Counselling charity Relate goes into administration

Relate offers a range of services, including couples and relationships counselling, family counselling, mediation, children therapy and sex therapy. Photograph: Serena Brown/The Guardian

Britain’s biggest relationship counselling charity is on the verge of insolvency after failing to overcome financial difficulties caused by a collapse in funding from NHS, school and local authority contracts.

Relate has been put into administration, with staff told that it has four to six weeks to find a buyer or merger partner if it is to stay afloat. The 26 local branches of the charity, which are each independent, are not affected.