{"id":29152,"date":"2021-06-14T15:56:57","date_gmt":"2021-06-14T14:56:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=29152"},"modified":"2021-06-14T16:42:54","modified_gmt":"2021-06-14T15:42:54","slug":"thousands-of-stoke-families-at-risk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=29152","title":{"rendered":"Thousands of Stoke families at risk"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Thousands of families in Stoke-on-Trent, which has high levels of child poverty, could be badly hit by city council plans to slash \u00c2\u01411 million from the children and young people services\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 budget, Unite the union has warned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unite said about 10 health visitors and school nurses could lose their jobs in Stoke because of a proposed cut to the budget delivered for the authority by the Midlands Partnership NHS Foundation Trust (MPFT).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unite said it was a rich irony that in the December 2019 general election Stoke elected three Conservative MPs on the coat tails of Boris Johnson\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so-called \u00e2\u20ac\u0098levelling up\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 agenda, but now the Tory-controlled council was planning  \u00e2\u20ac\u0098cruel\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 cuts  which put vital services, such as maternal and child mental health, child protection and domestic abuse, under severe strain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The plan is for the number of health visitors to be reduced by seven whole time equivalents (WTE) from 42 to 35. Unite estimates that each health visitor has responsibility for about 400 families, so if seven health visitor jobs were lost, up to 3,000 families could be adversely affected. The specialist health visitor for young people, and the staff nurses, currently at 3.86 WTE, will also be axed, if the cuts are implemented from 1 September this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unite regional officer Frank Keogh said, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bAfter more than a decade of Conservative government, Stoke-on-Trent has some of the highest levels of child poverty in the UK. These cruel cuts will see vital services that tackle such issues as maternal and child mental health, child protection and domestic abuse, stretched to breaking point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00c2\u00a0\u00e2\u20ac\u015bYears of austerity and attacks on NHS and local government funding have already hit hard with the loss of children\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s centres and the Sure Start programme,” he added. “Now councillors are looking to cut a further million pounds from the already much-reduced 0-19 years\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 budget.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThere is a rich irony that Stoke has three Tory MPs elected on the prime minister\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so-called \u00e2\u20ac\u0098levelling up\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 agenda, but the council is now putting the physical and mental health of thousands of the Stoke families at risk by proposing cuts in health visitors and school nurses,” Keogh continued. “If this is not reversed, Boris Johnson\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0098levelling up\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 agenda in the \u00e2\u20ac\u0098red wall\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 seats will be in tatters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bUnite has submitted counter proposals to the Midlands Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, as the employer, and we will be holding discussions with them during the consultation period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bAt present, talk of \u00e2\u20ac\u0098levelling up\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 appears to be nothing more than a mirage. If the city council is committed to better services for the community, it needs to listen to the dedicated healthcare professionals who deliver the service and increase the funding for the 0-19 service \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and not cut it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThis financial \u00e2\u20ac\u0098hit\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 will further reduce the numbers of health visitors and school nurses and, therefore, leave the community vulnerable. This is at a time when families need support more than ever as the impact of the government\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s austerity agenda continues to the detriment of children and the services provided to support them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe firmly believe that following the devastating impact of the pandemic that families and children deserve better than this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThese health visitors and school nurses are dealing with young children at the early developmental stages. Who will identify potential issues at this stage, if the numbers of staff are reduced?\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Shaun Noble<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thousands of families in Stoke-on-Trent, which has high levels of child poverty, could be badly hit by city council plans to slash \u00c2\u01411 million from the children and young people services\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 budget, Unite the union has warned. Unite said about 10 health visitors and school nurses could lose their jobs in Stoke because of a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4082,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[77,1662],"wps_subtitle":"Stoke council plans to sack health visitors and school nurses would adversely affect up to 3000 families","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29152"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=29152"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29152\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29154,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29152\/revisions\/29154"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4082"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29152"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}