Rotherham abuse victims charity gets council cash after grant loss

The Rotherham charity offers counselling to people who have experienced trauma and abuse

A charity which helps victims of abuse in South Yorkshire is to get council cash after losing out on its bid for a £210,000 Ministry of Justice grant.

The funding loss meant Rotherham Abuse Counselling Service (RothACS) was facing a £40,000 shortfall this year and £170,000 next year.

But Rotherham Council has agreed to use £170,000 from its Covid recovery reserves to support the organisation.

Loss of funding would have meant a cut to counselling sessions, RothACS said.

The service provides free specialist counselling to anyone over the age of 13 who has experienced trauma and abuse, including domestic abuse, sexual abuse, child sexual exploitation or child sexual abuse.

According to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, there were concerns from councillors that Rotherham would be "left behind" if the funding was not found.

Over the last 12 months, RothACS said it had contact with a total of 1,203 Rotherham residents.  

A total of 860 assessments and 2,787 counselling sessions were attended during this period, and 80% of clients reported an increase in their mental health and wellbeing, it added.

The charity said it currently had 378 adults and children waiting for counselling and, of those, 110 were waiting to be assessed and 268 had been assessed and were waiting for counselling.

The service had been able to provide approximately 100 counselling sessions per week, but following the reduction in funding for this current financial year, this had reduced to 65, it said.

The additional funding from the council for the remainder of this financial year would provide for a further 35 sessions per week.