Former employees of a group of charities that closed abruptly last year have expressed disappointment after the organisation’s websites were relaunched on social media.
The Cares Family group of five local charities plus its national body shut at the end of October, with staff told about its imminent closure on a hastily arranged Microsoft Teams call.
The group is being wound up with the accountancy firm RSM handling the process.
Former staff members have told Third Sector they were disappointed to see digital assets including the charities’ former websites being promoted on social media after they were rescued from liquidation.
They also said they were unhappy that they had not been given a proper explanation for what went wrong at the organisation, with some still waiting for severance pay after the charity’s abrupt closure.
Earlier this week, a LinkedIn post from Alex Smith, who founded the charity and was its chief executive until six months before it closed, said that ever since hearing about the decision to close the group of organisations, a small team had been working to “rebuild some of the precious assets of a precious movement”.
The group has obtained the websites and social media channels that previously belonged to the charity “with the hope of being able to re-share the inspiration of 12 years of growth, 30,000 neighbours connected, and a movement taking action on loneliness and intergenerational connection”, said Smith.
“I’m so glad that today we are re-sharing those websites which look back over 12 years of impact, and which look ahead with renewed hope.”
But some former staff and volunteers criticised the decision to reshare the material, replies to the post by Smith and on the original Cares Family’s LinkedIn page show.
“Perhaps whoever posted this has forgotten the legacy after the brutal shutdown of all communication on 31 Oct,” said one.
“The re-opening of this and of all our individual websites is incredibly insensitive to all our wonderful neighbours, partners and my ex-colleagues.”
Another said: “As great as it is to remember what was such a wonderful organisation and a lovely period of time it would have been nice to first of all have a post thanking the staff who were there at the bitter end and have been through an atrocious nine months after being made redundant over a Teams call.
“For quite a few people who are still trying to move on and accept what happened this is more like a punch in the gut than a nice memory to be honest.”
But some other commenters from outside the charity welcomed the move, with one saying that “capturing and continuing to share the learning and impact of all The Cares Family’s work is so important at a time when tackling loneliness and building connection is critically important”.
Smith and Nas Morley, who is part of the legacy group set up to preserve the charity’s work, said they were sorry that seeing some of the work had renewed distress for some ex-staff.
“It’s important that the learning from 12 years of The Cares Family’s impact is saved and shared, and not dissolved along with the charity entities,” they said.
“The intention of the legacy group of ex-staff and trustees is to steward that learning, faithfully to The Cares Family’s values.
“Members of the legacy group have reached out to staff who have expressed their feelings, to invite them to be part of a conversation about how best to preserve the legacy of something we all love.”
Nicola Upton, who became chief executive of The Cares Family in August 2024 and oversaw its closure, responded to some of the posts.
“As the CEO that oversaw the closure, after identifying significant financial issues after only about a week in role, I did everything I could in an impossible situation to make it less awful for everyone,” she said.
“It still hurts to know that things could have been different if issues had been caught and addressed earlier. We did our best in an impossible situation.
“The full details of what happened and why are not yet public as the insolvency process isn’t completed. As for many others, I hope that when that happens, it brings some answers and healing to all affected.”
A group of 25 ex-staff wrote to the Charity Commission in December to urge the regulator to open a statutory inquiry into the charity in the wake of its sudden demise.
The regulator replied in January to say that, while it was grateful to receive the information provided, it was not minded to escalate its case into a statutory inquiry.
A Charity Commission spokesperson said today: “In line with our guidance, the trustees of The Cares Family filed a serious incident report in October 2023, relating to its closure.
“We have engaged with the charity’s trustees and are assured that they are handling matters as we would expect.”
A spokesperson for RSM said they were unable to comment.