Cash delay cuts off helpline call centres

An award-winning helpline run by mental health charity Sane is
to close two of its three call centres in March because of a
10-month delay in funding by the Department of Health.

More than 100 volunteers and 12 staff employed at centres in
Macclesfield and Cheshire will lose their jobs.
Chief executive Marjorie Wallace said the charity had been forced
to use £775,000 of cash from its reserves to keep the helpline
running because of the delay.

She added that the Department of Health had offered no
explanation as to why it had not provided the expected £1m to
run the service and the charity could no longer fund it.