50 jobs and diocesan offices to go in major Cafod shake-up

FIFTY JOBS are to be axed by the Catholic aid agency for England and Wales as part of plans to cut costs by £3 million.

Cafod, which is the Church’s official agency supporting the poor in the developing world, announced a major reorganisation of the charity last week.

In a letter to supporters, Cafod director Chris Bain said the cuts will allow the charity to “build a more sustainable, long-term way of working, which can respond better to an increasingly changing and unpredictable environment”.

Mr Bain told The Tablet that the moves were being driven in part by changes to the way the Government allocates money for aid, due to come into effect in 2016. From then, grants will only be made for specific projects, which could lead to a loss in income for Cafod.

Out of 444 staff employed, Cafod is due to make 95 posts redundant, although it will create a further 45. A consultation exercise is now under way with the Unite union.

The proposed changes involve a reorganisation of Cafod’s 21 diocesan offices – 19 in England and two in Wales. Each office, which currently employs the equivalent of one and a half paid staff, will either be closed or staffed by volunteers.

At the same time, Cafod will set up four new regional offices, staffed by a combination of employees and volunteers, which will be responsible for recruitment, campaigning, fundraising and work in schools.

Mr Bain described this as a process of decentralisation according to the Catholic principle of subsidiarity.

Cafod’s annual return for the financial year ending in March 2014 showed had an income of £51.2m and expenditure of £51.45m, and the charity said it was budgeting for £53m income in the coming financial year. This is significantly lower than the £61m income in 2011/12, although that leap was due to the Government agreeing to match pound-for-pound money raised by the 2011 Lent Fast Day. Its latest accounts, filed for 2012/13, show that two-thirds of its income – £33.6m – came from Cafod supporters, with another significant chunk from government money.

Staff were notified about the planned redundancies last week and the Unite union said it would be working with those affected to “ensure there is a fair and transparent consultation process” and hoped as many staff was possible would be redeployed to the 45 new posts. 

Cafod also employs some full-time staff in countries overseas, although it primarily works abroad with partner organisations.

Mr Bain pointed out that virtually every country in Africa now has its own Caritas agency that works with Cafod. These agencies have grown significantly in the past 20 years and are now able to determine how they spend aid money.