St Christopher’s Fellowship, a charity that had operated the services for more than two decades, did not retender for the social care contract after opting to focus on its UK operations instead.
Its island headquarters, Hope House on Hope Street, Douglas, is up for the sale.
The service, which supports children, young people, care leavers and families across the island, brings together residential care, therapeutic support, and leaving and aftercare provision.
Family Action, which is based on Hill Street, Douglas, already provide supervised contact centre and family support services.
A spokesperson for the organisation said: ‘Our priority is the continued safety, wellbeing and support of the children and young people in our care.
‘We will continue to work closely with partners and colleagues to help ensure children, young people and families on the Isle of Man receive the support they need to thrive.’
She confirmed that 101 St Christopher’s Fellowship staff accepted offers of employment.
All offers of employment were made subject to the completion of satisfactory pre-employment checks as per our safer recruitment policy, she said.
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A total of 96 started on July 1 as Family Action employees, the remaining five continuing to be employed by St Christopher’s Fellowship.
But the Manx Independent understands that offers of employment for those five staff had been withdrawn with immediate effect by Family Action and St Christopher’s has started a redundancy consultation process.
The Family Action spokesperson said she could not comment on the employment status of those who were not offered a role.
She added: ‘At all times, Family Action’s main priority is the wellbeing and safety of the children and young people in our care.
‘Appropriate staffing arrangements have been maintained throughout the transition of services to Family Action to ensure continuity of service and so that children and young people continue to receive the support they need.
‘Should the need arise, we will recruit to any vacancies.’
A spokesperson for St Christopher’s said: ‘After more than two decades of delivering an array of services across the Isle of Man, and in line with our longer-term strategy, St Christopher’s elected to refocus our energy into growing our UK footprint.
‘As a result, we did not retender when the social care contracts became available and have been committed to undertaking a collaborative transition process, passing the baton onto the new provider Family Action as of July 1, with the support of Manx Care.
‘Our aim during this period has been to ensure the welfare of any children impacted as a priority. Any staff joining the new provider was managed by Family Action. St Christopher’s were informed on June 29 as to any staff not joining and are supporting those affected.’
‘This took effect from July 1, in line with Manx Care's financial regulations.
‘Manx Care has the utmost confidence that the service will continue to meet the required standards of care and safeguarding throughout this transition.’
The Family Action spokesperson added: ‘We are grateful to the dedicated Family Action team and to our new colleagues who have now joined Family Action, whose local knowledge, skills, and experience will be central to developing and strengthening services for children, young people, and their families.
‘This contract builds on our existing work in the island, and we will continue to work closely with partners and colleagues to help ensure children, young people and families on the Isle of Man receive the support they need to thrive.’
