National counselling charity, Relate, has been bought out of administration by another charity, saving almost 200 jobs.
Administrators from FRP Advisory announced late last week that the at-risk charity had been bought by national family support charity, Family Action, following an accelerated marketing process.
The purchase has secured the jobs of 185 Relate employees, who all transferred into Family Action on 1 January 2025.
David Holmes, chief executive at Family Action, said: “We are excited about the obvious alignment between Family Action, the charity for families, and Relate, the charity for relationships, and see excellent opportunities for mutually beneficial development for our combined organisations in the future.”
Phil Reynolds, restructuring advisory partner at FRP, said: “Family Action’s track record of supporting families through change, challenge and crisis dovetails well with Relate’s mission and we’re optimistic that this deal gives the charity the foundation it needs to return to a stable footing.”
Relate will continue to trade under its own branding and the federated network of local counselling services it supports – the Relate Federation – remains separate and financially independent from the entity acquired by Family Action.
Previous financial difficulties
Relate’s counselling and central services function, which supports a network of charities around the UK, had fallen into financial difficulty following the loss of government contracts.
In its most recently filed accounts for the year to March 2023, Relate had reported an income of £7.58m and expenditure of £7.30m.
Most of the charity’s income that year (£5.26m) came from government or other contract income, with £759,000 coming from donations and legacies.
Relate’s accounts note that its contract with the Department for Work and Pensions – its primary delivery partner for eight local authority areas in the north east of England – ended in July 2022, which “directly or indirectly impacted the charity and its financial performance”.
The charity subsequently entered administration in late November 2024 and making 80 employees redundant.
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