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Macmillan Cancer Support has come under fire after launching a recruitment drive for a series of senior corporate roles just months after axing a quarter of its staff.
The Guardian revealed in February that more than 400 workers had been let go as the charity reduced its workforce by 26%, downgraded its helpline and scrapped its 100-year-old hardship scheme that provided millions of pounds in grants to the poorest cancer patients.
This week Macmillan told staff and partners it was making further cuts, scrapping its £14m-a-year welfare advice service. It will cease funding for hundreds of frontline advisers, employed by Citizens Advice, who help cancer patients navigate the benefits system and deal with the extra costs of their illness, such as food, heating and transport.
The charity said in February it was making changes after feeling the impact of the “tough financial climate”. Macmillan would continue its work with “a smaller team”, a spokesperson told the Guardian at the time.
It is now hiring for a number of senior roles, including a director of strategy and transformation on £119,000 a year, a head of product (£88,500), a head of corporate partnerships (£88,500), a head of national partnerships (£76,000), and a £63,500-a-year total reward manager.
Macmillan is also recruiting a senior talent acquisition partner on £71,500, who must have “in-depth experience of recruiting at up to senior level” in the healthcare sector. “This is an exciting time for talent acquisition at Macmillan,” the job description says.
Current and former staff have told the Guardian that while they acknowledge the “tough financial climate” Macmillan says it is operating in, they have concerns about how and where cuts have been made and doubts about the need for more senior staff.
One who worked full-time at the charity for more than a decade until 2024 said: “Staff are utterly dismayed by changes made to key services such as reducing the support line or now cutting the grants service completely – while Macmillan not only remains a hierarchical organisation but hires yet more managers and senior managers with huge salaries.”
Another ex-Macmillan employee said the charity was “hiring far too many overpaid staff” while ceasing funding for the frontline workers the charity was best known for and whose support patients rely on.
A Guardian investigation in February revealed Macmillan had spent £100m more than it had raised over the past six years.
In 2023, spending on wages and salaries surged to £80m, up by almost one-fifth (18%) from £68m in just 12 months. The following year, Macmillan told 1,244 staff they were at risk of redundancy, with 413 departing.
As well as the top corporate roles, Macmillan has also begun recruiting for a number of other posts, some of which have raised eyebrows among staff who left last year.
One such role is a £48,000-a-year senior national system change adviser. The successful candidate can work entirely from home, the job description says, and one of their “key responsibilities” will be to “contribute to big-picture thinking across the organisation”. They will report to a head of national systems change.
Macmillan is also hiring a £54,500-a-year design and improvement manager with a car allowance. The successful candidate will play a “pivotal role” in “transforming and improving health and care systems across the UK”, the job description says, “by building strong partnerships, leading system transformation, and fostering a culture of continuous improvement”.
It adds: “You will take identified opportunities to develop strategically aligned, time limited and outcome driven placed based models and interventions designed to be taken to scale or build evidence to achieve systemic national change.”
The design and improvement manager will report to a design and improvement lead. The job “makes absolutely no sense”, one ex-Macmillan employee said. “It’s pure gobbledegook.”
In a statement to the Guardian, Macmillan said it was committed to ensuring every pound it spent had the “greatest possible impact for people with cancer”.
A spokesperson added: “During our restructure last year, a recruitment freeze was put in place to help minimise redundancies as we reduced the size of the organisation. As part of this process, we reduced the number of senior roles in line with the overall reduction across Macmillan.
“The roles currently being advertised reflect vacancies where colleagues have moved positions or because different roles are needed to support our work, including how we advocate for changes to NHS cancer care.
“We continue to scrutinise every vacant role closely, and only recruit for the roles that are critical to helping us reach more people living with cancer.” Macmillan was also committed to “fair pay” for its staff and benchmarked salaries against “equivalent roles” in the charity and healthcare sectors, the spokesperson said.
