{"id":469898,"date":"2025-10-03T01:52:16","date_gmt":"2025-10-03T01:52:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/469898\/"},"modified":"2025-10-03T01:52:16","modified_gmt":"2025-10-03T01:52:16","slug":"disability-employment-provider-bedford-kept-afloat-with-4-4m-funding-injection-as-hunt-for-buyer-continues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/469898\/","title":{"rendered":"Disability employment provider Bedford kept afloat with $4.4m funding injection as hunt for buyer continues"},"content":{"rendered":"

Australia’s second-largest disability employment provider Bedford will be kept afloat by a federal government funding injection as it seeks a buyer for the embattled business.<\/p>\n

Bedford avoided entering voluntary administration in July<\/a> after it aired concerns about its financial position, prompting the South Australian government to provide a $15 million lifeline<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Advisory firm McGrathNicol was also appointed to help restructure the business.<\/p>\n

Federal Minister for Health, Ageing and Disability Mark Butler confirmed on Friday the Commonwealth would provide $4.4 million in funding to “continue the employment of 1,500 or so South Australians” who are employed by Bedford while a sale takes place.<\/p>\n

\"Mark<\/p>\n

Mark Butler says the funding will allow Bedford to continue operating while the sales process takes place. (ABC News: Callum Flinn)<\/p>\n

He told ABC Radio Adelaide a report prepared by the firm had made it clear “the only way Bedford has a future is a sale” and extra funding was needed to keep it operating.<\/p>\n

“It just gives you a sense of the difficult financial position Bedford got itself into that it can’t operate while that sales process is going underway,” Mr Butler said.<\/p>\n

Mr Butler also expressed his disappointment at the “very difficult position” the disability employment provider had found itself in.<\/p>\n

“The more we’ve got across the detail of Bedford’s financial position, the worse it’s looked,” he said.<\/p>\n

“I’m pretty unhappy taxpayers are now going to have to put another $4 million on the table just to continue the operation of this service while we try to find a way to guarantee a future for Bedford,”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Mr Butler said.<\/p>\n

“But we have to make sure there are services in the future for the many, many hundreds of South Australians living with a disability who rely on it day in and day out.”<\/p>\n

The announcement follows previous concerns voiced by both the state and federal governments in September about the depth of Bedford’s financial woes<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Bedford avoided entering voluntary administration in July. (ABC News: Will Hunter)<\/p>\n

Mr Butler confirmed a sales process was already underway and would “happen over the course of this month” with potential purchasers already expressing interest.<\/p>\n

“That’s what this funding does is allow Bedford to continue operating while the sales process is undertaken and the markets’ effectively tested,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Now, if there’s not a buyer then, then there will be some difficult decisions.<\/p>\n

“But we’re desperately hopeful there will be a buyer that recognises the quality of these services and is determined to give them a long-term future in South Australia.”<\/p>\n

In a statement, Bedford said “all options” were being considered for its continuity into the future.<\/p>\n

“As this process has evolved, it has become apparent that a sale of Bedford is one of the more viable options,” the employment provider said.<\/p>\n

“There has been strong interest in the purchase of all our core businesses and related entities.”<\/p>\n

The company said it was grateful for the financial support it had received and would provide “detail on Bedford’s future” once it could share a firmer update.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australia’s second-largest disability employment provider Bedford will be kept afloat by a federal government funding injection as it…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":289402,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3092],"tags":[54777,107302,51,347,3374,6929,59681,897,13595,85793,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-469898","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jobs","8":"tag-bedford","9":"tag-bedford-group","10":"tag-business","11":"tag-disability","12":"tag-employment","13":"tag-federal-government","14":"tag-industries","15":"tag-jobs","16":"tag-mark-butler","17":"tag-peter-malinauskas","18":"tag-uk","19":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115307737989458799","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469898","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=469898"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469898\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/289402"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=469898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=469898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=469898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}