November 2025: Statement from Trustees – Closure of Services

2025 has been a challenging year for Enable Ability.  Rising costs from increases to the Minimum Wage and Employers’ National Insurance have not been matched by uplifts from local authorities. We also lost key funding when the National Lottery declined to provide further funding for our employment programme, Inter Activ.

The whole team at Enable Ability have worked hard to stabilise the financial position of the charity and we have reduced management and administration costs.   However, we have also had to close projects/areas of work where income does not cover the costs of the operation. These are:

Inter Activ

This project supported disabled adults to increase confidence, build skills and move into employment.  The National Lottery monies that supported Inter Activ ended in August 2025 and over the past few months, it has become apparent that we will be unable to find sufficient alternative funding.  Generous donations via Crowd Funding have meant we can continue to run Inter Activ until 19^th December 2025 when it will close.  Work to try to support participants into alternative activity will continue until 31^st January 2026.  We are very proud of what the Inter Activ team have achieved over the past 5 years and particularly of their continuing commitment to participants as Inter Activ closes.  Unfortunately, there are no comparable local projects, so some participants will be left with much less meaningful weekly activity they have been accustomed to with Enable Ability.

Landport Community Centre Café

Throughout 2025, the café team have worked hard to increase income and decrease costs.  Despite these efforts, the cafe has continued to lose money.  The last day of the cafe therefore will be 19th December 2025.

 Advocacy

Enable Ability has provided a small but important advocacy service for many years.  Due to lack of funding, we are unable to continue with this service.  No new referrals are being accepted.

The actions taken this year to ensure our viability and success in 2026 for our core services have involved significant personal commitment and flexibility of our team and despite the impact to many of them the focus on protecting our services for our participants has been truly admirable. Our thanks and appreciation for the teams’ efforts, our participants’ patience, and the support of our charity’s funders and partners is heartfelt.

The Trustees and Management Team of Enable Ability