Age UK BRWF Announcement Ecumenical Centre

Age UK Bromsgrove, Redditch and Wyre Forest is the successful outcome of the merger of three local Age UK charities. The initial amalgamation took place in 2016 in order to build a stronger, sustainable organisation fit to support our aging population.  Over the past two years, we have restructured and rationalised our operations and support resources.  In order to make necessary cost savings and improve efficiencies, we are closing our offices at the Ecumenical Centre in Redditch and will be managing its Information & Advice service from our Bromsgrove office from 30th April 2018.

As part of the new programme (announced by the Board of Trustees at the beginning of the year) the charity’s Information and Advice service has been going through a period of consultation in order to ensure that we protect this valuable service.  Naturally, bringing the service within budget will help us to make our ongoing delivery of the service more sustainable.

Similarly, we recently announced changes to the delivery of our Information & Advice service in Wyre Forest.  In line with the necessary and productive restructure across the areas that we serve, we have consolidated the administration of the service into our Bromsgrove offices where we can focus on delivering a more flexible service for individuals through ‘home visits’.

The Board has decided that applying the same management model across the whole organisation will make our Information & Advice delivery more effective and improve cost efficiencies to create a more sustainable service.  So, from the 30th April 2018, the charity’s current office in the Ecumenical Centre will close, and new way of working for the delivery of Information & Advice will be implemented across North Worcestershire (with the Bromsgrove office providing a central base).

From 30th April, people seeking information and advice should contact our main enquiries number 01527 570490.  If our team are unable to help with your query over the phone, arrangements will be made for one of our advisors to visit you in your home.  We are also exploring ways in which we can operate an outreach service in order to maintain a visible presence in Redditch.

In response to the announcement, Sam Humphray, Interim CEO of Age UK BRWF said:

“These are challenging times for any charity.  At Age UK BRWF, we are dedicated to ensuring that anybody age 50+ has access to important Information & Advice and to our other core services.   By restructuring and changing our way of working, we believe that we can improve the way we do things and we are absolutely committed to the community that we support.  By developing a more sustainable and flexible delivery model we will be able to reach more people by removing some of the ‘barriers’ that people face when accessing traditional, location-based services.  We thank everybody that has supported us at the Ecumenical Centre and we hope to be able to offer you even better support in the future.”