Cumbria CVS will move out of three of its five buildings as it restructures the organisation following a reduction in its grant funding of £400,000.

The charity also warned that it may have to make up to a third of its staff redundant at the end of September after it lost out on a £250,000 Capacity Builders grant and £150,000 in local authority funding.

The volunteer service has been awarded a Basis Infrastructure Fund grant from the Big Lottery Fund (BIG) of £468,000 but has been told that this will be the last year that it will receive this. It has received grants of this nature from BIG for the last five years, since the five Cumbrian councils for voluntary services merged to become one charity.

Karen Bowen, chief officer of Cumbria CVS, told civilsociety.co.uk that this year's funding would be used to support the restructure and means that the charity can, “plan for the future”.

Cumbria CVS will now make its Penrith office its base in the north and its Barrow office its base in the south but said it is committed to maintaining development officers available locally through flexible working.

Bowen said the move would, “reduce back-office costs and free up the buildings, which we own, to be rented out”.

Redundancies

The charity currently employs 39 staff and has already made redundancies at management level. In 2010 it made three senior managers and one part-time manager redundant leaving just two people at senior management level in the organisation.

The five CVS organisations merged in 2007 to "improve service delivery and maximise funding opportunities".  At the time all members of staff were transferred to the new organisation, with Bowen, the chief officer of what had been Eden CVS, the only applicant for the position of chief officer of the new organisation.