One Plus, the after-school care and nursery provider, has gone into liquidation with the loss of 600 jobs and the collapse of a support network for hundreds of lone parents.
Directors took a majority vote to put the charity into voluntary liquidation at an emergency meeting yesterday.
KPMG was last night understood to have been appointed liquidator and is scheduled to hold meetings with staff this morning where it is expected the vast majority will have their redundancies confirmed.
The closure also affects hundreds of volunteers and lone parents who rely on the organisation for support and advice. One Plus management estimates as many as 10,000 people use its services annually.
The Scottish Executive, which refused a rescue package of £2m to One Plus, is demanding answers as to what went wrong.
It is understood the executive has been aware of the situation and believes the financial incompetence of the board of directors was responsible for the cash crisis.
Officially, it has said the One Plus refinancing package "just did not stand up".
A senior source at Glasgow City Council, the main client of One Plus, has also said it asked the authority for £3.5m in recent weeks. The council provided a £700,000 stopgap.
The board has blamed the cash-flow problems on the complexities of generating its own income with public subsidies as well as delays in processing European funding.
By yesterday afternoon staff and volunteers were packing their belongings and clearing desks at the organisation's headquarters in Renfrew Street, Glasgow.
A small protest was staged by volunteers and women who had been using the organisation as a support network.
One staff member employed by One Plus for 14 years said: "It isn't the time for blame. But the Scottish Executive turned its back on us in our hour of need. We've always faced a challenge of making ends meet while funding was delayed."
However, another said: "We've been treated appallingly. We had to find out about this through the media.
"As much as the current board is to blame, John Findlay (the founder who left last autumn) needs to answer many questions."
As well as providing affordable childcare for up to 1000 families, One Plus had branched out in recent years, turning over £11m a year, a combination of subsidies and money generated through the provision of services.
It ran childcare in 31 after-school centres and eight nurseries, 26 of them in Glasgow.
Until yesterday's collapse it offered training and employment services to one-parent families throughout the west of Scotland.
Last night, Hilary Long, the One Plus convener, said contact had been made by at least one major voluntary sector organisation and there was a glimmer of hope some of the services could be continued.
There were also reports of staff at some centres in Glasgow offering to work for free until alternative arrangements are made.
But the Transport and General Workers' Union said it would not back any moves until there was an assurance that the board and convener were not involved.
A spokesman for Glasgow City Council said: "We are delighted that other organisations, both private and voluntary, have offered assistance so quickly and we're confident that the vast majority of young people affected will face little or no service disruption. In most cases, care will be provided on the same site."
An executive spokesman said: "The One Plus board must take its own view of the situation in front of it. Ministers will also want to know how this situation was allowed to arise."
The collapse comes weeks after the One Plus subsidiary KidCare, a nursery company which provided the creche facilities at the Scottish Parliament, went under with the loss of 75 jobs.
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