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30
Aug
Redundancies as Harrogate charity restructures
A Harrogate-based charity that supports unpaid carers has made an unspecified number of staff redundant.
Carers’ Resource employs more than 100 staff at sites in Harrogate, Skipton, Bradford and Selby.
It moved to its current head office at Grove Park Court in Harrogate in 2022 after previously being based on North Park Road in the town since 1995.
The organisation, which runs weekly youth clubs, holidays and days out, has helped adults and young people across Yorkshire for almost 30 years.
The Stray Ferret was informed of the job losses by a source, who said youth clubs and the Young Carers service were among the victims of the changes.
We asked Carers’ Resource for further details about the job losses and funding cut.
Chief executive Heidi Watson replied:
Like all charities across the country, we are facing challenging financial times and we need to make sure we manage our resources as effectively as we can.
Although our funding from North Yorkshire Council remains at the same level, various other supplementary funding sources have reduced and costs have increased. This has meant that we have had to restructure the organisation recently and as a result of this some staff have been made redundant.
This may affect the named contacts some of our volunteers are used to dealing with and the frequency and way we run some of our groups for unpaid adult carers and young carers. We are in the process of contacting everyone affected individually.
The UK owes a debt to its unpaid carers and we want to assure all of them that the charity will continue to be there for them in the way we have for almost 30 years. You care for them and we care for you.
We asked precisely how many staff had been made redundant and which funding source had been reduced and by how much.
Ms Watson said “almost 90% of our workforce will remain” but did not give further financial details.
According to accounts filed with the Charity Commission, income at Carers' Resource increased from £3.39m in 2019 to £4.62m in the year ending March 31, 2023.
Its accounts for the year ending 31 March, 2023 revealed it employed 125 full-time equivalent staff in 2023 compared with 142 the previous year.
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