Elmore signs letter to MPs to raise concerns about the impact of National Insurance rises

As a founding member of the Oxfordshire Mental Health Partnership, Elmore has signed a letter to Oxfordshire Members of Parliament raising serious concerns about the impact of National Insurance increases on the delivery of support to Oxfordshire residents suffering mental ill health.

The Oxfordshire Mental Health Partnership (OMHP) brings together key mental health charities and Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust to support thousands of Oxfordshire residents to live with serious, long-term mental health conditions. Elmore delivers the mental health and complex needs floating support services as part of the OMHP and works alongside fellow third-sector agencies Restore, Response, Connection Support, Oxfordshire Mind.

The letter was addressed to Anneliese Dodds MP, Layla Moran MP, Victoria Prentis MP, David Johnston OBE MP, John Howells MP, and Robert Courts MP. Writing together, the Chief Executives of the third-sector services shared their grave concerns about the dangerous impact of the forthcoming rise in National Insurance contributions for individuals and employers on the mental health of the UK population.

The letter can be read in its PDF format (please click the green button) and further below.

January 2022

Dear Oxfordshire Member of Parliament,

Oxfordshire Mental Health Partnership’s serious concerns about the impact of National Insurance increases on the delivery of support to Oxfordshire residents suffering mental ill health 

The Oxfordshire Mental Health Partnership (OMHP) brings together key mental health charities and Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust to support thousands of Oxfordshire residents to live with serious, long-term mental health conditions. In my role as the Chair of the OMHP I am writing to you today on behalf of the Third Sector OMHP partners, to express our grave concerns about the dangerous impact of the forthcoming rise in National Insurance contributions for individuals and employers on the mental health of the UK population. 

A 2020 Healthwatch Oxfordshire review of the OMHP highlighted concerns about long waiting times, problems accessing specialist services and unequal provision across the county. The report, based on the experiences of more than 2,000 people who accessed mental health services in the county over an 18-month period, highlighted the need for increased investment to tackle a shortfall in funding for local mental health services and concluded that increased investment would allow issues such as limited access to services, unequal provision across the county and high staff turnover to be addressed. Based on the frontline experience of our partners over the course of the pandemic, we can confirm that these issues have become more serious, entrenched, and widespread.

We have long called for increased funding for Health and Social Care and want to back all measures which will ensure more people can access more of this support. However, we are deeply concerned that the forthcoming rise in Personal NI contributions will immediately cut the income of our staff at a time of significantly rising costs of living. The rise in Employer NI contributions will also result in loss of adequate funding for our services and, therefore, undermine our ability to deliver services at a time when they are needed more than ever. 

We do not believe that the statement on the Government website that the NI increase “will be spent on the NHS and social care in the UK” can be accurate when we do not see any planned increases in funding reaching vital services such as those in our Partnership. 

We are concerned that the Government has also misrepresented the reality of the pay award last year. The proposal for all NHS employees to receive a 3% rise in salaries which was to be met from existing budgets resulted in the immediate erosion of the capacity of valuable services, creating serious concerns about delivery within the health and social care system. Moreover, as key third-sector agencies providing life-changing and life-saving services, alongside and in support of our NHS, we have not seen an increase in our own Contract values, thereby reducing our freedom to award pay increases to hard-pressed staff to meet their own rising costs. 

We know that our dedicated employees will face another pay cut from April 2022. We are reaching a point where our employees can find competitive pay and reduced risk of stress and burnout by working in other sectors. (This is equally the case for third sector partners working with children and young people.) 

We urgently request a virtual meeting with you to raise these concerns and provide additional detail. As representatives, we want you to understand and express our concerns with Government, concerns raised directly on behalf of several thousands of your constituents. 

Without a virtual meeting or chance to seek representation of our views, we are concerned that we will have to explain to our employees, partners, and service users that the planned rise in NI feels like yet another example of the age-old notion of “robbing Peter to pay Paul” when we are finding that Peter has no money to steal, and Paul will remain unpaid. 

In the meantime, we wish you a very happy New Year and best wishes for 2022. 

Yours sincerely, 

Lesley Dewhurst (CEO of Restore and Chair of the Oxfordshire Mental Health Partnership)

Chris Keating (CEO of Connection Support and OMHP Chair-designate)

Tom Hayes (CEO of Elmore Community Services)

Dan Knowles (CEO of Oxfordshire Mind)

John McLaughlin (CEO of Response)