A CHARITY which provides vital support to legions of unpaid carers throughout the district has announced a restructure.

Carers' Resource - which helps hundreds of people in the Bradford district as well as Skipton, Selby and Harrogate - told staff it had become essential to "reduce the size of the organisation".

But last night the charity's chief executive moved to reassure users that the help it provides will continue.

Nationally, one-in-ten people are classed as unpaid carers. This huge workforce of hidden heroes saves the UK an astonishing £162bn a year.

Carers Resource is an independent charity which helps unpaid carers look after family members, friends and neighbours. It also offers emotional support to carers who often feel forgotten and overwhelmed.

It also offers help to patients returning home after a stay in hospital and provides at-home assistance via a dedicated service.

The chief executive of Carers' Resource, Heidi Watson, said: "Like all charities across the country, we are facing challenging financial times and we need to make sure we manage our resources as effectively as we can.

"This will mean looking at how we work with our staff to deliver services.

"Any changes we do make, especially those that involve our staff, will be done through our internal processes."

The Telegraph & Argus has seen a letter sent from Carers' Resource's chair of trustees to all staff at the organisation.

The letter, dated July 1, said: "The organisation has been affected by a number of factors this financial year including reducing reserves, rising overhead costs and the reduction of funding from various sources.

"It has become apparent that operating at our current level would have left us with around £600k deficit by the end of the financial year and therefore we have to act urgently in order to maintain our financial stability and sustainability.

"Our priority will be to focus on meeting the needs of unpaid carers as per our contracts in each locality."

The letter added: "As our largest outgoing is on staff salaries it is necessary to significantly reduce this area of cost. It has therefore become essential to restructure to reduce the size of the organisation.

"We aim to achieve cost reductions by managing back-office services differently and streamlining staff management.

"We will also, unfortunately, be unable to offer staff a pay increase this year."

A worker at Carers' Resource contacted the T&A with a number of concerns, including claims that the organisation was not being transparent enough over the situation.

Ms Watson said: "Our number one priority is to deliver the best front line support services we can within the resources we have.

"The UK owes a debt to its unpaid carers and we want to assure all of them that the charity will continue to be there for them in the way we have for almost 30 years."

According to its website, the charity's main funding sources are Bradford Council, North Yorkshire Council and the Bradford and District Health and Care Partnership.