by Mary Graham

mgraham@thekmgroup.co.uk

Thousands of pounds of taxpayers’ cash has been mistakenly paid to staff at a hospital caring for male offenders battling mental health problems.

Staff at the Tarentfort Centre, on the same estate as Dartford’s Little Brook Hospital, have been told that retention payments, worth £1,400 a year, should be withdrawn.

The allowance has been paid to staff for several years. Now the Kent and Medway NHS Social Care Partnership Trust, which runs the centre, has launched a consultation on its withdrawal.

Retention payments are made to staff who work in medium or high security units that deal with the worst offenders.

Tarentfort provides inpatient care to men who have committed an offence and who have been detained under the Mental Health Act.

It is graded as low security – which does not qualify for the retention payments – but somehow they made their way into staff pay packets.

The error only came to light when the NHS trust began setting up another low secure unit on the Greenacres site. As staff contracts for the new centre were being drawn up, someone spotted that Tarentfort staff were getting more money.

The payment is given to 64 staff, paid monthly as part of their salaries. Withdrawing it will save the NHS £89,600 a year.

Staff nurse Brett Cole , said many staff had relied on the monthly payments, which had been paid for at least four years.

He added: “We understand the trust is saying the payments have been made in error.

“But they have been part of our contracts for a long time and some people affected are nurses and healthcare workers who will be on less than £20,000.

“We do have to sometimes deal with some difficult patients. Around two years ago, we had to call the police, when a dispute got out of hand. The staff here are professional and very hard working and this will hit many of us hard.

“Many people have relied on the payments going in every month for their mortgages or rent.”

Adrian Lowther, spokesman for the social care partnership trust said: “We fully accept we have been overpaying staff for the last few years and it was a contractual error.

“This is a national payscale, so we have got to look at bringing salaries back in line.

“If the retention payment is withdrawn, it will be protected for a year, so it will not suddenly disappear from people’s paypackets.”