Mental health charity announces branch closure

A community mental health charity is set to close after it was placed into administration.

Mind said a combination of a "challenging economic climate" coupled with a "lack of sufficient ongoing funding", were the main reasons behind the closure of its Halton branch in Cheshire.

The Wellington Street centre, based in Runcorn, offered services such as counselling and wellbeing courses to the community.

A local MP branded the closure a "crying shame".

The Halton branch, one of a network of 100 local Minds across England and Wales, is affiliated to the national Mind organisation but is its own registered charity.

Two full-time employees and three part-time staff were working at the hub and administrators were now working with them regarding redundancy arrangements.

Runcorn and Helsby Labour MP Mike Amesbury, whose office has spoken to the administrators, said his thoughts were with the affected staff, volunteers and service users.

"Sadly, this is one of many charities struggling up and down the country," he said.

Mr Amesbury said he had heard another local Mind group was considering whether it could expand services to fill the gap.

"I will also be contacting NHS Cheshire and Merseyside Integrated Care Board, which has responsibility for commissioning services around mental health, given the potential for this closure to leave a significant hole in local services," he added.

Aidan Mersh, associate director of federation support at Mind, said: "We are working with Mind Halton to make sure its service users can still get the help they need.

"We want to offer our ongoing support to the local community and are doing everything we can to make the closure process as smooth as possible."

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