Dissolution of The Jenniburn Centre SCIO

It is with great regret that Trustees of The Jenniburn Centre SCIO must announce that, twenty-five years after the doors first opened to the people of East Castlemilk, the charity is to be wound up.

Since 1997 voluntary members of a Management Committee, latterly Trustees of a Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation, have been responsible for overseeing the operation and maintenance of the building in service of the community.

Rising costs and decreasing grant support (emanating from reductions in support to local authorities) were met with radical cost cutting in areas under the control of Trustees, reductions in staffing levels and voluntary salary sacrifice by employees.

The pandemic necessitated the lengthy closure of the facility. Although aid from the Job Retention Scheme and Strategic Framework Fund stabilised the financial position, the programme of activities was decimated, leaving recovery a long-term challenge with many user groups having folded and/or moved to online service delivery.

Trustees deployed the Strategic Framework support, augmented by existing reserves, to undertake essential and expensive maintenance and to offer returning user groups generous rent-free periods to help them re-establish their activities.

Additionally, Trustees invested in items such as industrial sanitising equipment, a defibrillator etc offering free access to these facilities to the wider community.

The complete failure of the heating system has, however, had huge financial, logistical, and programming consequences which have dealt a mortal blow to the charity.

Add to this, spiralling power costs, rampant inflationary pressures, the folding of several long-term user groups/service providers and an objective analysis of the potential for enhanced support from a cash strapped core funder or any other source.

Without further support the voluntary organisation will be unable to sustain its operation and will require to be wound-up with responsibility for the building reverting to its owner, Glasgow City Council. It is contended that the potential for this further support is remote to the point of being non-existent. A factor exacerbated by very recent fiscal developments at UK government level.

Trustees determined that it was both financially and morally appropriate that the winding-up of the charity should be conducted while it is solvent and able to meet its’ obligations, rather than awaiting the inevitable reality of insolvency and the consequential imposition of a further burden on the public purse.

The Administrator has been mandated to initiate the process of formally winding-up the charity in accord with statutory employment law and:

• The Constitution of The Jenniburn Centre SCIO
• The requirements of The Office of the Scottish Charities Regulator
• The terms of the procedures set out under the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005. 

The building will close to user groups on or before 31 December 2022 and the disposal of assets, in accord with the precepts of the above documents, will be concluded as soon as possible thereafter.