Finding and Keeping. Review of Recruitment and Retention in the Mental Health Workforce. London: The Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health. 2000. 136 pp. £20.00. ISBN: 1-870-480-46-5

On the day that I read the Sainsbury Centre's report on recruitment and retention, the London Evening Standard newspaper contained three separate articles on staff shortages in the NHS. Not that I needed the media to remind me of what has been apparent to mental health workers for several years. As the report confirms, staff vacancies and low morale are contributing to the increasing pressure under which we work.

The report details the staff shortages in various disciplines: 14% of consultant posts are vacant; 85% of trusts have difficulty in recruiting and retaining nursing staff; there are similar problems in social work, psychology and occupational therapy. It then makes recommendations that, at a trust level, are aimed at management and human resources. These recommendations are accompanied by an A to Z of practical points, which range from ‘advertising’ to ‘zero tolerance of violence’.

The report highlights the cycle of staffing frustration familiar to those of us who work in an understaffed organisation. Services can be forced into a vicious circle where understaffing or poor retention leads to a heavy workload and low morale for those remaining staff. This results in a further loss of staff and increased recruitment difficulties. The report also reminds readers that the users of such services will suffer. I am sceptical that the practical advice offered is sufficient to address problems in the most severely depleted services. Local initiatives will be ineffective without wider economic and political change.

In concluding this report, the Sainsbury Centre makes nine recommendations on recruiting and retaining staff. Three of these are directed at the Department of Health: the systematic collection of information on staff vacancies, national workforce planning and a review of the impact of pension schemes on staff retention. The report also reminds the Government that the aims of the National Plan and the National Service Framework for Mental Health will not be achieved without adequate numbers of motivated staff. We await the outcome of the work of the Department of Health's Workforce Action Team, and the local implementation teams. Without their success, the Sainsbury Centre's report will be timely and well meaning, but ineffective.