NHS chiefs have hit back at an Accrington charity after it criticised a shake-up of counselling services in East Lancashire.

As reported on Wednesday, the Maundy Relief charity has been told its counselling service will no longer be funded by commissioners, meaning a loss of income of about £40,000.

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East Lancashire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) said it was looking to bring volunteer organisations together to deliver a service across the whole of its patch.

It said the charity was invited to be part of the project, and its funding had only ever been offered on a year-by-year basis.

Joy Arrandale, mental health commissioning manager, added: “A programme of work has been developed to bring all our voluntary sector organisations together to deliver an East Lancashire-wide counselling service, and allow access to appropriate services.

“Maundy Relief were invited to become part of this project but they decided to decline part-way through, and therefore it was their decision not to become part of this.

“I would like to stress that this in no way impacts on anyone who needs access to mental health counselling services.”

The CCG also claimed Maundy Relief had breached its contract by pulling out of talks last year, but this was disputed by Lucy Hardwick, the charity’s manager, who said she had taken legal advice on the issue.

She said the charity did not wish to be part of a “target driven” consortium, because it would lose its autonomy and was unwilling to compromise the quality of its service.

A CCG spokesman responded: “The CCG has to demonstrate its limited resources are being used effectively. There are no barriers to access. If anything access has increased during 2014/15...”