An equine welfare charity has confirmed that 17 roles have been made redundant as part of an operating restructure after it forecast a £2.5m deficit.
Bransby Horses said it avoided an initial compulsory redundancy plan for all 17 roles, with 14 staff members eventually taking voluntary redundancy and one employee who chose to leave instead.
The charity said it managed to redeploy four out of the 14 voluntary dismissed staff, while the two compulsory redundancies were support services roles.
Jo Snell, chief executive of the charity, told Civil Society: “I’m obviously very sad we’ve had to do this in the first place. But when you forecast a deficit position of £2.5m, you’ve got to make some changes.
“In terms of the whole process, I think it’s been out of a difficult situation.
“I think it’s been quite a positive process in that we’ve worked very closely with those people impacted, and we’ve done our best to get the best outcomes for those people.”
In the past eight months, the leadership team has downsized from a team of six to a team of three.
“We have got quite a good skill set across the leadership team that remains, and we have got a very strong management team,” Snell said.
“So we do feel that we are in a strong position to be able to move the charity forward and move on from what has been quite a challenging time for us.”
Its latest accounts filed with the Charity Commission, for the year ending December 2023, showed a total income of £6.2m and expenditure of £8.1m.
A new operating model
The charity rescues, rehabilitates and rehomes horses, donkeys, ponies and mules.
It currently cares for almost 290 equines across seven yards, but it plans to reduce the number to about 250 across five yards in the next year through fosters and its equine welfare partners.
The charity anticipates the new operating model will help it to save up to £1.3m. And as part of its effort to reduce the deficit, it will look at ways to rent out its facilities.
“But that is not going to stop us from doing what we do best,” Snell said. “What’s going on behind the scenes is really not going to impact our welfare work.”
Its visitor centre, rescue services and rehoming scheme will be unaffected, she said.
As the charity has downsized its team, the remaining staff have taken on additional responsibilities.
“Now it’s very much about trying to move on together as a team, trying to rebuild by embedding the new operating model,” Snell said.
Snell said she anticipates the charity to take the next 12 months to adjust to the new model.
Editor's note: This article was amended on 30 August to clarify that one staff member resigned rather than took voluntary redundancy.
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