Changing Lives (the new name for the Cyrenians) is to take on six services and 64 members of staff from Platform 51 as the women’s charity drops its name and pulls out of frontline service provision.
Women’s charity, Platform 51 is “withdrawing from face-to-face services” following a restructure, said chief executive Carole Easton (pictured). It will relocate its head office from Oxford to London and is changing its name to Young Women’s Trust with a view to increasing its campaigning and influencing work.
Platform 51’s spending has outstripped its income by more than £1m each year since 2008. For the year-end March 2012, the latest available accounts, its income was £4.8m with a spending of £7.2m and it employed 117 staff. The charity was previously known as YWCA England and Wales and rebranded to Platform 51 in 2010. In 2012 it closed three of its centres.
Easton said: “The trustees are delighted that we were able to reach this agreement with Changing Lives, which ensures a bright future for many girls’ and women’s services and secures jobs for many of our staff.”
A spokeswoman for Changing Lives confirmed that money had changed hands but was able to disclose how much, or in which direction.
Discussions between the two organisations began in May and the transfer agreement came into effect on 1 November. Changing Lives is taking on Platform 51’s projects in Middlesbrough, Doncaster, Liverpool, Nottingham, Wolverhampton and Wales.
Platform 51’s website says that it runs women’s centres in Bristol, Cardiff, Doncaster, Knowsley (near Liverpool), London, Nottingham, Wolverhampton and Kent.
A spokeswoman for Platform 51 said that elements of the restructure are “ongoing” and that a new brand and website would be made public at the end of November.
Last week the north-east-based Cyrenians revealed its new name, Changing Lives, and announced that it planned to expand services across the UK. It has an annual turnover of almost £12m, employs 300 people and provides services for homeless people, recovering addicts and offenders.
Chief executive, Stephen Bell OBE, said: “This move both expands and complements our existing service provision for women and girls, and builds on our established track record of gender-specialist projects.
“We understand the importance of tailored provision for women and girls, and the role the project's existing high-quality work can play in empowering those they work with to achieve more.”
