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The Government agreed to provide a further year of funding to the Jersey Recovery College one month before its shock closure, it has emerged.
Last month, the charity's Board of Directors announced that the JRC had been forced to close "with immediate effect" due to an increased demand on services, growing costs, and a reduction in income and donations.
At the time, the Government refused to confirm if the mental heath charity sought additional financial support ahead of the closure.
But it has now emerged that a number of meetings were held between Government Health officers and the JRC to establish how the service could be sustained.
Pictured: Health Minister Tom Binet last month said it was "very unfortunate" that Jersey Recovery College had closed.
In answer to a written question submitted by Deputy Jonathan Renouf, the Health Minister revealed that the Government was made aware of the JRC's financial problems on 18 January 2024.
Following the sharing of the JRC's financial accounts, four months of Government funding was paid in advance to support the charity’s cash flow.
Deputy Tom Binet confirmed that the Health commissioning team also met with private funders to give assurance of Government support, so that they in turn would offer financial support to the charity.
At that point, the JRC contract with Government was due to expire on 30 June 2024.
Health agreed to direct award a further 12 month contract from 1 July 2024 to 30 June 2025, and work with JRC to redesign the service offer to meet those identified needs subject to the financial viability of the charity.
"A longer contract could not be offered at that time, as the financial viability concerns were already known," explained Deputy Binet.
The Health Minister explained that the charity outlined plans to deliver "a significantly lower level of activity" in the second half of 2024 as a "transitional phase" which was accepted and supported by his department.
Health also offered mental health staff to support the delivery of some of the charity's planned groups.
Deputy Binet added that an "implied contract" was entered into in July and August which resulted in JRC receiving another two months of funding to cover the summer school courses that the charity had already committed to delivering.
He also noted that the Health commissioning team spent "a considerable amount of time working with JRC to support them in exploring options, service development and financial assessment".
Pictured: The Jersey Recovery College received a total of £754,843 from Government in last five years, according to the response to a request made under the Freedom of Information Law.
The Health Minister also confirmed that that are no plans to redistribute any of the JRC funding to an alternative charity.
He explained that the department's mental health team has been working to develop a new group model that will be introduced from next month to replicate some of the work previously delivered by the JRC.
"During the last term, a total of 79.5 hours of courses were provided over four months, an average of four hours per week, so the level of support provided was not extensive," added Deputy Binet.
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