Concerns for frontline NHS staff in Lancashire as Resilience Hub in danger of losing funding

The Lancashire and South Cumbria Psychological Resilience Hub is one of 40 hubs in England launched in February 2021, in response to the trauma experienced by NHS and social care staff during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Although based in Euxton, near Chorley, the hub has helped frontline workers from Preston, Blackpool and the Fylde coast.

The closure follows shock news early this year that Government funding for it was to end by March 31.

The hubs have provided local NHS and social care staff with fast access to free and confidential mental health services, to help them recover from their experiences during the pandemic, and support them with other mental health challenges they face.

For many, the hubs' support has enabled them to continue their important work for patients, and to work safely in their challenging jobs, easing the workforce shortages across the NHS.

Despite strong arguments that there are evidential links between staff wellbeing and patient safety, the Department for Health and Social Care has decided to cease funding the hubs, leaving them in limbo and without funds to continue to help staff.

Up to 13 hubs in England have already closed, or are pending imminent closure, with many more set to close in the coming months as hub teams desperately try to identify alternative funding arrangements to secure the services’ future.

The leading member organisations for psychologists have launched the #FundNHSHubs campaign to protect the hubs’ future.

They are calling on the government to commit to a minimum of one year’s transitional funding for the hubs, so they can continue to provide vital support to staff, and identify new potential funding opportunities.

The campaign is supported by award-winning actor, writer and mental health advocate Stephen Fry.

He said: “When soldiers come back from a war, we like to think we are proud enough as a nation to support them, and support them through all the stresses and anxieties and mental health problems that soldiers have after fighting on the front line in a war. We must do the same with our health workers, surely.”