At the Walsall branch of Samaritans, it has been a tough few years of campaigning for the funds needed to replace the now leaky portable cabin they have operated out of for the past 60 years.
After raising almost £300,000, they are on the home stretch towards reaching their final goal, and being able to replace the building they use to help local people in the depths of crisis.
Then came the shock announcement from Samaritans central office: that it proposes to close at least half of its 200 branches across the UK and Ireland in the next 10 years.
One member of the Walsall team said: “We just don’t know what to do now. Do we carry on? It’s soul-destroying.”
Dozens of branches across the country have raised alarm at the charity’s “in principle” decisions, which are still under consultation until the board of trustees meet in September, fearing it could lead to a loss of volunteers and morale. These include moving volunteers into larger regional hubs, which some fear will create a “call-centre-style” model, and piloting remote call handling.
Volunteers at the Walsall branch said they had been blindsided by the news. “We had an event last week and someone else had raised £1,000 for us, and we didn’t know what to do. Do we take the money? Because we know now that our branch could be closed,” one volunteer, who asked to remain anonymous, said.
“Every step of the way, central office have known exactly what we’re doing. And we’ve got this money and we’re very concerned about whether it has been ringfenced for the building. Because that is what it was raised for.”
She said the portable cabin they had used for decades had slowly fallen into disrepair and was in dire need of replacement. “At one point we were frightened to use the toilet because the floor was going to give way,” she said.
They originally set out to raise £250,000 in 2023 but were advised by Samaritans central office earlier this year to revise their target up to £320,000 due to rising building costs. They received many donations from other branches, the volunteer said, as well as from members of the public.
Samaritans central office said it was in discussion with the Walsall branch on its possible options.
A number of Samaritans listening volunteers said they were worried the charity was spending too much of its funding on staff salaries, at the expense of the branches run by unpaid volunteers. The average number of paid employees at the charity has increased from 277 in 2022 to 305 in 2024, and more than £15m of the charity’s total income of £24.6m went on wages last year.
Of the 201 Samaritans branches, 144 are affiliated organisations that are separate legal entities with their own financial accounts, who organise their own fundraising and give a portion of the money they raise to the central office.
Volunteers said they were told that last year these affiliate branches received a total income of £11.1m and spent £9.3m.
The charity’s central office said that money was not the primary reason for proposing to close branches, and that ultimately it wanted to reduce fragmentation across its service, although volunteers had reported having to spend more time and effort maintaining the buildings they operated in.
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In a video sent to the charity’s 20,000 volunteers, the Samaritans CEO, Julie Bentley, said: “Much of the money that is currently raised from the public in the name of Samaritans is necessarily going into maintaining these bricks and mortar, rather than being used to improve our services.”
Volunteers have been told the charity could not provide an “overall figure” for how much money is spent on buildings. Many said they were also worried about a potential exodus of volunteers who may not want to continue their shifts if forced to travel to a branch further away, or work from home.
This year, the Folkestone, Dover and Hythe branch was closed after a safeguarding issue, with only six of the 55 listening volunteers based there choosing to move to another branch.
“People love being a listener, I cannot emphasise enough how important it is to people, so integral to who they are. And they are really devastated, but they can’t continue,” said Nicola Ellingham, a former IT support volunteer at the branch. “They can’t get to the other branches. They’re just too far away. And they feel they’ve been let down.”
The former Labour strategist turned political commentator Alastair Campbell, who has spoken openly about his mental health, said he was worried by the plans as Samaritans was “very much a branch organisation”. “The branches give resources to the centre,” he said on The Rest is Politics podcast. “The thing that is really unique about the Samaritans, sometimes they’re called the fourth emergency service. There is something very special about them.”
His co-host, the former Conservative minister Rory Stewart, said: “This sounds like they’re going down the wrong path. I’m sure providing advice to people works best when you have a local branch network that understands local conditions. I’m sure they’re underestimating what they’ll lose in fundraising from these voluntary branches. Most charities that have gone down this path … have regretted it and ended up killing a lot of the spirit and soul of the organisation in the process.”
Samaritans has been approached for comment.
