The move towards Burngreave New Deal for Communities becoming a stand alone business is continuing, but at a slower pace than we envisaged, we have still not achieved sign off of our succession strategy but behind the scenes we are working with the Department for Communities and Local Government, Government Office and Sheffield City Council to ensure that the successor body has a bright future.
This will mean some changes to the organisation and how we operate as business. As we will no longer have any New Deal funding we have had to review our situation and staffing levels from both a financial and operational perspective.
Unfortunately due to the economic climate we are not achieving at the present time the occupancy levels from our buildings which were originally envisaged when the projects to refurbish Sorby House and the Vestry Hall were approved. Therefore we have had to look to make some changes to the way we operate.
The Partnership Board with great regret have approved a plan to reduce the staff team. This has meant that unfortunately four of our team will be leaving or have left the Company, in the next few weeks. This was a decision that was made only after the Partnership Board received reassurances that the operation of the buildings would not be compromised and that all our tenants and visitors would receive the high level of service we provide and more importantly be safe in our buildings.
By working with those members of staff who are to remain with the company we are still going to have a full time presence at Vestry Hall in the form of one of our Administrative Officers and Sorby House reception will be manned by two of our Administrative Officers. The quality of service we offer will not be compromised but we had to make changes to reduce our overheads and therefore ensure that the Company was operating efficiently.
The Partnership Board would like to thank those staff who are leaving for their contribution to the success of BNDfC whilst they have been with us and wish them all the very best for the future.