Crime rehabilitation charities face redundancies as income falls

Fundraising | Celina Ribeiro | 15 Apr 2011

More than two-thirds of charities working with criminal offenders have their staff on redundancy notice or expect to do so, according to research released today.

The staffing situation is perhaps not surprising as, according to the online survey commissioned by Clinks and released today, three-quarters of these charities have seen a fall in grant income, nearly half (46 per cent) have witnessed a drop in earned income and a third have are facing reduced voluntary income. Clinks have warned that this represents an existential threat to a number of services.

With such across-the-board falls in income, seven out of ten of the 99 charities surveyed said they had already had to draw on their reserves, and 90 per cent expect to do so in this current financial year.

Fundraising is being seen as a possible route to salvation for these charities. Although just a quarter estimated they were eligible for the government’s transition fund, nearly all (96 per cent) are spending more energy on fundraising to make up for the shortfalls.

Clive Martin, director of Clinks, said the sector was keen to work with government on reducing reoffending rates, but that it was being bound by economic constraints. “The sector is simultaneously facing cuts and severe challenges, and expects this to get worse. The new agenda presents opportunities but it is not yet clear what funding will be available and from where,” he said.

“The danger is that by the time the dust settles, we will have lost many valuable services.”

Comments

[Cancel] | Reply to:

Name *

Email *

Organisation

Job Title

Comments *

Verification *

* Please read our Community Standards

Close »

Community Standards

The civilsociety.co.uk community and comments board is intended as a platform for informed and civilised debate.

We hope to encourage a broad range of views, however, there are standards that we expect commentators to uphold. We reserve the right to delete or amend any comments that do not adhere to these standards.

We welcome:

Robust but respectful debate
Strongly held opinions
Intelligent relevant discussion
The sharing of relevant experiences
New participants

We will not publish:

Rude, threatening, offensive, obscene or abusive language, or links to such material
Links to commercial organisations or spam postings. The comments board is not an advertising platform
The posting of contact details for yourself or others
Comments intended for malicious purpose or mindless abuse
Comments purporting to be from another person or organisation under false pretences
Gratuitous criticism, commentary or self-promotion
Any material which breaches copyright or privacy laws, or could be considered libellous
The use of the comments board for the pursuit or extension of personal disputes

Be aware:

Views expressed on the comments board are left at users’ discretion and are in no way views held or supported by Civil Society Media
Comments left by others may not be accurate, do not rely on them as fact
You may be misunderstood - sarcasm and humour can easily be taken out of context, try to be clear

Please:

Enjoy the opportunity to express your opinion and respect the right of others to express theirs
Confine your remarks to issues rather than personalities

Together we can keep our community a polite, respectful and intelligent platform for discussion.