UNITE members protested outside No 10 North over a lack of jobs for NHS-trained mental health workers today.

The union is calling for emergency funding to be made available for newly qualified clinical psychologists facing the prospect of being unable to find work within the NHS.

Next month in the north-west of England alone, 77 newly qualified clinical psychologists will face the prospect of unemployment or leaving the NHS for private practice despite the NHS spending £19.25 million training them over three years, it warns.

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “We are seeing the same crisis in the NHS year after year. Highly trained, essential workers who plan to dedicate their careers to caring for others are unable to find jobs or leave the NHS as posts don’t exist.

“This situation is a disgrace. The NHS must invest in careers, not unemployment. We will not allow our clinical psychologist members to be dumped on the scrapheap due to a crisis not of their making and they have our full support in their fight to secure work.”

Unite representative and clinical psychologist John Mulligan said: “The crisis facing newly qualified clinical psychologists in the north-west is part of a much bigger national problem about the future of NHS careers.

“Short-term austerity and so called efficiency savings are wasting public investment and further eroding already desperately under-resourced services.

“We need sensible long-term workforce planning, permanent NHS careers and safe, effective staff-to-patient ratios in every NHS service.

“That’s better for patients, current staff, the next generation of NHS workers and the long-term use of public money. Planned improvements to the NHS cannot happen unless Unite’s demands are met.”