to think Camila Batmanghelidjh must be lying when she says she has done nothing wrong in her spending of Kid's Company Charity Funding?

[LuluJakey1]

She is like Jimmy Saville in that what she has been doing has been under all of all our noses and we have refused to speak up about it or believe it.

It is not just the luvvies who have been up close and personal with her- involved with the charity and CB at a very close level, some even Trustees. It is also the employees and the parents of children, the children themselves, the volunteers. We are not talking about a hidden mis-use of funding. We are talking aout a whole culture of open waste and self-indulgence.

I know it is from The Daily Mail but it is actually an interview with het.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3199527/My-heart-clear-says-Kids-Company-boss-Batmanghelidjh-admits-charity-paid-school-fees-employees-children-denies-wrongdoing.html

£5000 a month rent on an Art Deco House with private swimming pool - which houses a member of staff, and the swimming pool is used by CB but hot by any children- they are 'not allowed' (her words)

£40,000 chauffeur- now a specialist worker (according to CB). also has private school and therapist funding for his 2 children.

Staff( how many?) have their children sent to private schools because the job is stressful and it is part of a 'staff well-being package'

The Chauffeur's sister is also employed - now as a 'brilliant accountant', last summer as 'the woman who does my sewing' (mind you that would be a full-time job in itself, but it does imply the charity pays for those vile outfits much as I suspected)

25 young people given £769,000 a year funding - £31,000 a year each, to do nothing. They are CB's specially selected young people- many of whom have received funding for many years. She describes them as 'like a family, hanging round the house'. She deals with their funding herself.

Yet STILL CB complains staff should not have spoken up about any of this and implies those who have will suffer for it.

In my view this woman and her behaviours are corrupt, dishonest and immoral.

Are my views unreasonable? I feel this could be jus the tip of the iceberg in terms of what is yet to emerge and prosecutions will be very likely.

I think there should be a down- to the -bone, in-depth investigation of every aspect of the work of this charity and of CB. Not simply any concerns that have now been raised but a complete trawl of the spending, the practices and the behaviours of CB herself.

Interesting that Place2Be and Kids Company parted company.

As I said I was unaware of the link between them despite their research giving an overview of their history. Though they are a charity they charge schools for their therapeutic services, that I do know as it was in the article and I checked their website at the time.

So yes their model is very different indeed in terms of how they work. I just had issues with the research they offered to demonstrate their outcomes... just my opinion but it had a parallel to some of the evidence KC have offered ('independent' report potentially not truly independent)

She isnt being picked on dont be ridiculous. Her empire is/has crumbled her methods and spending within her business is being questioned she has exaggerated deflected and taken no responsibility her heart may have been in the right place but her ego and questionable methods have taken over and she has been caught out.

The Government let a drama student turned phsycotherapist loose to do what she wanted

This woman has really annoyed me.

Coldplay and gp have given them over 10 million I read. That could of done so much good but instead they probably wasted it.

I really want to just return all my cold play CDs and everything I've bought from goop.

What was that about walking into a, crack den tgen off to the Tate ? It doesn't make any sense, why was she in a crack den? What was she supposedly doing in it?
She just throws these things into conversations without them being questioned.

I totally agree that this all comes down to the trustees who have responsibility for the charity and making sure that they sense-check major decisions especially financial ones. It's shocking how much public money has been used in the last few months that will be gone forever.

That sweeping statement was to show how she was brave enough to swoop into a crack den and save some poor kid then pop along to the tate for light refreshments and hand wafting.

I am heartened to see this thread and some scrutiny of CB's activities. Some of her media appearances have troubled me over the years, but I couldn't quite put my finger on why. I think the OP has explained why she makes the comparison very clearly - I read it to DH and he agreed it was spot on. I will await the outcomes of the Charity Commission's review with interest.

She'll be doing a Heather Mills next..a member of the Royal Family or at the very least someone from the aristocracy will have proposed to her.

Anyone else think her accent is a bit erm..fake?

I honestly didn't know much about her until recently, just thought she was of those "fill ins" who appear on TV debates and the like. There used to be a clutch of self styled "sexperts" and "psychologists" who were ubiquitous in the early years of channel 4 and 5.

I basically agree.

However I've volunteered for KC a&e Christmas the last few years and honestly some of the work the charity has done is amazing. I imagine it will be sorely missed by many needy families.

In the 90s I worked in an NHS team which was innovative and did lots of good work, mostly with young men dying of AIDS. After a while I realised an unusual closeness between certain members of staff, and especially between the consultant and head nurse. The consultant was unorthodox, and unusually for a doctor, quite willing to engage with the emotional life and pain of the patients. However there was a flip side to it. He favoured staff who shared his evangelical christian world view, encouraged patients to pray on their death beds, left controlled drugs lying around, and spectacularly fell out with anyone who questioned him. He led many people to believe they'd be branching off into work abroad thanks to a multi million charitable grant (which never came through)- it was all quite grandiose. In the end NHS management caught up with him, and he went off sick for a long time. Couldn't cope with being questioned and help acountable to the same rules as other common mortals.
The current CB/KC situation reminds me a lot of my old workplace. CB is in my opinion throwing a major tantrum because people are no longer pandering to her "specialness". That's not to say however she hasn t achieved a lot and helped many people along the way.

Jimmy Saville is a convicted serial sex abuser and rapist.

I don't think he is, is he?

I have also worked in the same area and with a couple of the same children supported by KC, and have financially supported the charity myself.

looking back, no, I didn't ever see or experience any EVIDENCE that these specific children were helped in any way. As their school tutor, I contacted KC regularly, as they requested that I do, with updates on the progress of the children, and any concerns I had relating to their welfare , behaviour or education.

Now I am beating myself up for ASSUMING these children were being effectively supported, and so not referring them ever to any other support agency myself,

and also for the amount of my own money I handed over to KC.

I feel like I was taken in, and I feel very stupid for letting it happen.

I am sure KC "handpicked" a few deserving young people to support ( and possibly bribe) to enable the bankrolling to continue for as long as it did.

The very name:" Kid's Club" is somewhat disturbing. For a very high profile charity you would have thought she'd have the good sense to give it a name that doesn't sound like a soft play area or Saturday football league.

It's actually called Kids Company Chilll...

Also I wouldn't pay too much attention to the person who worked at the bank. Because I also know someone who worked at the bank where she was a customer back when she was running the charity out of a little red passbook.

person who claims to work at her bank that is.

charis dont use this as a stick to beat yourself with this charity was seen in my understanding as an alternative to SS to protect children to enhance their lives you trusted that charity because you were meant to

Thanks MrsJayy, I know I wasn't the only one, but I can't help wonder exactly how badly I let those particular children down. Hopefully I will see them again one day and be able to ask how they are doing.

You can only do what you could at the time i have worked with vulnerable children and there is always a nagging doubt of did I do enough when they move on I think KC got far to big for itself and it imploded leaving people feeling taken in or let down betrayed by the whole hoha its bloody tragic

Kid's Company ah, still a pretty shite name.

Apologies, I haven't read the thread, and don't have time to if it is getting deleted.

However, rumours are circulating that KC has been shot down and dragged through the mud because it has a lot of things to say about a political scandal involving young children...

Well maybe if KC knows something then surely they should report it she has been hinting she knows something for weeks

CB's explanation of her need for numerous PAs and the state of her office.

( Telegraph)By James Rothwell and John Bingham4:20PM BST 07 Aug 2015
Camila Batmanghelidjh, the founder of the bankrupt Kids Company, ran the charity as a personal empire from an office that looked like an “Aladdin’s den”, former workers have claimed.
The full extent of waste at the charity which received millions of pounds of public money began to emerge as officials began crisis talks with other charities after the group suddenly closed down amid a spiralling financial crisis.
Just days earlier, ministers defied concerns from Whitehall officials to hand it another £3?million, after receiving promises to overhaul its management and leadership.
Around £800,000 of the grant, approved by the Cabinet Office ministers Oliver Letwin and Matthew Hancock, was allegedly used to pay salaries at the charity, which has seen its staff numbers swell in recent years.
Downing Street insisted that it had handed the money over in “good faith” as part of a “strict” rescue package to secure the charity’s future.
Sources in the child protection sector said that despite the Government’s support for Kids Company, it was viewed with suspicion by other groups who felt frustrated at a lack of apparent accountability.
As Miss Batmanghelidjh vehemently denied that financial mismanagement was the cause of Kids Company’s collapse, new allegations emerged of lavish spending and claims that there was a culture of fear and favouritism at the charity.
They included claims that people ?were employed straight off the street, while Miss Batmanghelidjh allegedly had up to five personal assistants at one point.
A postgraduate student who worked for several months as an intern at jthe charity’s London headquarters spoke of amazement at seeing the flamboyant style of Miss Batmanghelidjh’s office.
“Her office was like an Aladdin’s den, with a tree in the middle, it was bizarre,” she said.
“I was so pro-Kids Company, but even on day one I just couldn’t believe the waste. The ethos is great and when she first started I think she was very well-intentioned, but having the attention of celebrities around her, her ego seems just to have got bigger and bigger.
“However, I feel that the charity may have become caught up in the attention of the media and powerful politicians, as well as becoming overzealous when hiring staff.”
She added: “I felt that it was extremely overstaffed and that the money from salaries could be better spent on children."
“Three people told me they had simply been employed off the street; one worked in a bank, another was working in a legal firm.”
Significantly, the young woman disclosed that the charity had asked her to help compile an “evidence base” about its work to present to the Cabinet office as part of its bid for millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money.
The absence of robust evidence to show whether the charity’s work with children was effective was one reason why ministers previously questioned whether to renew the group’s funding.
In a scathing feedback report written earlier this year, seen by the Telegraph, she described the charity as “extremely overstaffed” and hopelessly inefficient. She also claimed that the charity effectively doctored its own statistics. She said she had been deeply disillusioned after seeing staff asking children to change what they had written on satisfaction questionnaires if they gave the “wrong answer”.
She also said: “It seemed to me that people really are scared of [Miss Batmanghelidjh]?… She seemed to have favourites and if you weren’t one that was made clear.”
One source familiar with the child protection system said: “I think there are a lot of people with egg on their face over Kids Company and Camila Batmanghelidjh in particular.
“She has almost achieved sainthood over the years. Nobody said ‘hang on, who is this person?’ or ‘where is the money going?’.”
Phil Frampton, of the White Flowers Campaign Group, an umbrella organisation for abuse survivors’ groups, said there was real resentment from other groups at the perceived special treatment towards Kids Company by successive governments.
“I think the Government and Batmanghelidjh have behaved despicably in letting the children down,” he said.
Miss Batmanghelidjh said she needed several personal assistants because she has to dictate all her written communication.
“I have very severe learning difficulties so I can’t use a computer and so I have to dictate everything,” she said.
“Consequently because I am working from around eight in the morning to about 11 or 12 at night, the PAs have to rotate.
“When I fundraise I write each letter personally – or I sign it personally, so everything I have to dictate.
“The reason I have several PAs is that, first, they share the morning and evening slots and, second, one of them has to be a clinical PA because I work therapeutically with children.
“Because fundraising is so difficult I also have to do a bit of work on a Saturday and a Sunday so the PAs share the Saturday and the Sunday slot as well.”
She added: “I think all this stuff about waste is unjust – we are actually quite under-resourced."
She added that the flamboyant decoration of her office, described as like an Aladdin’s Den, was deliberate.
“The reason the office is quite childlike is that it is not meant as an administrative office only – I also see children for therapy in it and therefore it has got play equipment.
“It has got a little duck pond so that kids can do their ‘family setting’ stuff there – if they can’t talk directly about something they can use the toys.
"It has got a lot of trinkets for the kids and the teenagers to use. It is there in that fashion for good reason.”

It isnt getting deleted hq came back to say they were watching