike will run from Monday 9 September to Friday 13 September – and will be on the top of the 17 days already taken or scheduled.

Steve Syson, regional officer for Unite, which embraces the Community Practitioners’ and Health Visitors’ Association, warned that more Lincolnshire health visitors would quit their jobs unless the council changed its position.

“Our members have been told by well-remunerated managers there are no future pay awards for them until they retire and, if they don’t like it, they can leave and work elsewhere,” he said.

“As a result, health visiting staff at Lincolnshire County Council have left and will continue to do so, while the council buries it head in the sand, and they have an opportunity to leave in favour of returning to the NHS working in non-health visiting roles – it should not be forgotten that these nurses have highly transferable skills.”

He said the council was “failing in its public duty to resolve this issue” and refusing to consider “reasonable proposals” by Unite, which represents about a third of the authority's health visitor workforce.

While the row went on, families in Lincolnshire were being allowed to “suffer from a depleted service”, claimed Mr Syson.

“We know this action is impacting on service delivery, but hardline council bosses are choosing to bury their collective head in the sand,” he warned.

However, he said Unite’s door remained open for serious talks with the council to resolve the dispute.

“There is no evidence that service delivery is being affected by the strike”

Heather Sandy

Hitting back, Heather Sandy, interim director of education at Lincolnshire County Council, said the body did not consider Unite’s proposals to be reasonable and claimed the union had “continually failed to engage with our collective disputes procedure”.

She denied that service delivery had been affected by the strike and stressed that less than a third of the health visitors who had voted for industrial action had actually followed through with it.

“There is no evidence that service delivery is being affected by the strike,” said Ms Sandy.

“Whilst 45 of the 58 Unite members voted for industrial action, on average only 12 health visitors per day have taken industrial action.

“The vast majority of our valued workforce have continued to work as normal and are providing care for Lincolnshire's families.”

She said the council had plans in place to cover absences if further strikes went ahead.

The dispute involves health visitors who were transferred to the council from the NHS in October 2017 and remained on Agenda for Change contract terms and conditions.

Since then, these health visitors have received no wage rises because they are stuck in a pay limbo – unable to benefit from inflationary pay awards from either the NHS or the council.

The council has offered all health visitors the opportunity to transfer to its employment contract, while retaining their NHS pension.

However, Unite and its members are sceptical about a new “career progression scheme” that the council is introducing for its health visitor workforce.

As part of the scheme, the health visitor role is being split into a junior (grade 9) and a senior (grade 10) level.

To progress to grade 10, staff must have four years’ experience working as a health visitor after receiving the specialist community public health qualification and must demonstrate a list of competencies using evidence from practice, appraisal and revalidation.

However, Unite believes the grade 10 job description equates to band 6 on Agenda for Change, which health visitors start on when beginning their careers in the NHS.

The union claims the grade 9 post does not align with the specialist practitioner role and is more in step with a staff nurse position.

Ms Sandy said the council “remain committed” to moving ahead with the career progression plans for its health visitor workforce.

She added that the council had written to all staff explaining how the scheme would offer salaries beyond those available in the NHS once they hit grade 10.