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.

Another trustee is Sunetra Atkinson, ex wife of Rowan Atkinson whose only qualification/ profession seems to be as a make up artist on Blackadder.

Surely charity trustees who are legally responsible to oversee the financial management of charities should have some actual charity/financial experience and/or qualifications.

Is this the time to call for a review into what kind of people are able to be charity trustees?

Hmmmm, very curious, poking around the lists of directors and company information publicly available from Companies House etc...

There are three organizations registered at the same address: "Keeping Kids Company Ltd", "Keeping Kids Company Enterprises Ltd" and "Kids Company The Urban Academy". The stated purpose of each of these (in turn) is:

• "other social work activities"
• "other business support activities"
• other service activities"

I find the last description interesting, as it would be usual for an education and skills centre to mention the fact that they were in the education business...

Anyway, the governance for all these organisations is all over the place: "KKC" is a corporate director on "KKC Enterprises", along with Richard Handover and Sachin Mevada (also directors of KKC). "KKC Enterprises" was formally known as "BenHedge Ltd" and as of Oct 2014 had cash of 596 GBP; assets of 28,275 GBP and liabilities of 28,274 GBP ie capital of just one pound.... The other former directors at KKC Enterprises were also directors at KKC (Andrew Davis and Vincent O'Brien), and Andrew Davis seems to be a serial director, in multiple cases holding a directorship for just one day .

KKC has churned through significant numbers of director and company secretaries (full list here); I hadn't realized that CB herself was company secretary for four yeas from 1998 to 2003. I wonder how she performed that role without being able to read, write and use a computer to a reasonable standard.

There is only a single director (Marzieh Chipperfield) at the Urban Academy, who was a former director at KKC Enterprises.

What a lot of useful info on here. What to do with it?

BoffinMum - now that the Charity Commission have opened a statutory inquiry into KC, I doubt that the PAC or HASC will hold their own inquiry until that is further progressed, so that they don't unhelpfully overlap. The PAC will probably pick up the reins once the CC have completed their investigation.

and Andrew Davis seems to be a serial director, in multiple cases holding a directorship for just one day

Not in itself anything odd. Companies are quite often set up by professional company agents to do the paperwork but who then resign immediately afterwards.

Christine - I disagree - I think the fact that the CC have opened their inquiry makes it MORE likely, not less, that one of the select committees will want a piece of the action!

It's more in Public Admin and Constitutional Affairs or PAC's remit than in HASC's remit.

Pneumomenter and Boffin - yes, parliamentary privilege applies to written submissions to a committee which are accepted by the committee as evidence (and which they may or may not choose publish but usually will - submitters can request to be anonymous if they prefer and committees often do agree to publish anonymous submissions). Submissions cannot be published elsewhere (whether on a website, blog, in a newspaper etc). Info is in the "guide to witnesses" here (right hand side of page)

Fair enough, ALass. Though if I were coming to these details fresh without any background knowledge, I would still be concerned about a number of things in the governance set up, including:

• the skills of the directors to run a large and ever expanding organization with an apparent turn over of millions and a difficult target client group

• stability in the governance, with lots of people serving very short terms as directors (makes me wonder what they saw that they didn't like); and

• a lack of independent challenge on the two other linked entities (KC Enterprises and the Urban Academy).

Oh I agree there is an awful lot of things that need scrutiny.

It will all just tip out. I said at the start there would be more. I suggested:
Numbers would not stack up - yes
More perks would emerge for CB - yes private car, chauffeur, healthcare, seamstress , 7 PAs and swimmng pool so far
Safeguarding concerns - yes
Lies by her exposed - yes
Government neglectful- yes

I dread to think where it is going. She has been allowed to create a myth and a fantasy world in which she reigns over her own pathetic little kingdom lauded by luvvies and her victims.

It is a disgraceful waste of public funding. That letter higher this page up from Oliver Letwin basically says 'Oh just give her the £3 million. We have no evidence on which we are basing this decision but just give her it.'
And yet education funding is being slashed. My school will lose £500,000 this year from reduced funding post-16. We are losing teachers. We do fantastic work, all outcomes scrutinised to a millimetre by the DFE.

She has had £7.2 million since 1st April and no one knows where most of it has gone:
On envelopes to druggy teenagers on a Friday by the sounds of it. No questions asked either.
And envelopes to adults 19-31 yrs old - Why?
And £5000 a month rent for an Art Deco house and a private swimmng pool for CB.
And her £40,000+ chauffeur
And his sister the lawyer/personal seamstress
And private school for his two children
And a therapist for them
And private school for other staff's children
And jobs for the children of people on the board of the charity
And jobs for people who just walk in off the street because CB likes them
And a private nurse for CB
And 7 PAs for CB
And CBs private car

We have yet to hear the pay-off she got - that will have been huge.

I am more annoyed by this every single day. It is disgraceful. David Cameron and his cronies need to be held to account over this.

The eighth wonder of the world has to be how this woman has got away with it for so long when concerns about the way she's run what is no more than her personal fiefdom have been raised at local authority and central government level for more than 10 years.

Cameron's a latecomer who appears to have been taken in by the likes of Yentob and the 4 Labour MPs in whose Lambeth and Southwark constituencies Kids Company has operated with a complete lack of accountability or liability.

What's emerged so far is merely the tip of the iceberg and when the full facts are made public, I have no doubt those Labour MPs who have persisted in defending CB will be first in the stampede of the so-called 'great and good' to distance themselves from her dubious enterprises and equally suspect claims which are not backed up by any credible research.

In common with Savile, Batmanghelidjh has been hiding in plain sight and she appears to have had a London 'mafia' which has been every bit as effective as the Leeds one was in protecting him while he was alive.

I think Cameron and his cronies are as culpable as anyone in the Labour Party. There have been 5+ years on his shift. Anyone who has condoned what this leech has done should be looking at their behaviours with shame today-luvvies, Labour, Lib Dem, Conseravitive, whatever.

And this is where de-regulation of public services gets you and the farming out of things which should be under state provision and held fully accountable to self-indulgent fantasists like CB. The London luvvies queue up to applaude her because she does the 'street' crap, she is supposedly 'down in the hood' with the kids -actually in her Art Deco swimming pool being treated by her nurse whilst her seamstress runs her up another monstrosity and her 7 PAs rush round after her (all perks of her job)- she speaks in pseudo-intellectual/academic claptrap and with an accent to match which seems to be a mix of rather well-modulated English, West-Indian accented English and some sort of 'gangsta' accent and changes as she speaks.

She is really a very sad monstrosity and if it was not for the fact that there are huge amounts of charity and public funding involved she could be our new celebrity reality TV star. I can just see her spouting forth on Celebrity Big Brother, or as the joke one on Strictly.

BBC Newsnight and BuzzFeed News have learned of a document, emailed to civil servants in the name of Alan Yentob, chair of the charity's trustees, on 2 June. It warned that a sudden closure of the charity would mean a "high risk of arson attacks on government buildings".

The document also warned of a high risk of "looting" and "rioting", and cautioned that the "communities" served by Kids Company could "descend into savagery". The document was written in language that civil servants across government described as "absurd", "hysterical" and "extraordinary".

Link again
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-34043725

As someone currently working in the same building as a government department involved with KC, I am now quaking in my boots

They really were quite mad, weren't they?

The document sent to the Cabinet Office said: "We have created a structure which acts as a substitute parent and extended family. The endings of these relationships will be therefore potentially equivalent to death of the primary care giver i.e. a mother, a father and/or the whole extended family within a biological familial structure.
"The impact of such termination will be devastating for each child in their own way. In our scenario, these children will have no emergency aid agency or rescue team set up for them to acknowledge the turmoil closure will bring for them."
After explaining the potential trauma for clients, the document then went on to list "risks posed to the public", saying there was a "high risk" of looting, rioting and arson attacks on government buildings. The same section also listed "increases" in knife and gun crime, neglect, starvation and modern-day slavery as possible dangers.
The document also says: "We are... concerned that these children and families will be left without services in situations of sexual, psychological or emotional abuse, neglect and malnutrition and facing homelessness and further destitution."
It continued: "Our cause for concern is not hypothetical, but based on a deep understanding of the socio-psychological background that these children operate within. We know that the referrals will not get picked up and be dealt with. We know that there are not enough voluntary agencies equipped or staffed to deal with the challenging behaviour that our client group possesses.
"Without a functioning space for hope, positivity and genuine care, these communities will descend into savagery due to sheer desperation for basic needs to be met."

Urgh, the language used there almost sounds colonial, doesn't it?

Sheer hyperbole to shamelessly milk public funds.

Where is the arson or rioting since KC was shut down? A few less druggy young adults around perhaps.

the language used there almost sounds colonial

I was thinking it was certainly "othering", and engaging in the racism of low expectations.

The leader of Southwark Council was speaking about this on Radio 4 Today programme (starts about 1:23 ). He's astonished, to put it mildly

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b068v68m

More about it in DM www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3211266/Yentob-fire-extraordinary-insulting-Kids-Company-email-warning.html

the language used there almost sounds colonial

I was thinking it was certainly "othering", and engaging in the racism of low expectations

I would say overtly racist, with the insinuation that the communities served by KC (which have large African-Caribbean communities) would descend into savagery without the essential work of KC

Unbelievable.

The word savagery was a surprise to me. Not seen much in Lambeth since KC closed down...

And where are the missing thousands of children?

On the news today there are reports of increased sheep rustling in North Yorkshire. Surprised they didn't identify that as a potential consequence of closing KC as well. We should presumably look out for black yoof in hoodies muttering 'come bye'.

Seriously though, that was indeed hyperbole on the part of the trustees and did they not realise admitting to replacing the family is tantamount to admitting safeguarding failures?!

If as reported; Camilla is trained in psychotherapy then she had to engage in personal psychotherapy as part of her training.

And it seems that she is one of those therapists who is blind about the fact she needs to go back into therapy.

Being a 'rescuer' is a well known trap for therapists and is one I've fallen into myself but I worked within a framework (the NHS) where clinical supervision was a must and my emotional boundaries were examined and I had to respond to them.

I'm not a psychotherapist but have worked in MH for years. Several years with young offenders who had experienced awful abuse which influenced their own offending. I had to get out of it because of the emotional toll it took on me.

When you manage to build a relationship based on trust with the 'unreachable' or the people that society have written off - it's an amazing thing. But I always had interpersonal boundaries as my professional background taught me that. My own emotional boundaries weren't great as in I'd 'take the case home' and be more invested than I should be but I ALWAYS encouraged the young people to engage with other people and other agencies. Never gave the impression I was the only one who cared or could help. I don't think KC did that at all - I think they set themselves as the 'rescuers', the only ones who cared enough.

And out of dozens of 'unreachables' that I reached there's only one that I think I made a real difference in life outcomes. The others might not have hurt me or robbed me because they cared about ME but they still did it to other people.

And they may have had a period of relative stability when I was working with them. Some of them had the longest period out of the criminal justice system when working with me but from what I've heard, every one (bar one or two) are in prison or forensic MH units now. I won't regret them feeling that someone (me) cared about them and believed in them but I can't say that my well intended intervention made a difference to their lives other than that.

I've had letters to my workplace from prison from some of them saying it did make a difference to them but to be honest, I feel like I failed if they were 'being good' when I was working with them because they didn't want to let me down and that I couldn't instill that they should care enough about themselves and the rest of the world to not offend anyway.

I wasn't their Mum or their friend. I was a professional doing a job and yes I cared (too much sometimes) but if their 'good behaviour' was based on my working with them then it went wrong somewhere along the way.

It doesn't matter if I could leave my purse open while I went to the toilet and they wouldn't touch it if they'd rob anyone else.

I couldn't be in their lives forever - I SHOULDN 'T be as a professional, the relationship should and has to come to an end or its not a professional relationship and becomes a personal relationship.

That's where Camilla and KC got lost. It was a charity based on personal and not professional relationships. And that's fine if you're funding it yourself as a personal enterprise but not of its a government or donation funded scheme which quite rightly expects professional relationships and tangible outcomes.

And having met a few KC 'cases', what I saw was money being thrown at dangerous offenders with no good outcome and workers having IMO entirely inappropriate relationships which would not and should not have occurred.

And those people that have been supported for years are totally fucked now. They weren't encouraged to stand on their own feet or take responsibility. KC encouraged dependance in ADULTS who now have no idea how to live as adults.

After explaining the potential trauma for clients, the document then went on to list "risks posed to the public", saying there was a "high risk" of looting, rioting and arson attacks on government buildings. The same section also listed "increases" in knife and gun crime, neglect, starvation and modern-day slavery as possible dangers.

APOCALYPSE!

runs round like headless chicken

PANIC!

I said on another thread about KC that CB had a habit of threatening massive civil unrest if something happened to KC and another poster told me I was exaggerating.

Just when you thought that some dc couldn't be more disadvantaged
www.irishmirror.ie/showbiz/celebrity-news/coldplays-kids-company-lifeline-chris-6225068

Coldplay gave £10million to KC? I'm surprised St Sir Geldoff didn't climb onto CB's gravy train bandwagon.