Brain injury charity staffing crisis

Rotherhams brain injury charity, Headway, is facing a staffing crisis due to falling funding levels and can no longer keep on full- time employees.

Bill Hurley, chairman of the Rotherham branch, said that he felt helpless and frustrated at not being able to provide the help he wanted to sufferers.

The 72-year-old started in charity work after his son Dominic suffered brain damage after falling off a moped in Cyprus.

He said: "It's heartbreaking because we have achieved so much over the last 20 years.

"We are just about surviving at the moment and thats having a knock-on effect on the people we are serving.

"When you cant help someone who will probably end up on the street, its so disappointing."

Five years ago Headway, which is based at Kirk House on Browning Road, managed to find funding to employ their only full-time worker to set up an information and advocacy service. 

However, when the employee left for university earlier this year there were no funds to replace him.

Mr Hurleys concerns came after research done by the Yorkshire & Humber Forum noticed a marked confidence change in the voluntary sector over the past nine months.

The forum, which acts as a voice for the voluntary and community sector, concluded that half of all organisations in South Yorkshire plan to cut staff over the next three months.

Mr Hurley said that cutting funding further would irrevocably affect the help available to people with brain injuries.

"Many people dont know much about brain injuries or how to deal with them," he said.

"There's definitely a staff and funding crisis going on at the moment, and it's charities like ours that make a difference in peoples lives.

"I have had four cases in the last week which I havent been able to deal with, and that will most likely lead to someone being homeless, which is heartbreaking."

Judy Robinson, director of  the Yorkshire & Humber Forum, has called for collaboration between charities trying to stay afloat.

But Mr Hurley, a former head teacher at St Bedes Primary School in Maltby, had concerns over this suggestion and said that merging with other charities would undermine Headways work.

"There's a danger that we might get overshadowed because a lot of people don't know where to place brain injury," he said.

"I'm concerned that in a bigger charity's regime, it wouldn't be as high a priority.

Ideally, we need someone to come in and help us out, to get us back on track again.

"My motto is giving people something to do, somewhere to live and someone to love, that's it. "