Six members of staff have been made redundant in a restructure of a women’s centre - with service users said to be “devastated” by the changes.

Time to Change West Cumbria, which runs Women Out West in Whitehaven, has announced that it has undergone a consultation process to consider restructuring its model “in order to operate in line with the other women centres in Cumbria”.

A statement from the organisation, which supports vulnerable women in west Cumbria, says the new structure would “reduce long waiting times for women accessing services” and help them “focus on recovery”.

But Rebecca Todd, former centre manager at Women Out West has raised concerns over the proposed new model. She said: “There’s been a lot of underlying issues going on prior to what has happened. It’s been awful. It’s been a really hard time for the team.

“I know that a lot of our clients have been upset and devastated by what has happened and the suddenness of it. It’s very sad that this has to be publicised.”

Mrs Todd said her and her colleagues had raised grievances around safe practices and the safeguarding of women before the redundancy consultation process - but these “had not really been acknowledged”.

She said staff had then received notice of the consultation two weeks after the centre had been named ‘Charity of the Year’ at the Pride of Cumbria awards.

Time To Change West Cumbria say that a consultation was carried out with all staff given an opportunity to offer an alternative to the proposed structure and apply for the new positions.

The statement says: “As not all of the new posts could be filled internally, we have taken steps to recruit externally. We have been delighted with over 100 applications with many of our WOW clients applying for these posts.

“At TTC we value lived experience and we fully support those who have experience of issues such as domestic abuse, homelessness and addiction to have a chance of employment with us.”

Mrs Todd said: “The model was completely different in the restructure, which none of us agreed with. The jobs weren’t there for us because they weren’t our skills base.

“It is about the women and the vulnerabilities. They deserve a quality service with professional qualified staff.

“I’m all for people giving back and the women that have been through being employed but it’s having their own recovery that worries me. That becomes dangerous if people are going in and getting jobs but they’ve not been through their own therapeutic recovery journey. That’s a worry.

“I’m all for empowering women but it’s got to be safe and secure.”

She said she was also concerned about Women Out West modelling off other centres in Cumbria.

“Ours was quite robust and safe practice. Safeguarding was top of the list. While I was running the centre, staff were being professionally trained in trauma and recovery work, whereas the model in Carlisle is very different.

“The west is completely different to the north and south of the county as well. Not all centres can run the same. I think it’s quite concerning.”

Rachel Holliday, CEO of Time to Change West Cumbria, said: “Due to complaints from our stakeholders, many women waiting exceptionally long periods of time to be assessed and with only 30 per cent of women ever being seen face to face, it was felt we had to change our model to come in line with other women centres.

“I became aware of Mrs Todd’s grievance which was submitted on July 4 and was dealt with by our board of directors in line with our procedures. Our consultation began on July 14 as a plan to reassure our funders that we had acknowledged the difficulties we were facing and their concerns.

“There is no question that the women who did enter into the centre received an excellent service and I would like to thank all the staff at WOW for changing many lives of women in our area.

“As someone with lived experience, my opinion differs from Mrs Todd. I believe that employment is part of recovery and without employers giving me a chance, I wouldn’t be where I am today.

“The staff I have hired over the last 10 years with lived experience have become exceptional employees. What we do need to make sure is that anyone who works for us has access to all the support they need in order to develop and grow.

“It is factually incorrect that all staff disagreed with the new structure. All the staff had the opportunity to attend consultation and suggest other options and structures which most declined to do so.

“Safeguarding is always a priority for us and the board are confident that the new structure will ensure every woman that needs support is given the best service possible and not just the 30 per cent.”