Former UCCF staff members say a ‘deliberate ministry model’ lay behind allegedly ‘unethical and potentially illegal’ practices at the organisation – practices the Universities and Colleges Christian Fellowship has now conceded were followed, en can reveal today.
Two former UCCF workers have spoken with Evangelicals Now and voiced their concerns and hurt at what went on.
Meanwhile Richard Cunningham, the previously suspended national director of UCCF who has now returned to work, has announced he will be leaving his post after two decades.
Leaked documents from 2009 shed light on the nature and extent of UCCF’s employment practices. They reveal that team leaders were instructed at a training session to ‘convince’ staff workers to resign - ‘giving them the feeling of having a choice’ when it was UCCF who wanted them to go.
A former UCCF leader at the time, who we are calling L, speaking to en anonymously out of ‘fear,’ said: ‘The real story which lies behind, these unethical and potentially illegal HR policies and practices, is the very deliberate ministry model adopted by UCCF under the directors’ leadership over the past two decades.’
A memo, sent to Cunningham, field director Tim Rudge and others, which was recently leaked to Premier Christian News, included notes of a presentation to team leaders entitled ‘Legalities of Leavers’, at which both directors were apparently present. While the document alludes to the challenges of UCCF’s ministry model complying with employment law, it makes clear UCCF wanted staff workers to leave after three to five years because they ‘run out of energy….[and out of] ideas’.
The document continues that ‘none of our reasons’ [for wanting them to leave] ‘match fair reasons for dismissal’, so the only other option was for the employee to resign – but to frame it as ‘mutual’ consent to avoid legal action.
To ensure terminations were ‘by mutual consent rather than actual dismissals’, team leaders were told to ‘suggest a resignation’. ‘The key’ was to make the person ‘feel’ a certain way - ‘we want to convince him it’s right for him and for the work/students to move on’.
It concludes: ‘We want to do what we can to stay within the law… but not at the expense of the ministry.’ If they were unable to convince the staff worker to resign, the matter was to be referred to the unknown writer of the document ‘and Tim’ – as in Tim Rudge.
Hours before publication of this article, Simon Day, who was appointed chair of the UCCF Board of Trustees last year, told en: ‘I confirm that these practices were followed.’
Ex-staff worker Katie Norouzi has publicly recounted her experience of being made to feel she had to resign in 2011, despite all her supervisions and feedback being ‘overwhelmingly positive’. Following a meeting with a senior leader, she was left ‘confused and questioning my own understanding’.
She said she was in shock and resigned; and was left ‘undone’. Looking back, Norouzi said: ‘I was so naïve and ill-informed and coming up against an organisation I had such a lot of respect for.’
Norouzi’s account was corroborated by her then line manager, former team leader Tim Dennis. Commenting on X (formerly Twitter), he said: ‘All those who were wronged deserve a specific and proper apology from all of us who played a part in it.’
L said: ‘Young people have been recruited en masse, their talents and skills exhausted over a three- to five-year period, before they are then deemed (by the senior leadership) to have run out of energy, freshness and ideas. At this point they have then been “removed” using the methods described in the documents now coming to light.
‘This has been their deep-seated practice over many years. The malpractice has been allowed to continue, unchecked and unchallenged for so long.’
Policy denied
In a leaked internal message to staff, Cunningham distanced himself from the 2009 memo, saying he and Rudge had never seen the training notes before January 2023.
After a leaked email then revealed the directors had been personally emailed the training notes, he said in a subsequent internal message that he had no ‘recollection’ of having seen it. He also told staff it was ‘evidently not an adopted policy document’.
L commented: ‘Richard says this was a “memo” and “never adopted as a policy document” but this appears to contradict the investigators’ report, previous statements from the board and the testimony of former staff who have said this was common and standard practice within UCCF over multiple successive years. Despite this, the directors continue to seek to distance themselves, and seem unwilling and unable to confront the truth and make themselves accountable.’
In a statement on March 11, Day said UCCF were ‘specifically acknowledging failings in relation to the termination of CU Staff Worker contracts of the kind described in this 2009 memo.’
None of the former employees en spoke with say they have had a personal apology from the directors. L has called for them to make ‘a full and frank apology, specific and personal’ to everyone affected.
Norouzi told en she cannot understand why UCCF are not making meaningful apologies for what happened. ‘I'm still struggling with the fact that the lack of proper performance management processes meant the news I received was a total shock,’ she said. ‘Surely repentance is bread and butter for us and so UCCF's failure to do that is shaking what faith people still had in the organisation.’
Recommendations implemented
Last year, a report following an internal inquiry by Hilary Winstone upheld ‘a number of allegations made about the employment practices and contract procedures’. Winstone’s report was commissioned by the UCCF Trust board but remains unpublished.
A December 2022 statement issued by UCCF before Winstone’s appointment stated: ‘Details of the scope and how the investigation will be run will be provided at that time.’ However, no further details were ever provided.
Day explained: ‘In a desire to be open and transparent, [that] statement perhaps raised expectations above and beyond what an employer can be expected to disclose. In alignment to the ACAS Code and our obligations not to disclose employee information to third parties, an investigation conducted under the terms of an employer’s disciplinary procedure is an internal matter.’
It is not yet known what the ‘disciplinary procedure’ referred to here is or who it involved. ACAS – the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service – is a non-departmental public body of the Government. According to its website: ‘ACAS gives employees and employers free, impartial advice on workplace rights, rules and best practice. We also offer training and help to resolve disputes.’
UCCF said it has ‘fully accepted the findings’ and publicly expressed its commitment to ‘immediately’ implement Winstone’s recommendations. A Director of People joined the staff in March.
Cunningham is expected to see out the current academic year and UCCF is advertising for his successor. Tim Rudge remains in his role as Field Director.
UCCF says it now employs staff workers on open-ended contracts, with a three-month notice period and asks them to commit to completing at least three years’ service. They have the right to stay beyond four years.
In a statement on 1 February from Richard Cunningham, Tim Rudge and Simon Day, UCCF said: 'We accept that there were instances where the termination of CUSWs’ [Christian Union Staff Workers'] contracts were badly handled and caused them considerable hurt and upset.
'We (UCCF Trustees, Directors and line managers) are genuinely sorry for the way in which contracts were previously handled and for the hurt caused. UCCF is fully committed to implementing all four of the recommendations made by the independent investigator and we are making significant progress on a number of them.'
