New strategy looks to make it more efficient

Restructuring plans at Comic Relief will affect a third of its workforce.

A month-long consultation has been launched with a proposed restructuring looking to either shed some or reassign 55 of its 165 staff.

The charity said it expected only a small number of staff to leave the charity as a result of the exercise because most of those affected had been offered alternative roles at similar or higher seniority.

In addition, it said it was creating between 25 and 30 new roles that people could apply for. 

Samir Patel, chief executive of Comic Relief, said: “Our new strategy will focus on daily poverty as we enter an unprecedented time where people are making tough choices between eating or heating homes,” he said. 

“We will be doing more partnership work and reacting to urgent crises, from food relief to emergency shelter and mental health support. 

“We want to try new things and do more campaigns throughout the year and help more people.”

The consultation is due to be complete in September.

Patel said: “Although the few years ahead are going to be challenging from an economic standpoint, even from a charity standpoint, we just want to make sure we're at least setting ourselves up to have as much impact as possible and be able to help as many people as possible. 

“That's really what's driving a lot of this change and, ultimately, it's just trying to create a more future-fit organisation.”

Founded in 1985 by the comedy scriptwriter Richard Curtis and comedian Lenny Henry in response to the famine in Ethiopia, Comic Relief aimed to make the public laugh, while raising money to help people around the world and in the United Kingdom.