Disability workers lose jobs after 'years of service'

Staff at a centre which supports children with disabilities are "really angry" to have lost their jobs after the contract moved to a new provider, its chief executive has said.

Earlier this year, it was confirmed paediatric services for White Lodge Centre, in Chertsey, would end in April, but negotiations about transferring staff had been ongoing until recently.

White Lodge Centre chief executive Lesleigh Bounds said: "We've got eight staff who have all lost their jobs after decades of service."

The NHS Surrey Heartlands Integrated Care Board (ICB) said that employment issues arising from this change of provider were "legal matters between providers".

The new provider, HCRG Care Group, said it understood the change would be difficult, "particularly where relationships with staff have been built over time".

Bounds said the ending of this contract, compounded by the job losses, was a "devastating loss for the charity".

Having provided services such as occupational therapy and speech therapy under this contract since 1992, the chief executive believes a huge amount of institutional knowledge has been lost.

She said: "A lot of those staff have decades of skills and experience that they have given to families when they come for treatment.

"The entire treatment pathway for these children has been lost."

As of Wednesday, about 50 families across Surrey with children up to five years-old will have a different service.

Some parents have expressed concern over how the changes could affect their children.

Bounds shares those concerns and said families need "continuity of care".

She said it had been "a vocation for their entire career" for some staff, and two members had worked at the centre for more than 35 years.

She added: "This is about losing a part of the identity of the organisation... [It] has just been an unnecessary experience."

A spokesperson for Surrey Child and Family Health, the service provided by HCRG, said it already worked with children with "complex neurodevelopmental conditions such as cerebral palsy, from 12 locations across the county".

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