Birmingham City Council have stopped funding 13 different organisations within the city which offer advice services, with effect from the end of March 2011. There is going to be a gap of at least four months before any new contracts are issued, and as yet there are no prospectuses to indicate exactly how these will be given. Indications so far are not encouraging for our type of organisation.We had to close our Centre at the end of January 2011, in order to honour our obligations to pay redundancy payments to all our members of staff. Some of them are prepared to continue on a voluntary basis, so we are opening six hours a week, while we seek different funding streams. Most of our clients (who live locally, and appreciate being able to receive advice in their mother tongues - mainly Bengali and Urdu) will find it very difficult to obtain similar advice from any other local organisation, unless they are prepared to pay for it.
From Voluntarysectorcuts.org.uk - please click to view more.....