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Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

(part 2) to think that Camila Batmanghelidgh must be lying when she says she has done nothing wrong in her spending of Kids' Company Funding?

635 replies

LuluJakey1 · 01/09/2015 17:34

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.

OP posts:
Narp · 12/11/2015 17:00

Wow! that's a really interesting interview

D's attempts to psychobabble V were breathtaking

MegCleary · 12/11/2015 17:40

The whole situation is just unbelievable really.

DriverSurpriseMe · 12/11/2015 17:48

Yet more allegations of inappropriate spending on an absolutely epic scale from a former employee. I'd quote the worst examples, but there are SO MANY:

www.buzzfeed.com/alanwhite/kids-company-employee-alleges-further-misspending-and-nepoti#.awyD3X750

squeaver · 12/11/2015 18:52

I came on to also post a link to Harriet Sergeant's evidence but that Buzzfeed link is just as jaw-dropping.

I wonder who the KC "spokesperson" is and who is currently paying them??

nauticant · 12/11/2015 19:03

The Buzzfeed article ends with two paragraphs speaking in favour of KC. I'd paraphrase them as follows:

We were dealing with a great need in difficult circumstances*.

  • which I suspect might have been largely down to the chaos of a badly run vanity project.

Since everyone said we were marvellous this is proof that we were indeed marvellous. Therefore, the critics who allege we were not marvellous are wrong.

AuntieStella · 12/11/2015 19:12

If you look at The Prince's Trust website, accounts etc, you'll see measured outputs, clear numbers, defined current and future projects; all in ways that are straightforward to follow.

It's quite a contrast to trying to nail down what KC did.

MrsJamin · 13/11/2015 07:01

Some of the figures in the buzzfeed news article are shocking, paying for someone to fly to New York first class? I say shocked actually, but I'm not sure we could be any more surprised about KC anymore.

Roussette · 13/11/2015 07:26

The Prince's Trust is wonderful. It started my friend off with something that ended up with her in a life changing career and at the top of her field, that was 30 years ago she went to them. There's never been a whiff of scandal and they are still helping young people.

But as for this lot, absolutely appalling, how on earth did it go on so long with no investigations I just don't know.

MrsJamin · 13/11/2015 08:11

It was a big government cover up. The poster child for the "big society" was chaotic, egotistical and wasted taxpayers money, and rather than come clean years ago they kept throwing good money after bad, just to save face. David Cameron has some answering to do himself.

Roussette · 13/11/2015 08:19

Both Labour and the Tories championed KC and threw money at it even when their Ministers were advising caution. David Blunkett was particularly vocal about it, I remember reading something somewhere.

merrymouse · 13/11/2015 08:22

The prince's trust was a supporter of Kids Company though. This may make them more victims than accomplices, but the point is that Kids Company seems to have attracted high profile grant givers who apparently bought into CM's theories and claims without doing many checks.

merrymouse · 13/11/2015 08:23

The support of high profile grant givers increased CM's credibility and possibly made it more difficult for people to speak out.

merrymouse · 13/11/2015 08:25

It looks as though, for some organisations (celeb/charitable trust/government), they bought good PR and in return didn't ask too many questions.

Roussette · 13/11/2015 08:26

I thought Prince Charles did but not sure on Princes Trust.

nauticant · 13/11/2015 08:29

The support of high profile grant givers increased CM's credibility

Even though he gave loads to KC, Chris Martin's credibility has always been very low.

IrenetheQuaint · 13/11/2015 08:30

"Miles and I were warned repeatedly by past and present staff and clients that by exposing Camila Batmanghelidjh, we and our families would be in danger, with a risk of reprisals."

!!

MrsJamin · 13/11/2015 10:19

Where's that quote from? Harriet sergeant?

aginghippy · 13/11/2015 10:29

Yes quote from the Harriet Sergeant evidence Auntpodder linked to. Also quoted in the Buzzfeed article DriverSurpriseMe linked to.

ItsAllGoingToBeFine · 13/11/2015 15:42

This was linked to onmy twitter feed with the comment, "Those who wonder how Kids Company got away with it should look out for the reaction if Children in Need is ever criticised" ...
streetskitchen.co.uk/why-is-children-in-need-sitting-on-a-90million-fortune/

merrymouse · 13/11/2015 16:32

From the evening standard article
www.standard.co.uk/news/prince-charless-day-on-the-other-side-of-the-tracks-6717082.html

Seven years ago, Prince Charles sent Camila Batmanghelidjh, founder of the pioneering children's charity Kids Company, a sheaf of 25 clinical papers that looked at the impact of abuse on children's brain development.

Today those papers form the backbone of a seminal research project being undertaken at University College London.

Batmanghelidjh believes these studies - which involve scanning the brains of troubled teenagers attending Kids Company - will prove that the brain is altered by early trauma and abuse, and that once we understand how this works it will change how we think about helping deprived children in the UK.

Prince Charles:

"the interesting thing is how many of the children who attend Kids Company end up going to university.

"If only more people could see the remarkable job Camila Batmanghelidjh is doing here and the 85 per cent success rate she gets.

"What we're doing at the Prince's Trust is partnering with her on some new initiatives, including a pupil referral unit due to open in Westminster."

Puzzledandpissedoff · 13/11/2015 16:37

Call me picky, but I'd still love to know where that "85 per cent success rate she gets" came from Hmm

merrymouse · 13/11/2015 16:37

It's not clear how much money was given or whether other people involved in the Prince's Trust agreed with Prince Charles, but from that 2012 article it appears that Charles was very much on board and also involving the Prince's Trust.

On the other hand, to be fair, he was hardly alone in his admiration of CB.

Talkinpeace · 13/11/2015 16:54

I do hope that one positive outcome of all of this will be the absolute and utter end of lighter touch regulation of the Charity sector and smaller government bodies.

Absolute transparency of the final destination of all tax money is essential

  • charities
  • academy schools
  • subcontractors
  • local authorities
  • whitehall

if tax money is handed out, we have a right to know and a duty to ask, how it is being spent.

MrsJamin · 17/11/2015 10:59

Will Richardson from pricewaterhouse Coopers is up in front of the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee now www.parliamentlive.tv/Event/Index/1eef841e-19e3-4b39-aec2-1dd0e80a5cd8

nortonhouse · 17/11/2015 13:17

Thank you so much for flagging the Parliamentary broadcast, MrsJamin! I only caught the very end of it but will watch the rest on video later. The woman who was testifying (I think she was from the Charity Commission?) was quite interesting. May I ask how you know when these hearings are being held and broadcast?