SERIOUS questions are being raised over the collapse of Warrington-based suicide prevention charity PAPYRUS after staff were reportedly told they were out of work with virtually no warning.
The charity, which had an annual income of more than £5.3m and was responsible for the national HOPELINE247 service, entered administration on September 7, bringing its nearly 30 years of work preventing young suicide to an abrupt end. More than 120 jobs are understood to have been lost.
The closure has prompted widespread shock among campaigners, NHS professionals and supporters – including the Three Dads Walking group, which has raised more than £1.5m for PAPYRUS following the deaths of their daughters.
But Warrington Worldwide has now been contacted by a former PAPYRUS employee who claims that staff were completely unaware of the impending collapse.
The former employee told Warrington Worldwide: “There are very serious questions to be asked about the governance and management of this charity.
“Staff were called up by administrators on Monday without warning and told that they were out of a job. This is not only undignified, it is cruel.
“People who worked there have remarked on there being no senior managers available to tell staff what was happening or communicate with them in any way. The truth about PAPYRUS’s financial circumstances have been hidden from employees.”
The former employee also alleged that concerns about the organisation’s internal culture and staff turnover had been raised over a prolonged period.
They claimed there had been allegations of “bullying, victimisation” and serious emotional distress among some employees, and alleged that whistleblowers’ concerns had not been adequately addressed.
The former employee also questioned whether the charity’s collapse could simply be explained by the difficult financial environment facing the voluntary sector.
They said:“PAPYRUS had a gross annual income of more than £5 million. It is unthinkable that it has folded overnight.
“There now needs to be a thorough investigation by the administrators into what happened, who oversaw spending controls, and the role of both senior managers and Trustees past and present.”
The latest published Charity Commission figures provide some context.
For the year ending March 2025, PAPYRUS reported income of £5.31m, but expenditure of £6.90m – leaving spending around £1.59m higher than income.
The figures show expenditure rising sharply over the previous five years, from £2.73m in 2021 to £6.90m in 2025.
The Charity Commission also records PAPYRUS’s total liabilities at £633,180 at March 2025, compared with £410,710 a year earlier. Other assets fell from £3.10m to £1.74m over the same period.
The figures do not, by themselves, establish mismanagement or explain why the charity ultimately became insolvent. That is now a matter for the administrators and potentially the Charity Commission.
Meanwhile, Independent Warrington Borough Councillor Neil Johnson has separately told Warrington Worldwide that he was approached by PAPYRUS employees more than 12 months ago.
He described them as “whistleblowers”.
Cllr Johnson said: “They described to me the perilous financial position of the charity and the mass redundancies that were taking place.
“Since then, I have spoken to staff who were working at PAPYRUS at the time, as well as others who had since left.
“It was clear to me that this was a charity with deep-rooted problems.”
He said he subsequently corresponded with former chief executive Ged Flynn.
According to Cllr Johnson, the responses he received were “dismissive, non-committal and unhelpful”.
He alleges that greater concern was shown about identifying the employees who had contacted Warrington Borough Council than resolving the issues they had raised.
Cllr Johnson added: “I am sorry, but not surprised, to learn the charity has now collapsed.
“I am certain, from the written testimony I have received over the past year, that there is far more to this than meets the eye.
“I actively encourage all PAPYRUS employees past and present to engage with the administrators and to tell their story.”
He is also calling for a full investigation into the charity’s management and governance.
The claims raise questions about how much staff knew about the charity’s financial position.
In their statement following the administration, PAPYRUS and the administrators said the charity’s board and senior management had been attempting to secure its future for an “extended and extremely difficult period”.
They said options considered included changes to the operating model, cost reductions and the possibility of transferring services to other organisations.
The administrators said the board had ultimately concluded that PAPYRUS could no longer continue operating against a background of rising demand, increased trading costs and reduced reliable funding across the charity sector.
The official explanation therefore indicates that the financial difficulties had been developing for a considerable period.
There is evidence that financial and organisational pressures were not entirely new.
A Welsh NHS governance report published in 2025 referred to “internal administration/business matters” at PAPYRUS and noted redundancies and changes to its administrative structure.
PAPYRUS also launched an emergency appeal last year amid warnings about rising costs and falling donations.
Yet earlier this year the charity launched a major rebrand and a new three-year strategy designed to expand its reach.
Only months later, it ceased operating.
The collapse has been met with disbelief by organisations across the suicide prevention sector. Samaritans and Shout described the closure as “devastating”, warning that demand for mental health services does not disappear when a charity closes – it simply falls on other organisations already operating under pressure.
Three Dads Walking, whose fundraising helped PAPYRUS extend its helpline to 24 hours a day, said they were “devastated” and questioned how a service relied upon by NHS trusts and CAMHS could have become so financially vulnerable.
They have now called for the Government to recognise suicide prevention as a public health responsibility.
Joint administrators Emma Mifsud and Charles Turner of Opus Restructuring & Insolvency were appointed on September 7.
Their role includes managing the charity’s affairs and examining whether any of its services can be transferred to other organisations.
PAPYRUS’s former chair of trustees, Harry Biggs-Davison, has been a prominent figure within the organisation for many years and is listed by PAPYRUS as its Chair of Trustees.
Following the collapse, he said trustees had spent almost two years struggling to keep the charity alive and that the decision to enter administration had been “almost unbearable”.
With the charity now in the hands of administrators, the collapse raises legitimate questions about governance, financial management, communication with staff and the oversight exercised by trustees.
For the people who worked for PAPYRUS – many of whom dedicated their careers to preventing young suicide – the abrupt loss of their jobs is devastating.
For the young people and families who depended on HOPELINE247, the consequences are potentially even more profound.
And for Warrington, there is now a very big question:
How did a nationally respected suicide prevention charity with millions of pounds in annual income reach the point where it could disappear almost overnight?
That is a question the administrators – and potentially the Charity Commission – will now have to answer.
The shock among PAPYRUS employees has also been highlighted by Third Sector, which reported that staff were left “in shock” following the charity’s sudden collapse into administration.
The report adds weight to claims that employees had little advance knowledge that the organisation was about to cease trading.
Staff were reportedly informed of the administration on Monday, with employees learning that their jobs were at risk as the charity’s collapse was formally announced.
The development is particularly striking given the scale of PAPYRUS’s operations and the fact that the organisation had continued to present itself publicly as a national suicide prevention charity with an ambitious future programme.
Third Sector reported that the charity’s collapse came after a period of financial pressure and that employees had been caught by surprise by the speed with which events unfolded.
