The Disability Society has noted Unite the Union’s recent press release regarding short term and insecure employment contracts.

A statement from the Disability Society follows below:

 For many years the  Society has repeatedly publicly condemned short term contracts and the devastating  effects it can have on continuity of care of the users of the disability services. As far  back as 2014 we publicly condemned the use of 11 month contracts. In 2019 the  Society wrote to the Chief Minister expressing concerns regarding the agreement the  Government had reached with Unite that has changed the amount of time from 12 months to 12 weeks, in line with the UK, under which workers acting in post can  achieve the same rights as those they work alongside who have permanent contracts.

The reduction from 12 to 3 months obviously caused huge issues with management  moving staff almost constantly within the disability services to avoid them gaining the  same rights as permanent staff. Whilst the Society understood that this agreement  with the Union was made with consideration of staff employed throughout all of the  Government services, it was felt that at no time was consideration given to the effect  this would have on the service users and their families in the disability services. 

Months and even years of work by dedicated teams of staff to address issues of  challenging behaviour can be undone by such disruption in a matter of days. The  result of this situation was upheaval in the disability services. This led to services  users becoming unsettled and resulting in incidents. Once again the Society must  point out to Government that the lack of continuity of care is detrimental to the  service user. Surely it is not difficult to understand that the services will always  require permanent staff. It is also a fact that there will, sadly, always be an increase in  numbers of service users. As such, the issues of short term contracts, insecure  employment contracts and the constant use of supply workers must cease.

The Disability Society would also take the opportunity to once again call for independent  inspections of all the disability services.