Volunteering England is considering cutting more than half of its staff numbers as it faces a potential 60 per cent cut in strategic partner funding.

It is currently consulting with staff and trade unions on proposals for restructuring which would reduce its staffing from 55 to 24 posts, including the ending of ten time-limited posts.

The charity, along with all Office for Civil Society strategic partners, will be hit with a drop in funding as the government has decided to cut the numbers of its strategic partners from 42 to 15 and make sure no strategic partner gets more than 25 per cent of its income from the Office for Civil Society.

The OCS is yet to announce its decision on which strategic partners to keep, but Civil Society understands that each partner has been in regular talks with the OCS.

Last year, Volunteering England received £1.5m in funding from the Cabinet Office, which represents 30 per cent of its income according to calculations by Charity Finance. Overall 82 per cent of its income is government funding.

Chief executive of Volunteering England Justin Davis Smith called the funding news "heartbreaking" for the organisation:

“It is extraordinary we have to plan on cutting back our organisation at a time when across our society there is more interest in volunteering than ever before. The coalition government’s Big Society is built upon volunteering, and Volunteering England has a crucial part to play in helping public and community services become more effective through involving volunteers.

“And it is heartbreaking we are planning to make redundant so many colleagues who bring extraordinary commitment to the cause of volunteering and have so much knowledge and experience to offer the volunteering movement and our whole society.

“We have to safeguard Volunteering England against a potential 60 per cent cut in strategic partner funding, and, together with the ending of time-limited projects, we have no alternative but to commence a consultation procedure on staff redundancies.

“The trustees and our staff team have been working for the past year on the strategic plan for 2011-2014. We have re-examined our range of work and identified the essential elements of our role as the national development agency for volunteering. The proposed structure will focus our resources on the twin tracks of strengthening knowledge to improve policy and practice and on engaging with our fast-growing membership and the volunteering movement.

“We are urging the Cabinet Office to discuss how reductions in the strategic partnership programme could be phased so organisations such as Volunteering England can diversify our sources of funding, continuing to strengthen our relationships with the corporate world and to increase our membership.

“The trustees would wish to place on record their thanks to the staff team at Volunteering England for their excellent work over the past years and their professionalism during this difficult time.”