Mental health charity the Campaign Against Living Miserably (CALM) made 10 of its 63 staff redundant earlier this year as it navigates an increase in demand for its services.
CALM, which supports people affected by suicide, made the redundancies in March following a reported rise in running costs and a drop in income.
Chief executive Simon Gunning told Civil Society: “The entire sector is experiencing truly difficult times – not only are we seeing a drop in income at CALM but we’re also experiencing higher costs whilst navigating huge increases in demand for our services.
“In March, CALM recently made redundancies across all parts of the organisation.
“It’s incredibly hard to make these decisions when everyone who works at CALM is truly dedicated to and passionate about our work.”
CALM’s accounts for the financial year ending March 2023 state that demand for CALM’s services increased year-on-year by 14%.
“With no increase in resources, we worked to increase productivity while still delivering a high-quality service, and across the year there was a 2% increase in contacts answered per worker,” they read.
In 2022-23, the charity’s total income rose from £7.08m to £7.62m, with donations and legacies accounting for almost 98% of it.
Its expenditure rose from £6.31m to £7.45m in 2022-23 and it spent £3.3m on staff costs, a rise of £1.1m on the year prior.
The charity’s average monthly number of employees increased from 43 in 2021-22 to 57 in 2022-23.
