Children and young people in South London could be hit by mental
health services being axed, says Unite
25 March 2011
Thousands of children and young people could be hit by proposed
cuts to mental health services in Lewisham in south London.
Unite, the largest union in the country, said nearly £500,000 of
cuts were in the pipeline at Lewisham CAMHS (Child and Adolescent
Mental Health Services).
Unite hopes to involve local Lewisham MPs - Jim Dowd, Heidi
Alexander and Joan Ruddock - in the campaign to stop the cuts which
will be ‘a real blow’ to the children, young people and families
who use the services.
The savings are as a result of funding cuts from a variety of
sources, including Lewisham Primary Care Trust (PCT) and Lewisham
borough council.
Unite said that Lewisham CAMHS has frozen recruitment for vacant
posts to achieve savings of £484,000.
The proposed cuts include the schools’ team; the specialist
refugee and asylum seeker outreach worker; and severe cuts to the
specialist adolescent service which is one of only two adolescent
forensic teams in the country, providing a mental health service to
young offenders.
Unite regional officer Richard Munn said: ”Yet again, Tory
rhetoric that frontline NHS services will be safeguarded is proven
to be untrue. Children with mental health problems are some of the
most vulnerable members of society, so early intervention is,
therefore, vital to reduce the problems in later life.
”Without such early interventions, urban areas like Lewisham
will deteriorate. Across the borough, other much needed support
services for children and young people are being lost or reduced,
so collectively this is a poorly thought through review by the
management.
”Potentially, thousands of children, now and in the future,
could be adversely affected by the scale of these cuts.”
Unite members at Lewisham CAMHS are campaigning to raise
awareness and avert the impending damage to services.
ENDS
Notes to news editors:
For further information, please contact Richard Munn on 07739
078343 and/or Unite communications officer on Shaun Noble 07768
693940
The cuts include:
- Specific funding from the schools’ team being withdrawn
- Local authority funding has reduced by £160,000
- Funding for the adolescents’ team has been cut
- The PCT has reduced funding by £80,000.
- The rent for Kaleidoscope – the centre in Lewisham which houses
all aspects of children’s services - has been increased
