A local branch of the RSPCA has warned that its future looks ‘unsustainable’ following a downturn in volunteer numbers and growing financial hardship.

Steven Edwards, 42, chair of trustees at the South Buckinghamshire RSPCA, believes it is a common misconception that local branches of the charity are inextricable from its corporate centre and has called for members of the Bucks community to help rescue their regional animal welfare organisation from the brink.

The South Buckinghamshire RSPCA, which delivers welfare, rescue and guidance services across regions including Chesham, Burnham, High Wycombe and Princes Risborough, is largely self-sufficient aside from “a small amount” of funding from the charity’s HQ and has not been exempt from the UK’s cost-of-living crisis.

Steven said the central issue faced by the branch has been a decline in the number of volunteers opting to work in an animal care capacity or helping to fund veterinary care and rehoming services in the RSPCA’s three Buckinghamshire charity shops in Burnham, Chesham and Princes Risborough.

“At the moment, we have 14 paid members of staff and 70-odd volunteers, and our workers who treat and look after animals, sometimes responding to calls in the middle of the night, all work voluntarily.

“Trying to recruit staff, but especially volunteers, at the moment is very hard. Compared to 2018, we’re now spending double the amount we used to on salaries, but our charity shops wouldn’t be able to open regularly if we didn’t.”

The team is founded upon members of the South Bucks community exercising their generosity and surrendering their time for a worthy cause, but Steven has become increasingly concerned that “people’s appetite to volunteer has declined” and that it's an issue which will "only get worse”.

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With veterinary and animal care bills much higher than they have been in recent years, there’s nowhere that Steven feels he can afford to cut costs and he is all too aware that if the financial deficit the branch experienced this year repeats itself, “we will struggle to carry on”.

“We have also seen a significant increase in the number of people giving up their animals – we took in seven rabbits the other day and we’ve seen a big increase in the number of cats needing rehoming.

“18 months ago, we brought in a paid member of staff to run the charity in the hopes of improving our financial position, but we didn’t realise the rate at which costs would increase nor did we fully appreciate the lack of reach we currently have in the community.”

The RSPCA HQ, as Steven refers to it, has begun slowly extricating itself from the more hands-on work carried out at a local level by its regional branches, with a move currently underway to outsource legal investigating and prosecuting duties to the Crown Prosecution Services, replacing its current in-house model.

The future of the South Bucks branch lies, he believes, with the residents in its communities, to whom he is keen to stress the locality of the charity's operations.  

“I live in Denham and nearly all of our volunteers and staff live in Buckinghamshire. As chair, I work about eight hours a week in the evenings to fit around my full-time job, and like others, I do it because it makes me feel good.

“The national charity has more of an advocacy role that focuses on campaign work, but we’re on the ground rehoming and caring for animals and we are struggling."