East London health workers fight cuts

Image source: The Lowdown

I have recently joined Unite, and have become a rep in East London NHS Foundation Trust (ELFT). I have become part of the campaign to fight against the Trust’s plan to make £24.9 million “efficiency savings”, i.e., cuts. As part of these cuts, the equivalent of 331 posts will be deleted.

This is following from the recent ‘Going Further, Going Together” initiative, a “financial sustainability” initiative launched by the Trust in 2024. Our campaign also includes the demand for the reinstatement of Unite branch secretary Mark Dunne, after he was made redundant from his substantive post, which the Trust claimed was due to “service redesign”.

Staff cuts are being made across all boroughs covered by the Trust: Tower Hamlets, Hackney, Newham, as well as Luton and Bedfordshire, where the Trust has run mental health services since 2015. ELFT face heavy criticism due to their lack of formal public, staff, or political consultations. By claiming cuts are “service redesign” conducted under “Going Further, Going Together”, the Trust is hoping to circumvent consultation processes and avoid a backlash from unions. Their efforts have failed: our Unite branch is fighting the cuts, and plans to launch a ballot for industrial action, taking advantage of new laws allowing unions to ballot electronically.

ELFT union reps meet weekly to discuss building the campaign. We have also been coordinating walkabouts at ELFT sites in Mile End, Newham, and Hackney. We also have regular members’ meetings to share updates and plan next steps. An important part of our work is to spread the word about the cuts. The walkabouts we’ve conducted revealed there is a lack of awareness at some sites about the proposed cuts. Our work has led to an upsurge in Unite membership.

We have held demonstrations at ELFT HQ, to make our views about the cuts and Mark’s redundancy known. Unfortunately, we were unsuccessful in preventing Mark’s redundancy. His last day at work was 31 July.

At a demonstration on 29 July, we heard from Apsana Begum, Labour MP for Poplar and Limehouse in Tower Hamlets. In a letter to the chief executive of the Trust, Begum has said: “I simply cannot envisage that cuts of that scale could be implemented without creating a substantial variation in how services are accessed by patients.”

Above: Photo shows a Unite union protest outside Robert Dolan House. Apsana Begum MP is on the right of the picture. Demonstrators stand along the pavement holding red Unite flags and banners calling for investment in the NHS, including “Our NHS Is Under Siege – Protect Patients, Raise NHS Pay” and “Keep Our NHS Public.”

Above: Another photo from the demonstration, showing people holding Unite union flags and a large banner reading “Our NHS Is Under Siege – Protect Patients, Raise NHS Pay” stand in a peaceful protest outside Robert Dolan House. The group lines the pavement in front of the office building on a sunny day.

I am planning to attend a local Labour Party meeting to raise awareness of our dispute and build support. We will continue spreading the message, encouraging all those that can to attend our demos, which we have held at 8am or at lunchtime.

Our next day of action is Thursday 20 August, when we have lunchtime demonstrations across all three sites. Then, attention will turn to getting the vote out in the industrial action ballot.

These cuts are a choice that NHS bosses are making. ELFT is currently running a balanced budget for the 2025/26 fiscal cycle. Although it reported a £12.7 million adjusted deficit for 2024/25, it has over £150 million in reserve. It does not “have” to make cuts.

The Trust has already made £70 million worth of cuts in the last two years. The plan for further cuts is not a local financial necessity, but a political choice made in line with national directives to reduce deficits. These financial pressures are coming from NHS England and, ultimately, from government policy. The Integrated Care Board for North East London says it is “targeting efficiency savings through a 50% reduction in running costs”. Those cuts are being passed on to individual trusts.

Workers are under-resourced, despite being faced with increasing demand. When people face rising living costs, and a possible reduction in living standards, mental health is likely to be impacted. We know from existing data that reductions in staffing levels mean increased risk for patients. Shortages of beds mean patients aren’t admitted, meaning they could be waiting at home when they are at greatest risk. Whilst not from our Trust, the cases of Martin Bryant and Sapphire Bernard, patients who took their own lives whilst waiting for beds to be made available in 2025 and 2023 respectively, show the risks cuts pose.

A Guardian article about the cuts neatly summarised how sweeping they will be, writing that the cuts will “involve the ‘redesign’ of at least 10 key services such as child and adolescent mental health care, talking therapies, addiction support, help for adults undergoing a mental health crisis and community programmes, including for ethnic minorities and poor people.”

Our fight is not only a fight for staffing levels and our working conditions: it is a fight to defend the service we provide to our patients.

Further Reading: "Unite fights mental health job cuts and victimisation" by John Lister, The Lowdown