Letter to The Times from IoP Heads and Senior Professors

 

SIR,

The Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience (IoPPN), a School of King’s College London, is facing a potentially devastating round of compulsory redundancies with 50 of its academic staff ‘at risk’. The IoPPN has been at the forefront of research and teaching in psychiatry and mental health for over 50 years and has a superb reputation across the world – as attested by the many internationally eminent signatories to a petition to halt these redundancies.

 

These cuts are not driven by any decline in productivity or excellence but by: changes in funding following the introduction of ‘full’ tuition fees which disadvantage medical schools, the withdrawal of access to central capital funds, and deficiencies in financial projections. As a result, the King’s College Council has decided to ring-fence a capital fund of 6% of its income requiring it says, a 15% cut in salaries to staff of its Health Schools.

 

The IoPPN and its NHS partner, the Maudsley carry out clinical research in psychiatric disorders from autism to Alzheimer’s disorders, the leading cause of disability and healthcare costs in the developed world.  While there are many areas of strength in UK psychiatry, IoPPN and Maudsley have played a leading role in the battle to combat stigma against mental disorders and to train future generations of psychiatrists, psychologists and other clinical scientists to translate scientific advances into new therapies. 

 

Mental health has long been a poor relation within UK research funding and staffing. It is not just the IoPPN or Maudsley that will suffer if these job losses materialise, it will also have a devastating impact on UK psychiatry as a whole.   

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Professors

Richard Brown

Noel Buckley

Anthony David

Patrick Doherty

Sir David Goldberg

Francesca Happé

Matthew Hotopf

Corinne Houart

Robert Howard

Philip McGuire

Declan Murphy

Sir Robin Murray

Andrew Pickles

Martin Prince

Mark Richardson

Sir Michael Rutter

Emily Simonoff

John Strang

Sir Simon Wessely

Steven Williams

Til Wykes