Children’s charity to shut services for a week

Barnardos has confirmed it has decided to close its services for a week this month as a cost-saving measure — having taken a similar course of action last year.

The children’s charity said the measure, which begins this Monday, was being taken to protect core services and to reduce its funding shortfall.

In a statement, it said: “Barnardos can confirm that it will close its services for a week again this summer as a cost-saving measure. The temporary layoff is mandatory for all employees and no staff will be paid.”

The decision to repeat last year’s week-long closure was made by Barnardos’ board and management as part of a planned range of measures.

“As in 2012, careful consideration has been given to the timing of the closure to ensure it has the least impact on children and families.”

It comes as a number of charity and advocacy groups battle with cutbacks in funding while seeking to maintain services to clients.

Barnardos said families and children who attend its services have been informed of the closure in advance, as had its 380 employees and almost 200 volunteers.

According to the statement: “The children and families Barnardos works with are amongst the most vulnerable in our society and our priority is to protect our core services so we can continue to provide support to those who need us most.

“The decision to close is a reflection of the challenging times that Barnardos and other voluntary organisations are operating in. We are doing everything in our power to save costs and not impact on service delivery.

“Measures we have taken include a pay freeze (which was implemented in 2009); pay cuts (in 2010), deeper at management level; revised pay scales (which were implemented in 2012); a restructuring programme, and redundancies.

“Unfortunately in 2012, we had to make some tough decisions because of our funding challenges. We had to close a family support service in Dublin 1 and a school’s literacy programme that operated in Dublin and Limerick. Most recently we closed an early years’ service in Dublin 10.

“The past four years have been incredibly challenging for Barnardos. We have seen a decrease in statutory funding across the board of around 17% so far.

“Almost all of our 40 community-based projects have been affected by cuts in government spending. These budget cuts, coupled with the ongoing pressure on fundraising caused by the recession, have forced us to make these cutbacks.”