Mental health charity hit by budget reduction
Article published: Tuesday, January 25th 2011
A charity which provides free mental health services and support is facing the prospect of losing 86 per cent of its funding for the next financial year. The board of directors at The Roby are being forced to consider closing unfunded services and manage the impact that budget reduction will have on staffing. In response last night over 35 staff, service-users and local supporters began preparing a campaign to ‘Save Our Services’ at the charity’s home in Longsight.
The Roby in Longsight
The Roby has been operating for over 25 years from its base at the Roby United Reform Church on Dickenson Road, providing support for some of the most socially and economically excluded people within Manchester and a crucial service for community cohesion.
According to Ben Crouch, Director of the Roby, “This isn’t just about survival, we want to thrive and ensure our popular and sometimes vital services to vulnerable people continue. In my two years here…we have directly supported and intervened when people have turned up on our door because they are on the brink of suicide or have been kicked out of their home and we have given them whatever assistance we can.”
The charity offers free professional one-to-one counselling in 14 languages and group therapies. Around 30-40 participate in its South Asian Women’s Group while another 10-15 attend its South Asian Men’s Group. These social inclusion spaces focus on preventing mental health problems through raising awareness of well-being activities and mutual support, as well as a variety of volunteering activities. It also operates an open door drop-in service which is used by 15-25 individuals with severe and enduring mental health issues, as well as a free Breakfast Club to help those with very little income.
At present the Roby employs 13 people who are actually fulfilling 17 roles at the organisation. The charity is hoping to have 500 clients by the end of the financial year, up from 380 in 2009/10 and 240 in 2008/09. Crouch says the figures demonstrate “that when we’ve had additional resources to grow as an organisation and provide new and required services (e.g. our new recovery services) we are matched by an increase in demand.”
Volunteers at The Roby
However, with the new financial year starting on 1 April, the Roby has only managed to secure a £38,000 grant from the Manchester NHS and Manchester City Council Joint Executive Committee, with a total projected income of just £41,000 for 2011/12. In the previous two years the charity’s income has been £260,000 and £240,000 respectively.
The massive potential hole in income comes in the midst of a severe economic crisis and savage public spending cuts. The Roby has a number of applications under review, but has been told by various funders with limited resources that they are under huge pressure and increased demand from charities and other organisations desperate to cover losses in income.
As Crouch points out though, “A reduction in income and services does not equate to a reduction in local need.” In a period of high unemployment, increasingly insecure jobs and stressful workplaces, along with attacks on the welfare and benefit system, it seems likely the need for services offered by organisations like the Roby is in fact only going to rise.
South Manchester Law Centre, also in Longsight, has had its budget slashed
Those who attended last night’s meeting were in no doubt of the Roby’s essential role in the local community and Manchester. Many speakers from the floor suggested the need to build a local and connected campaign among other residents and groups affected by the cuts. Many other local organisations – such as Birch Community Centre and South Manchester Law Centre – are facing similar predicaments.
Supporters are now being urged to get involved in any way they can. Save Our Services wants people to write letters and personal testimonies to their local MPs and councillors and the local press, and are preparing to organise local protests to raise the profile of the campaign.
Andy Lockhart
To get in contact and give your support to the campaign, send an email to saveourservices@theroby.org.uk. Director Ben Crouch will also be using his blog to keep up to date information on the progress and needs of the campaign, which can be found here.
If you have any personal stories and messages of support which you would be happy to be published, please send an email to editor@manchestermule.com
More: Cuts, Manchester, News
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