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Answering your questions on the restructure outcome

We’ve all been through some difficult situations this year, including the last couple of months for the MS Society, going through consultation around phase one of our planned people changes.

Following the outcome of this consultation, there have been a few enquiries coming through from volunteers. There are two main points of focus, which are the additional Regional/Community Development Officers (RDO/CDOs) and the individual grants programme.

Local support

Firstly, as you’ll know from the outcome update, which you can find here, following feedback given during the consultation, we made the decision to increase the number of RDOs and CDOs.

We’ll give you further information on which geographical regions these will cover once recruitment has finished as the location of the role holder will influence some of the regions covered.

As a recap on the revised structure:

  • We’ve increased the Regional Development Officers (RDOs) in England to nine.

  • The number of Community Development Officers (CDOs) in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales has been increased to two in each nation

  • This is a 50% increase in the total number of roles across the UK (new total of 15, from 10 in our previous proposals)

Individual grants

Many of you have also been enquiring around the support for local groups to award grants and the timeline on the pause of the national grants programme.

There will be a dedicated Grants Coordinator who will work closely with local groups to develop their skills and abilities to award grants themselves, if they are able to do so. They will embed grant giving best practice and create guidance through active listening and coproduction. The groups will be continue to be responsible for directly reviewing, considering and awarding grants.

We can also confirm that the proposed length of the pausing of our national offer will be 2-3 years.

During the consultation, some volunteers suggested the possibility of pooling resources for grants at a regional or national level to reduce this variation. We would welcome a discussion with volunteers once our new structure is embedded to understand the appetite for this amongst local groups.

If you have any further questions, please contact Supporter Care:

Tel: 0300 500 8084

Email: [email protected]