There are a couple of quotes that caught my eye...
"Do staff take a few thousand pounds extra as volunteers or go for compulsory [redundancy] and leave on there same date with... less in their pocket," said one person familiar with the matter.
and
It is also understood that employees made redundant were handed a £500 budget for future training in for a totally different career path.
-=-
Its always good advice to take the package. The odds are that if they are offering you the package, you're on the chopping block and if you don't take it, you'll leave with less. The mere fact that they are even talking to you about taking the package gives you a bit of a heads up about getting your resume out before the rest of your crew.
The interesting thing about the retraining money is that either you shouldn't have been in IT in the first place, or that you can use this to enhance your skills to get you back up to speed. Either way, it will help to soften the blow and give you a better start.
Of course there are a rare few who don't need it and can get a job right away based on their experience and continued networking... I helped a couple of friends land better jobs when they were given the nod that they may be on the chopping block. As it turns out 50% would have eventually been asked to leave while the other 50% didn't want to hang around and wait to find out because the workplace became a depressing place.