AIBU to think Kids Company was actually just an arrangement that mainly funded the lifestyles of a group of Camilla B's pals?

[LuluJakey1]

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

Chauffeur paid £40,000 + and his two children at private schools paid for by KC. His sister CB's seamstress full-time and the lawyer -both roles paid for by KC

I just do not know how CB could honestly justify any of this behaviour and not see it is wrong.

The more I read the more she comes across as some kind of narcissistic cult leader, rather than the kindly figure people seemed to think she was.

It just gets worse and worse, doesn't it?

One wonders about the financial director(s) - were they on the fiddle too, or was there a revolving door as each one came in, realised what was going on and swiftly found a job elsewhere?

It gets worse and worse with KC, sadly. But I disagree with posters saying that people were idiots ever to have trusted CB/KC - it's hardly naïve not to have suspected wrongdoing before there was any suggestion of wrongdoing!

God what a call from grace. It is good that she will be accountable - pp mention of a committee

Fall

Batmanthingy woman used her florrid exuberance as a distraction technique

But not quite clever or calculating enough to find some way to quit while she was ahead

maybe the whole shebang just sort of ran away with itself??

QuiteLikely - you sound as if you know about that. Can you give us some examples- without naming names of course.

I have followed all of this very closely and so far have seen no examples in the press of people actually being helped to take control of their own lives.

I have seen:
A chauffeur who is over-paid and his children given private schooling
His sister being taken on as CB's personal seamstress and them magically becoming the KC lawyer
A private car for CB - because she dos not walk any distance or use public transport
CB having 5 paid PA's
An art deco house with a swimming pool rented by KC for thosands every month where clients are not allowed, a member if staff lives and CB has private use of the swimming pool- she admitted this
Staff speaking up about large numbers of teenagers who are handed envelopes of money - £200+ a week on a Friday with no accountability or other contact with them- driven to collect it by parents
A Cambridge graduate- supposedly a client- who was also employed by KC as well as being given funds as a client - and paid £60,000+ over two years
A group of women marching on Downing Street - two of whom gave exam.es of the help they had been given. One said her daughter was depressed and KC had given her a worker who had then supported the mother for 7 years to help manage both her children and they had been taxied to the KC annual part on Christmas Day. The other said she was in trouble because her son would not go to school. She said this was because he had been bullied and he wanted expensive trainers. Soc Services would not buy expensive trainers so she refused to send him to school. KC bought the expensive trainers and then the family got invited to the Christmas Day party. were given presents and taxis paid for.
A member of staff describing the Christmas Party at a cricket ground- Lords, the Oval????- as for thousands of people, all taxied there and back, all given presents and CB sitting in a tent dispensing largesse.
The thousands and thousands of clients she claimed to be workng with amounting to low hundreds.
Staff reporting concerns about child protection issues and saying they were never followed up - volunteers sexually propositioning young girls, offering them alcohol and drugs, staff being seriously assaulted by clients and feeling unsafe , having pressure put on them by CB to not report assaults to the police

That is what has been in the Press, and apart from the last one, not denied by KC or CB but justified.

I am baffled as to why she or KC or even their stafff have not come up with thousands of examples of their amazing work, if they actually exist. I suspect it is because the work does not actually amount to anything substantial or life-changing or sustainable for any large number of clients.

She was basically either completely corrupt or completely incompetent (or possibly a mixture of the two). I hope Yentob also gets a lot of aggro for this. Disgraceful.

QuiteLikely - I disagree that they did valuable work.

They had millions and millions of pounds at their disposal.

The celebrities who endorsed this charity are interesting as well.

I suspect CB justified it in her own head - I've seen it many times.

It will probably have been along the lines of "I'm pivotal to this charity, there's nothing more important than my time, so a driver makes sense. Now I need that driver to be completely focused on me and not distracted so I'll make sure his home life is sorted out"

Though even I can't see how that makes her seamstress (again it will be along the lines of "my clothes are part of the KC brand, I need to be visible and recognisable so it makes perfect sense to have someone on hand") qualified to provide legal advice to KC!

I think the seamstress morphed into being an accountant not a lawyer.

The reason yo have governors and accountants if you're not very good with money and tax law is not to pay someone a donation as a client when they are a paid worker being paid for services. Sadly many non charities in the country pay expenses supposedly of the business but which are personal and that is a criminal offence and tax fraud. We allk now that. I am absolutely vigilant in never claiming against my tax a single penny that does not relate to a work expense kowing that dodgy builders and the like all over the country are claiming personal expenses as company expenses. Everyone knows it's not allowed.

However I dispute KC did not good work. They gave meals to all kinds of London chidlren who never had them. They highlighted how many London children do not even have a bed to sleep in. they gave out coats and filled in all those gaps that are left by lack of state provision.

CB could have done all kinds of jobs for her own profit but instead didn't and sought to help children. That remains my bottom line.

There are lots of charities working with disadvantaged children, but who do not have the connections BC has. Most of them operate on a shoestring. The waste of money is criminal.

I think she started off with the best intentions, and it sort of ran away with her/went to her head. Government and celebs gave money/lauded her as it enabled them to say they were doing good and helping children, and give themselves a good pat on the back without troubling themselves too much.
I think she maybe started to believe her own hype.

Thanks for keeping this alive, OP - the last thread you started on this ended up being incredibly illuminating.

I'm glad the Mail has kept on digging - it looked as if it was all going quiet for a while. And disappointing that the Guardian (the paper I read) is mostly doing stuff on how terrible it is for the people the charity helped that it's closed down. I suppose, yes, it is terrible, but at the same time the key fact here, as you point out, is that the whole thing seems to have been run as a giant scam.

Lots of charities are not doing things they are supposed to. Yet its the one with the celebrity figurehead that seems to garner the most attention.

I agree with bertsdinner. Doesn't make it better -the road to hell etc. Shows how important the much maligned 'Rulebook' is in life. Films show mavericks as the ones who get things done, whereas so often they are so busy pushing the boundaries that the real work gets neglected.

I think there must be many charities out there which are basically just cash cows for those who run them. Sort of job creation schemes.

I'm still puzzled as to what exactly Macmillan do they have tins everywhere. They must be minted.

MacMillan offer emotional support. They don't help with actual nursing. A MacMillan nurse will come and talk to you about how you are feeling.

It is the state District Nurses who provide end of life care.

Kids Company got so much positive attention (and so much public money) when it was riding high that it's not surprising it's getting a lot of negative attention now.

I would be shocked if there were many other charities operating with quite such a cavalier approach; but this whole saga has made me realise how limited the oversight of charities is in this country, and I really hope that the government and Charity Commission will take note and tighten up their regulation a LOT in the future.

Most charities are tiny. The small afterschool club, the lunch club for elderly people. And most of these struggle for the small bit of money they need.

Macmillan doesn't even employ the Macmillan nurses.

Specialist palliative care nurses will provide emotional support and are highly skilled in managing complex symptoms such as pain. The District Nurses couldn't do complex cases without them. Some of these will be labelled Macmillan nurses as for the first 2 years the post existed, Macmillan paid for it. From then on, they are paid for by the NHS and they are always NHS employees.

Macmillan gets massive brand recognition when actually it doesn't do much.

Um Macmillan fund all types of nurses and medical posts and are not remotely comparable to KC.

They lobby the government, they give grants (through a rigorous process) ti help with costs of cancer and much, much more
more. In my area when you receive a cancer diagnosis it's Macmillan info you are handed. They are a brilliant source of information and support during a hellish time. Don't undervalue having your hand held when you're dying/life threateningly I'll.
I am still here in part thanks to a Macmillan nurse who managed to talk me into life saving surgery when I'd just declined consent thanks to an incompetent doctor.

A Macmillan nurse was the one who explained to me what treatment meant. A Macmillan nurse ensured I was given irradiated blood when the hospital didn't understand the need for it. A Macmillan nurse got me transferred to the best possible care when it looked like I had brain mets (I didn't, it was missed meningitis).

I'm risking outing myself for Macmillan - that's how strongly I feel about their fantastic services.