Oxfam to make 100 UK staff redundant

18 May 2018 News

Oxfam has said it will have to make 100 UK staff redundant because donors are withholding funding in the wake of the safeguarding scandal.

The statement comes just days after the announcement that Mark Goldring, the charity’s chief executive, will be stepping down from the role at the end of the year.

Oxfam has faced intense media scrutiny in recent months and is being investigated by the Charity Commission over safeguarding incidents, including those taking place in Haiti in 2011. 

The charity said it needs to reorganise its work in order to ensure it lives within its means, while doing all it can to protect the support it gives.

It said that due to some donors having paused new funding “pending reassurances”, it will have to lose some of its staff working in its international programmes and in the UK.

The charity had been forced to limit some of its international aid programmes after it agreed not to bid for new funding from the Department for International Development. It also announced a “package of measures to strengthen the prevention and handling of sexual abuse cases”.

Will 'lose some great people'

A spokesman said: “We are having to reorganise our work in order to ensure we live within our means while doing all we can to protect the support we give to millions of people striving to escape poverty and survive humanitarian disasters. 

“Some donors have paused new funding of our work pending reassurances. 

“Sadly this will mean that we will lose some great people in our international programmes and in the UK. We are still working through the effect this will have on redundancies, but our estimate at the start of the process was that it could affect in the region of 100 staff in the UK. 

“We very much appreciate the overwhelming majority of donors of all types who continue to actively support our life saving work. We look forward to resuming our partnerships with our other supporters as we reassure them that we can meet the high standards they expect of us and to which Oxfam adheres.”

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