Dumfries charity café might lose half its workforce due to increased costs
A redundancy process is in place.
A charity café in Dumfries supporting people with additional needs into employment is 'heartbroken' rising costs are forcing them to cut up to half of its workforce.
The Usual Place on Academy Street says the staffing bill for this year will be at least £200,000 more than the funding they were able to secure – less than £500,000.
All members of staff are on real living wages but because of a rise in national insurance contribution costs (going up to 15%), they are now in an “unsustainable situation".
Since 2015, the “skills academy” has been offering training and mentoring to help them ease into a work environment.
CEO of the café Craig McEwen is now preparing a redundancy process and will be speaking with employees individually.
He says this wasn’t an easy decision to make: “It’s devasting having to put people out of jobs. Bearing in mind, they’ve been here because of the huge demand for our service. It’s heartbreaking that we’re going to be losing an amazing set of people, but this action has to be done in order to ensure that we have enough sustainability.
“We have been working in the background for funding for a long time now and we have hit a trigger that means that we need to take action to ensure our future.”
Currently, they have 31 contracted staff so up to 14 people are at risk of losing their jobs.
“Other organisations that are normally funded in this way are now applying for the same grant and trust funders who have generously supported us in the past. Whilst we have secured 57% of what is needed at this stage, the economic landscape has generated the perfect storm for us, resulting in the most competitive year for funding applications.”
McEwen ensured Greatest Hits Radio during an interview that he has a plan to get back up and running.
“The whole reason for this process is that we are going to take The Usual Place back to where it started in 2015. So, the cuts that we are making today are deep – we know that – however, it will help with the sustainability of The Usual Place in the future.
“Obviously, the future is our priority, our young people are our priority and while temporarily our capacity to take young people with support needs will be reduced, then this hopefully will be a temporary situation until we can get funding.”