Legal aid cuts have forced firms with no mental health experience to bid for mental health contracts – and they are now urgently seeking to poach staff to enable them to do the work, recruiters have told the Gazette.

Toby Williamson, director at national recruiters G2 Legal, said: ‘We’ve been approached by several firms around the country who have not in the past done mental health work, but who put in bids for mental health contracts and are now looking to find staff.’

He said that criminal firms especially are looking to diversify ‘as fees get squeezed and because of the uncertainty over the future delivery of legal aid’.

Sean Smith, manager at recruiters Badenoch & Clark, said he had seen the same trend: ‘This is the same in all areas of legal aid work due to the slashes in fees which have led firms to look into broader fields in order to survive financially.’

After firms were notified of the outcome of the mental health tender process last month, Richard Charlton, chairman of the Mental Health Lawyers Association, said many with no experience of mental health work had put in ‘speculative’ bids and been awarded contracts.

‘We’re not saying there shouldn’t be new people coming in, but the way this has been done will destroy large elements of the existing supplier base and harm client representation,’ said Charlton.