Children's Charity - Kids Club

Andrew, I've deleted the other link you've just posted as that story is here.

https://maddiemccannmystery.forumotion.co.uk/t112p270-lost-and-found-children-in-australia#36930

As for the claim that Kids' Company paid for a sex change operation, I feel that the money would have been better spent on psychiatric help for the person as they were refused treatment by the NHS as not being "mentally ready".

More allegations.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3208224/Kids-Company-founder-used-charity-nurse-medical-care-Whistleblowers-claim-chief-daily-appointments-staff-member-meant-look-underprivileged-children.html

Spending watchdog to probe Kids Company grant







The awarding of public money to the now-defunct charity Kids Company is to be investigated by spending watchdog the National Audit Office.

The charity, led by Camila Batmanghelidjh, closed last month days after it received a £3m public grant.

The money was given to the charity despite advice it "was not likely to be value for money", the NAO said.

It said it would investigate the grounds for awarding money and how grants were monitored.

The NAO - which is due to report its findings in the autumn - will also look at other government funding the charity received over the past decade.

The charity is already the subject of a statutory investigation by the Charity Commission and an inquiry by the House of Commons Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee.

'Long-term viability'

The £3m government grant had been intended for a "transformation and downsizing plan" that would support the charity as it reformed.

The Cabinet Office's lead official, Richard Heaton, wrote to ministers on 26 June asking for a "ministerial direction" before making the payment.

He said he thought the grant would be poor value for money and sought written confirmation that they wanted him to go ahead anyway.

Ministers Matthew Hancock and Oliver Letwin said the funding should be given after leadership changes, as the charity had a "realistic prospect of long-term viability".

'Unsubstantiated allegations'

Prime Minister David Cameron has also defended the grant, saying it had been right to give Kids Company "one last chance".

Shortly after the money was awarded, the charity - which relied on individual donations and government grants - said it was shutting its doors due to a lack of funding.

It said a financial crisis had been caused by the number of children "pouring through our doors" for help, and by "as yet unsubstantiated allegations" - which it claimed stopped donors giving money.

Those allegations included concerns over the safeguarding of young people.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-34281923

I really do feel I live on a distant planet sometimes.......when do I get the cash free dropped in my lap or do I have to continue paying taxes and working hard....struggled to copy all of article so here's a bit and link.


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3267799/Scadal-hit-charity-Kids-Company-facing-new-questions-giving-hundreds-thousands-pounds-tax-free-employees.html

Riddle of Kids Company's tax-free payments to staff who were registered as vulnerable 'clients'
Charity gave hundreds of thousands of pounds tax-free to employees
Document shows 25 clients were given £769,150 between them over 2014
One person is a 26-year-old woman who attended Oxford University
The revelation comes as chief executive faces grilling by MPs  
By MILES GOSLETT FOR THE MAIL ON SUNDAY
PUBLISHED: 22:01, 10 October 2015 | UPDATED: 23:50, 10 October 2015


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3267799/Scadal-hit-charity-Kids-Company-facing-new-questions-giving-hundreds-thousands-pounds-tax-free-employees.html#ixzz3oF8sXfwV
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

Hi Bampots, well yes its just amazing what some biggish charities can get away with ,in black and white ,I must say it looks bad eh ? Y will it really be checked out properly ? or just made excuses for ? joyce1938

Camilo and Alan Yentob are Ito be questioned by a parliamentary committee, I do feel with Cameron's and other ministers involvement with Camila it will be well swept under the carpet!

Bampot , I just hope this will be a lesson on how not to run a charity, but I too wont hold my breath , we get less and less confident of what can be allowed these days eh ? joyce1938.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-34535954

'Suicide attempts' since Kids Company closure
1 hour ago
From the section UK

Media captionCamila Batmanghelidjh told MPs in a heated exchange that all payments were overseen by three professionals
Leaders of collapsed charity Kids Company have said there were four suicide attempts, stabbings and a murder in the wake of its closure.
Chairman Alan Yentob made the claim as he and founder Camila Batmanghelidjh appeared before MPs where they denied the charity had been badly run.
Mr Yentob said the murder of a boy who had been using Kids Company's services took place five days after it shut.
He said it was related to "the absence of a place for these children to go".
The leaders of Kids Company, which had worked with vulnerable young people, also denied claims of financial mismanagement during the Public Administration Select Committee hearing.
The charity collapsed in August days after receiving a £3m grant from the Cabinet Office and in the midst of a Scotland Yard investigation into allegations of historical sexual abuse.
The closure came after ministers said they wanted to recover the grant - with officials saying they believed conditions attached to the use of the money had not been met.
'Kiss of death'
The pair claimed the charity would not have folded if there had not been "malicious allegations" of sexual abuse.
"Only our finance person and the Cabinet Office knew that the money had hit our account. Suddenly out of the blue we get allegations that we don't even know relate to sexual abuse," said Ms Batmanghelidjh.
"That was the kiss of death for a charity dealing with children."
Mr Yentob said that while he believed the allegations had not come from "anywhere near the Cabinet Office", he believed the leak was malicious.
He said that once it became public the charity was under investigation it had been impossible for them to accept a series of donations lined up from private benefactors and they had to shut.
Analysis
Committee hearingImage copyrightPA
Michael Buchanan, BBC social affairs correspondent
It's clear from these tetchy exchanges that MPs didn't receive the information they were seeking, and in some cases implied they didn't believe what they were hearing.
The admission by Ms Batmanghelidjh that they hadn't handed over to local councils all the files the charity had on clients when it closed was possibly the only new fact to emerge from more than three hours of questioning.
Her habit of providing an anecdote when a fact was requested infuriated MPs. Their annoyance was matched by the controlled fury of Ms Batmanghelidjh and Mr Yentob, who clearly feel their work with the charity has been thrashed and traduced in recent weeks.
Nobody doubts that Kids Company did some fantastic work with very vulnerable individuals over many years; MPs - and many others - simply wonder if it could have done it more cheaply and effectively.
Committee chairman Bernard Jenkin said MPs had been told the suicide attempts and violence mentioned by Mr Yentob was in part because "desperate kids no longer had money to pay their drug pushers".
But Mr Yentob reacted by saying that was a "terrible allegation".
Mr Yentob, who is also the BBC's creative director, also told the committee:
No figure over £5,000 could be spent without the decision being taken to the board and there were quarterly audits
The charity should have been restructured earlier. "My great regret and sadness is we perhaps tried to look after too many children and do too much"
He put £250,000 of his own money in to the charity
When asked about a document, emailed to civil servants in his name, warning of communities helped by Kids Company possibly descending into looting and arson if it closed, Mr Yentob said it was describing a "worst case scenario"
Allegations raised by Labour MP Paul Flynn that he used his position to try to influence BBC coverage of the failing charity were "completely untrue". But he acknowledged that when Ms Batmanghelidjh was interviewed on the BBC's Radio 4 Today programme, he had stood alongside the producer, which he accepted could have been regarded as "intimidating"
Camila BatmanghelidjhImage copyrightPA
Image caption
Founder Camila Batmanghelidjh was involved in heated exchanges with MPs
In a series of heated exchanges with MPs, Ms Batmanghelidjh defended the work her charity had been doing, saying:
Central government and local authorities "had no interest in admitting the scale of the problems" they were dealing with
NHS trusts were referring difficult clients to Kids Company "without paying"
There should be an "objective" review of the charity's case load
The charity did not hand out hundreds of pounds in client payments "willy-nilly", adding all grants had been properly approved
She also told the committee there were officials in Whitehall who had set out to undermine the charity by briefing against it.
"Some civil servants have been absolutely malicious and unprofessional and have behaved in ways that isn't respectful of a democracy and you need to look into this," she said.
When asked by Mr Jenkin what evidence she had for her allegations, Ms Batmanghelidjh replied: "I will produce it."
The hearing came after documents seen by BBC Newsnight and BuzzFeed News showed the Pilgrim Trust, a charity which disburses about £2m a year, wrote to the Charity Commission in 2002 to raise concerns about Kids Company.
In the letter, Pilgrim Trust director Georgina Naylor noted an "absence of financial acumen from the director of Kids Company".
Alan Yentob
Image caption
Kids Company's chairman of trustees Alan Yentob is also the BBC's creative director
The National Audit Office is investigating grants given to Kids Company, and the charity is also the subject of a statutory investigation by the Charity Commission and an inquiry by the Constitutional Affairs Committee.
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Charity bosses face questions
15 October 2015
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14 October 2015
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You really couldn't make someone like Camila up, could you.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3326367/Goggle-eyed-MPs-heard-barmy-Miss-B-s-Arabian-tent-QUENTIN-LETTS-yesterday-Parliament.html

seems like the bolder and dafter you can come across to others , the more likely you can get away with such a lot of stuff,almost used wrong word there ,better not eh Keep a civil tongue and all that . Still cant believe all this and how she could manage all the mallarky for so long ,.joyce1938

I'm not suggesting for a moment that Camila is in the same league as Jimmy Savile but there are similarities with the larger than life exuberant personalities - both on the surface being very concerned with the welfare of others.

This programme is on at 21.00 tonight.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06zw47r

With astonishingly intimate and unique access, this film tells the dramatic, unfolding story of the demise of one of Britain's best-known charities and the ultimate fall from grace of its founder Camila Batmanghelidjh. Throughout a summer of accusations and allegations award-winning documentary director Lynn Alleway follows Camila at close quarters and witnesses first-hand her fight to save the charity she founded 19 years previously.

As filming begins it isn't yet public knowledge that the charity is teetering on the edge of insolvency and that the government is demanding that Camila stands down as CEO. Lynn films inside Kids Company HQ as the story breaks and the charity finds itself hitting the headlines on a daily basis.

As allegations of mismanagement and money being misspent mount, Camila stands firm, resisting moves to downsize and make staff redundant, and she vows to fight on and save the charity.

The film addresses questions about what really happened to Kids Company. The director shifts from confidante to interrogator, bringing an emotional resonance to a familiar news story.

But while the charity is no more, those in need have not gone away. As for Camila, she remains defiant - she is down, but not out.

Interesting viewing. I do believe that the charity started out with good intentions but then went astray.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06zw47r

Road to hell more like!! Admittedly she was a reasonably charasmatic figure,but radical new methods require even more qattention to detail and overseeing. She had a point re middle class ideas about money and the need to give it to those most in need,but apart from the lax governance of system,which became apparent as prodgramme progeressed,it left one with the uncomfortable idea that being Camillas mate was the best way to welfare nirvana,and handout jackopot.
The final scenes of Camilla sans mansion with pool and defence of "children deserve it" .....no toys or children's artifacts were apparent,they didn't stay there and even the friend narrating knew that...you could feel her disbelief unfold. I'm sure Camila will continue along her path she seems gifted in parting the rich from there cash,she just needs to let others manage cash and stick to raising it.

This isn't connected with Kids Club but I thought I'd put this story here anyway.

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/feb/26/woman-offered-safe-haven-to-troubled-girls-then-pimped-them-out?CMP=share_btn_tw

Another unrelated charity but anything involving a name-dropping, attention-seeking relative of Cherie Blair gets a mention!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3567996/Muslim-charity-founded-Cherie-Blair-s-half-sister-fellow-converts-investigated-unable-account-70-000-spent.html?ITO=1490&ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490

With thanks to Aquila, who has returned from her self-imposed exile and posted this link about the Bat Woman.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4893478/Disgraced-Kids-Company-founder-spent-55-000-ONE-addict.html

That dreadful woman needs to be stripped of all her wealth, flashy clothes etc and flung in jail as far as I`m concerned. If I say any more I will get banned.

I hope that you would leave Bat Woman with some clothes as the thought of her without any is truly frightening.

The return of Camila Batmanghelidjh?

        
Chris Cook Policy editor, Newsnight
           

•         
  

Image caption Camila Batmanghelidjh
Part of Camila Batmangelidjh's talent as a charity leader was that she worked up polished spiels that she could deploy to impress donors. She always had a well-turned anecdote to answer any claim or criticism. Her new book - "Kids" - is a transcription of the shtick, as it now stands, two years after the collapse of "Kids Company", the charity she founded and ran.
The book is boilerplate Batmangelidjh. Some of the inaccuracies in her account are fairly well worn. Lots have been dissected fairly thoroughly, including in a select committee. Some, though, are new. These include two major errors, which relate to Newsnight and child protection, which are worth addressing immediately.
First, Ms Batmangelidjh claims that we did not promptly report to the authorities concerns about sexual abuse of Kids Company clients that, we reported, the charity had itself not dealt with appropriately:
"BBC Newsnight sat on these allegations for some time, during which they identified contributors to their programmes and those of their online media outlet partners, in preparation for mass release."
In addition to this being immoral, it would have been a serious breach of the BBC's rules. The corporation has learned from past child protection failures. Its policy is that we should "not delay in taking whatever action is necessary to safeguard the child" - and it is a "disciplinary matter" not to do so. Were she right, I would - rightly - be in serious trouble. But she isn't.

Reporting abuse

The first account of unreported abuse that we encountered emerged from speaking to a former staff member. I met this individual for the first time on Friday 24 July 2015, accompanied by Alan White, a reporter from BuzzFeed News, with whom I was working on the story. We had expected an interview focussed on a different element of her experience of being on staff.
But after hearing her testimony, I immediately rang Sir Kevan Collins for advice. He had been a well respected council chief executive and director of children's services for a tough London borough. Sir Kevan advised me to ring the relevant local authority - Southwark - without delay.
My diary shows the interview started in the early afternoon of Friday 24 July 2015. I have an email showing that Newsnight had spoken to Southwark by 5:30pm. A further email, sent that evening, shows that they had made contact with the witness by 8pm.
Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Protestors seeking to win public support to keep the charity afloat in 2015
That was our first contact with this issue at Kids Company. All of the accounts of unreported sexual abuse at Kids Company emerged after that date. And, in every case we encountered, we encouraged people to come forward to the authorities.
Ms Batmanghelidjh knows all of this; she has that timeline. Furthermore, in her book, she cites a portion of an email that I received from David Quirke-Thornton, the lead official at Southwark for child protection. It is very striking that she decided to exclude this particular paragraph from the excerpt that she published:
"I would like to thank you for your professionalism in reporting the disclosure made to you in a timely manner - this was very important in us being able to take swift action to protect children and young people."

Safeguarding

Second, Ms Batmanghelidjh implies that the investigation was a minor event; there were, she says, neither victims nor perpetrators.
The concern that triggered the investigation was girls aged 16 to 18 being coerced by gang members into sex. We heard from two people who worked for the charity who heard this from girls and reported it to managers. And, in both cases, these concerns did not reach the authorities. As news of the investigation spread, more people came forward. As that email to me said:
"It is a complex investigation involving a number of alleged victims and perpetrators, and concerns about the culture and leadership of Kids Company in regard to child protection. Several alleged victims have come forward directly to Police, Local Authorities and via the NSPCC helpline that was established for this investigation. The allegations are very serious and will take some time to investigate fully."
It is true that no prosecutions were brought. But, as Peter John, the leader of Southwark, said; "It is the sad truth that only a very small number of child abuse allegations ever result in charges, but we owe it to the children involved to take each allegation seriously and follow through on the issues they raise".
Image copyright PA
The sexual abuse allegations, however, were only the tip of the iceberg. Kids Company was the scene for a lot of drug use and distribution, fuelled in part by the cash handouts given to clients. Kids Company ran an illegal, unregistered school. There was violence against both staff and clients. Keyworkers and clients often had very inappropriate relationships.

The aftermath

So what is Kids Company's legacy? In her book, Ms Batmanghelidjh said that "Kids Company developed the beginnings of a model that not only worked but engaged wider society in caring for vulnerable children".
When it closed, Kids Company claimed to help 36,000 children and young adults. That is the number that Ms Batmanghelidjh still uses. As its end approached, local charities, councils, child psychiatrists and officials all steeled themselves for the end of a £20m-a-year enterprise that had said it was in the same business as them.
But the flood of need never came. When Kids Company closed, the charity could only find records relating to 1,692 London clients - both adults and children. Officials in Bristol were given details of a further 175 clients. A lot of the London records were uselessly incomplete or duplicates. And while there were people with severe needs in that group, they were known to the local authorities.
Local youth-work charities tell a story that is consistent with this impression. The typical experience was that, immediately after the closure, they got up to a few dozen young people approach them and ask for money. The usual story is that the charity would refuse. One told me: "We don't do that. They wanted material things - but we don't do that." And the clients would disappear.
Indeed, the main source of work for local charities after the collapse was helping a small number of former clients claim benefits to which they were entitled. There is not a lot of slack in the social work, care or mental health systems in south London - yet their level of preparedness massively outstripped the work they actually had to do.
We can also now definitively say that local youth crime statistics have given the lie to a prediction from the charity that its collapse would lead to a descent into "savagery". None of the ups and downs coincide with the charity's collapse. Changes in city-wide crime, policing approaches and gangland economics matter much more than Kids Company did.
As Cllr John said: "There has been a huge amount of speculation about the charity's work, the number of young people it helped, and the potential fallout of its closure, but we have seen little impact since it closed its doors". Councils have been outspoken in demanding that the oversight for charities working with vulnerable people needs to be tightened up.
The miracle of Kids Company is how a charity turning over £20m a year could disappear without a trace. Central government spent £47m on Kids Company. As time has ticked on, that investment has looked worse and worse.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-41644617