Vulnerable hardest hit as charity funding dries up in Croydon

The borough’s most vulnerable residents, ethnic minorities and the elderly are the biggest losers as smaller charities will be forced to close when grant money from the council dries up in October.

Of 126 organisations who applied for grants from the council, only six have guaranteed funding totalling £625,000 a year for the next four years.

If proposals for the new fund are agreed by the cabinet, then reduced funding will go to Croydon Voluntary Action (CVA), Croydon Black and Minority Ethnic Forum, Croydon Asian Resource Centre, Croydon Disability Forum, Croydon Neighbourhood Watch, and the Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB). Louisa Woodley, shadow cabinet member for the voluntary sector, said: “I am absolutely appalled at these cuts. [Council leader] Mike Fisher is proposing to award himself a pay increase but pulling out the rug from under the feet of the most needy and vulnerable people in our community.”

Croydon North MP Malcolm Wicks said: “Voluntary services play a huge role in Croydon and deserve support.

“This is very scary territory we are entering in terms of the impact on some of our most vulnerable and deserving constituents.

“The idea the Tory council leader can decide this is the moment to pay himself a whacking great hike is obscene.”

The borough will continue to fund other voluntary organisations – but on a commissioning basis. This means organisations can bid to provide services to council departments that need a specific service.

CAB, which helped almost 6,000 people last year in dire need of legal advice on debt and unemployment among other things, has had their funding cut by up to £195,000.

Jessica Sumner, CAB chief executive, said they may have to cut jobs.

She said: “A 39 per cent cut in funding is going to have a big effect. Two-thirds of our members are volunteers, but staffing costs are still our biggest expenditure.

“We will do all we can to minimise the effect to our clients.

“We are grateful the council recognised our advice is needed at this time. A lot of people don’t realise we are a local charity and our funding comes from the council.”

Councillor Vidhi Mohan, cabinet member for stronger communities, said the council was doing its best for the voluntary sector in spite of scarce funding.

“With the current funding climate, I think this shows our commitment to supporting the voluntary sector as much as possible. The priority is now to fund those enabling organisations that have a broad reach across the area – and commission services from others as we need them, which is far more efficient.

“However, we accept many groups that have previously been well funded may now have difficult decisions to make following the cabinet meeting.”

The council funded at least 47 community organisations through its corporate funding budget, which was cut earlier this year and replaced by the Stronger Community fund.

Case studies

The Rape Crisis Centre had no idea it was about to lose £30,000 in core funding from Croydon Council.

Until this week, the charity was the only one of its kind supporting rape victims in London. A rape crisis centre is due to open in West London backed by Ealing Council.

Yvonne Traynor, chief executive of the Croydon centre, said: “The first we heard about these cuts was when the Croydon Guardian phoned us yesterday.

“I feel like we have been hit with a sledgehammer. This is a travesty.

“The money we were getting was for the women of Croydon. We have 1,000 women a year coming to us from the borough.

“Is the council saying violence against women is not important?

“We will no longer be able to prioritise cases from Croydon, they will have to go on the waiting list like everyone else. It breaks my heart to say this, given we have been in the borough for 25 years and funded by the council for 20 years.

“How can they make these cuts to the most vulnerable members of our society?”

The Together in Waddon Community Project has been funded by the council for the past 10 years.

It received £60,000 a year to support Waddon residents with benefit advice, after-school clubs and activities.

Project director Pete Allen, 21, said without funding the orgnaisation would close and four staff would lose their jobs.

He said: “We will be losing jobs, but the real people losing out will be the Waddon residents.”

Croydon Accessible Transport’s funding is being cut by £61,834, meaning a price hike for the scheme’s users if it is to survive. CAT provides cheap and subsidised transport for vulnerable residents from 130 voluntary groups.

Chairman Jim Gibbons said: “The danger is this is a vicious downward spiral. If we get our funding cut we will have to increase our prices, which will then be passed on to other groups who are also having their funding cut. It’s just chopping everything wherever they can and it’s the service users who will feel it most.”

The Jagruti Asian Women’s Group gets £26,000 a year to run workshops and meetings for its members, who attend the Thornton Heath group every Tuesday.

The group, which launched in 1986, has more than 350 members and will not be able to keep operating without funding, according to co-ordinator, Madhu Patel.

Mrs Patel said: “If we do not get the funding we will have to close down. We may be able to stretch it out for a few months afterwards, but it would be the death of us.

“I run the group, working about 30 hours a week, but that will all finish without the money to continue.”