Drugs and alcohol charity Lifeline Project bought out of administration by CGL

Lifeline Project, a Manchester-based charity specialising in drug and alcohol abuse services has gone into administration before being acquired by a similar organisation.

David Thornhill, Russell Cash and Geoff Carton-Kelly of FRP Advisory were been appointed to handle its affairs.

They immediately transferred the vast majority of the charity’s projects to Change, Grow, Live, a national charity specialising in operating in the same sector as Lifeline, dealing with substance misuse and criminal justice intervention projects in England and Wales.

The sale of the Lifeline business has ensured that all staff employed by Lifeline, numbering around 1,300, have either transferred to CGL or to the other providers of services offered by the charity.

The transfer of contracts to CGL ensures the security and stability of ongoing projects that deliver services to vulnerable people across the country. The jobs of more than 1,000 staff associated with those projects and including around 40 head office jobs at Lifeline headquarters in Manchester transfer across to CGL.

The remaining ongoing Lifeline projects, involving in total the balance of around 300 staff, transfer back to the relevant local authority where each project delivered its services.

The largest individual contract transferred back to local authority control is based in Stoke-on-Trent, which delivers a range of interventions to individuals affected by drug and alcohol misuse.

Lifeline delivered around 70 alcohol and drug related rehabilitation projects throughout England and Scotland.

It served approximately 80,000 clients each year and has grown rapidly in recent years, achieving turnover in the year to March, 2016 of £61.4m.

During the last year, with further cuts to public expenditure budgets and some poorly funded projects, Lifeline had seen turnover drop and made a significant loss from its trading activities.

FRP said that faced with unsustainable financial pressure and while continuing to trade throughout, the charity worked to explore a number of options to try and safeguard the continuity of services, all in close liaison with stakeholders including the Charity Commission and relevant local authorities.

All of Lifeline’s projects have transferred to new providers with effect from June 1, 2017, with CGL assuming the vast majority of those projects.

Join administrator Thornhill said: “Lifeline was committed to delivering a safe, high quality service and continued to operate over the past few weeks leading up to administration whilst ensuring that it discharged its duties and responsibilities to ensure that security of service provision remained at the core of all decision making.

“I am delighted that all contracts that were capable of being transferred have been, and others, where commissioners decided to take the work in-house or other providers were identified, have similarly been transferred. No users of the services provided by Lifeline should be affected by its insolvency.

“We are also delighted that the work that has been done over recent weeks has ensured that around 1,300 members of Lifeline staff have been transferred to new employers and there have been no redundancies as a result of the administration.

“That is testament to the goodwill of CGL, the commissioners of services and the staff themselves to all of whom we offer our thanks.

“Lifeline’s board and trustees have over many weeks been working tirelessly to ensure the continuity of its services and, in close co-ordination with relevant local authorities helped create a solution to ensure the impact on beneficiaries and staff has been managed and minimised. I am grateful to the Charity Commission for their close co-operation throughout the process.

Sadly this does now mean the demise of Lifeline, a charity that has been operating from Manchester for well over 40 years and is clearly a blow to the charitable sector.”

David Biddle, chief executive of CGL, said: “We are delighted to have been able to step in to maintain many of the vital services previously provided by Lifeline and to have transferred the majority of staff to us. Those staff provide their invaluable expertise to services users and communities across the UK and it is work that must be continued.  We are honoured to be part of that process.”