09.11.18
Trust pays out £5.7m to lay off 299 staff as mergers see spike in compulsory redundancy pay-outs
One NHS trust paid out £5.7m to get rid of 299 NHS workers as new figures show that the amount trusts spent on compulsory redundancies increased by 8% last year.
Data from trust’s annual accounts show that NHS providers spend a combined total of £46.7m on severance payments in 2017-18, with Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent Partnership FT (SSOTP) the highest spenders of all the trusts across the last two years.
In 2017-18 alone, Essex Partnership University FT (EPU) spent £4.9m on redundancy payments, which is 1.45% of its annual budget.
These two trusts sit at the top of the rankings for redundancy pay-outs after both were recently involved in a merger between NHS trusts.
SSOTP made 159 employees redundant in 2017-18, and 140 workers the year before, before the trust was dissolved in May following a merger with South Staffordshire and Shropshire Healthcare Foundation Trust, who also spent more than £1m on redundancies.
The spokesperson for the newly formed trust, now known as Midlands Partnership NHS FT, said that the old trust “undertook a number of service redesigns” during the two-year period, and that redundancies were made in line with personal terms and conditions.
“Whilst all redundancy payments were recorded in the trust’s end of year accounts, almost £3m of these payments were met by commissioners.”
Speaking to Stoke-on-Trent Live, Ian Syme, the Healthwatch co-ordinator for North Staffordshire, criticised what he called “fat-cat” payments.
He said: “There seems to be an excessive amount paid out, especially as there is talk of one employee receiving £354,000.
“A lot of these people will have been ordinary workers, but the larger pay-out’s send the wrong signs to the general population because they are fat-cat pay-out’s that would you expect from banks or in London and not the NHS.”
EPU FT was formed following merger between South Essex Partnership FT and North Essex Partnership FT, and spent a total of £4.9m on compulsory redundancies.
Eleven of its staff were paid more than £100,000 for redundancies, and 24 were paid between £50,000 and £100,000, all of which the trust attributed to its merger.
The third highest spend was Mersey Care FT, who also acquired two other providers in the last two years.
Overall, the £46.7m spent on compulsory redundancies was up from £43.3m from the year before.
Image credit - BackyardProduction
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