'Majority' of Citizen's Advice staff in Cornwall made redundant

The large scale redundancies have been blamed on the ending of the legal aid funding for much of its specialist work.

While it is hoped that any job losses will be "kept to a minimum", with plans in place to restructure the organisation, some redundancies will be "necessary".

A statement from Sue Swift, chair of the trustee board at CAB Cornwall said: "CAB Cornwall can confirm that it has issued redundancy notices to the majority of its paid staff largely as a result of the ending of the legal aid funding for much of its specialist work.

"It is hoped that any job losses will be kept to a minimum ,and that most staff will be successful in getting posts in the restructured service.

"The termination of the Legal Services Commission's (LSC) contract inevitably means that some redundancies are necessary as this contract was a major source of income.

"The nature of our work and the complexities of redundancy law have forced us to serve notice on the majority of our staff and for them to re-apply for a reduced number of posts.

"At the same time we are talking constructively to partners about ways to improve services in the face of increasing and changing need, largely as a result of welfare reform, and we hope our overall service will emerge from the restructure able to respond efficiently and effectively to client need.

"However ending of LSC funding for most benefits, debt, housing and employment cases will inevitably impact our ability to offer specialist casework in these crucial areas.

"We recognise that this is an extremely worrying time for staff, and we are working with them and our partners to keep any job losses to a minimum.

"We are grateful to them, and to our voluntary staff for maintaining services to clients despite the uncertainty."

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