‘soul-destroying’: Samaritans Volunteers Blindsided By Proposed Closures

At nan Walsall branch of Samaritans, it has been a reliable fewer years of campaigning for nan costs needed to switch nan now leaky portable compartment they person operated retired of for nan past 60 years.

After raising almost £300,000, they are connected nan location agelong towards reaching their last goal, and being capable to switch nan building they usage to thief section group successful nan depths of crisis.

Then came nan daze announcement from Samaritans cardinal office: that it proposes to adjacent astatine slightest half of its 200 branches crossed nan UK and Ireland successful nan adjacent 10 years.

One personnel of nan Walsall squad said: “We conscionable don’t cognize what to do now. Do we transportation on? It’s soul-destroying.”

Dozens of branches crossed nan state person raised siren astatine nan charity’s “in principle” decisions, which are still nether consultation until nan committee of trustees meet successful September, fearing it could lead to a nonaccomplishment of volunteers and morale. These see moving volunteers into larger location hubs, which immoderate fearfulness will create a “call-centre-style” model, and piloting distant telephone handling.

Volunteers astatine nan Walsall branch said they had been blindsided by nan news. “We had an arena past week and personification other had raised £1,000 for us, and we didn’t cognize what to do. Do we return nan money? Because we cognize now that our branch could beryllium closed,” 1 volunteer, who asked to stay anonymous, said.

“Every measurement of nan way, cardinal agency person known precisely what we’re doing. And we’ve sewage this money and we’re very concerned astir whether it has been ringfenced for nan building. Because that is what it was raised for.”

She said nan portable compartment they had utilized for decades had slow fallen into disrepair and was successful dire request of replacement. “At 1 constituent we were frightened to usage nan toilet because nan level was going to springiness way,” she said.

They primitively group retired to raise £250,000 successful 2023 but were advised by Samaritans cardinal agency earlier this twelvemonth to revise their target up to £320,000 owed to rising building costs. They received galore donations from different branches, nan unpaid said, arsenic good arsenic from members of nan public.

Samaritans cardinal agency said it was successful chat pinch nan Walsall branch connected its imaginable options.

A number of Samaritans listening volunteers said they were worried nan kindness was spending excessively overmuch of its backing connected unit salaries, astatine nan disbursal of nan branches tally by unpaid volunteers. The mean number of paid labor astatine nan kindness has accrued from 277 successful 2022 to 305 successful 2024, and much than £15m of nan charity’s full income of £24.6m went connected wages past year.

Of nan 201 Samaritans branches, 144 are affiliated organisations that are abstracted ineligible entities pinch their ain financial accounts, who organise their ain fundraising and springiness a information of nan money they raise to nan cardinal office.

Volunteers said they were told that past twelvemonth these connection branches received a full income of £11.1m and spent £9.3m.

The charity’s cardinal agency said that money was not nan superior logic for proposing to adjacent branches, and that yet it wanted to trim fragmentation crossed its service, though volunteers had reported having to walk much clip and effort maintaining nan buildings they operated in.

In a video sent to nan charity’s 20,000 volunteers, nan Samaritans CEO, Julie Bentley, said: “Much of nan money that is presently raised from nan nationalist successful nan sanction of Samaritans is needfully going into maintaining these bricks and mortar, alternatively than being utilized to amended our services.”

Volunteers person been told nan kindness could not supply an “overall figure” for really overmuch money is spent connected buildings. Many said they were besides worried astir a imaginable exodus of volunteers who whitethorn not want to proceed their shifts if forced to recreation to a branch further away, aliases activity from home.

This year, nan Folkestone, Dover and Hythe branch was closed aft a safeguarding issue, pinch only six of nan 55 listening volunteers based location choosing to move to different branch.

“People emotion being a listener, I cannot emphasise capable really important it is to people, truthful integral to who they are. And they are really devastated, but they can’t continue,” said Nicola Ellingham, a erstwhile IT support unpaid astatine nan branch. “They can’t get to nan different branches. They’re conscionable excessively acold away. And they consciousness they’ve been fto down.”

The erstwhile Labour strategist turned governmental commentator Alastair Campbell, who has spoken openly astir his intelligence health, said he was worried by nan plans arsenic Samaritans was “very overmuch a branch organisation”. “The branches springiness resources to nan centre,” he said connected The Rest is Politics podcast. “The point that is really unsocial astir nan Samaritans, sometimes they’re called nan 4th emergency service. There is thing very typical astir them.”

His co-host, nan erstwhile Conservative curate Rory Stewart, said: “This sounds for illustration they’re going down nan incorrect path. I’m judge providing proposal to group useful champion erstwhile you person a section branch web that understands section conditions. I’m judge they’re underestimating what they’ll suffer successful fundraising from these voluntary branches. Most charities that person gone down this way … person regretted it and ended up sidesplitting a batch of nan tone and psyche of nan organisation successful nan process.”

Samaritans has been approached for comment.