Government cuts hit Kids Company and Camila Batmanghelidjh is stepping down

[4kidsandaunicorn]

Here

Does anyone know anymore about this? I've only read the one article.

If someone was treating cancer with homeopathy

Just looked on the Kids Company website - frankly that's more or less what they are doing with the kids

Great big page about complementary therapies and their massage, reflexology and 'emotional focussed therapy' which appears to be some bullshit about acupressure, meridians, body's bioenergy and similar woo.

I'd always thought the work was mainstream psychotherapy!?!! Now wondering what psychotherapy qualifications Camila actually has?

Fine if individuals want to donate to this but not my taxes thanks, and not with a big story about how their approach is better than everyone elses I'd rather the money was spent on mainstream CAMHS which does a good job while being massively underfunded.

www.lsbu.ac.uk/about-us/people-finder/camila-batmanghelidjh

Background and qualifications not such an easy life

Balanced-seeming article in the Sunday Times by Camilla Long today, who went to speak to CB and spend a couple of days at KC talking to staff. Said she didn't doubt CB's commitment but she had no grasp at all of the numbers, and there were lots of staff hanging around but very few actual kids.

How rude Oldsweat. Oddly enough I don't think a person's weight or size impacts on their ability to do the job CB is attempting to do. The only positive impact would be to fattists like yourself

It does all sound fairly conclusive doesn't it? KC sounds like a great idea that has got a bit out of hand

According to former staff who've left in disgust, most of the cash handout kids only came on the handout day and were laughing on their way out. Something is badly wrong here.

What can I say CalmYoBadSelf? I'm incorrigible. Didn't you find it the teeniest bit amusing though?

I doubt anybody found it amusing oldsweat. Better give up on humour. Not your strength evidently.

oldsweat - shut up already - grown ups are talking!

Again, don't know ins and outs, but CB said on Newsnight and in other interviews that cash handouts were approved by a particular member of staff for individual children (and their particular need at the time) and envelopes contained that and travel cards and were all signed for. She said behaviour of those collecting envelopes could absolutely be a bit erratic/scary but some of them are large grown adolescents whose behaviour can be unpredictable.

In previous interviews she said that just as other dc need money for school trips, books, lunch money, new shoes etc - so do her clients - which seems fair enough to me. Don't know rights and wrongs, but I don't know why that explanation is any less credible than any others that have been banded about.

Well, to start with, schools have always had hardship funds, and now pupil premium money to help support students who can't afford trips, books, uniform etc (all exercise books are supplied anyway). There are Free School Meals. There are now food vouchers if a school is aware that a family/student is struggling. There are already systems in place for these things.

Giving vulnerable young people money without expectation of accountability for how it's spent is ridiculous. There are a number of gangs in the area who would like their hands on some cash. It just makes them even more vulnerable, even if they did intend to use the money properly.

Actually you're wrong Northernlurker. My husband and some of his friends gathered for a light lunch a couple of hours ago,before they went off to play cricket, thought it was worth a chortle or two.

Well I think the accountability was implied as money was for specific purpose (was how she explained it anyway) but I'm only putting CB's argument on here because I think she's been dealt with very harshly in the media

Well I think the accountability was implied as money was for specific purpose (was how she explained it anyway)

If children don't have shoes, and you want to provide them with shoes, give them shoes.

The more I read on this, the more I think she's being dealt with harshly because she is an arrogant, self-aggrandizing twat whose methods may not actually work at all.

Harsh, SGB. But although I used homeopathy without intending it to be taken this way, there is a sense of the alternative medicine reality distortion field, in which ad hoc excuses are produced to explain why trials are either impossible or inaccurate.

But if the money is being used for school trips, then the school could provide some sort of receipt, ditto books, shoes etc. that would then count as being accounted for iyswim. Not just handing over an envelope of cash to an admittedly vulnerable young person.
Also, I'd be worried about making them a potential crime victim... They could be mugged, bullied or groomed after receiving cash. It just seems like the worse possible way to operate.

But if the money is being used for school trips, then the school could provide some sort of receipt

The idea that the best way to provide money for school trips for children in Lambeth is to hand over envelopes of cash every Friday is so preposterous that engaging with it in detail about receipts and so on just gives it a credibility it doesn't deserve.

It just sounds like a chaotic mess. Multiple staff leaving abruptly is never a good sign, in any organisation...

I'm an accountant and have audited big charities. I now prefer to support smaller charities but I always have a good look at the financial statements first.

There was one I thought provided a brilliant service but I suspected the founder was benefitting financially - turne out to be right a the charities commission asked him to step down.

People charismatic enough to successfully launch and maintain a charity are rarely able to successfully manage and the wise ones will get someone in to manage that side. Accountability is key.

Unfortunately it looks like that's not what has happened to KC.

gemauve I think you're agreeing with me...but I got confused - it's very hot here and I've been on the cider.
Just to clarify... I do not think handing over envelopes of cash to children is a good idea. No matter how sorry their situation is.

Alpaca, yes, we're agreed.

I was just pointing out that you don't need to deal with the details of how handing out envelopes could be made compliant to realise that it's a very bad idea.

I volunteer for Crisis, which has a similarly troubled clientele, and there is absolutely no way they would hand over envelopes of cash to the clients. Buy them travelcards - yes. Give them cash to buy travelcards - no way

I think this case might have a positive in that a) it will highlight how much government funding some charities get and b) it might make people stop and ask questions about how their money is used.

I guess a lot of charities go for the charismatic figurehead because they think the public will simply be inspired by that and not worry about the detail?

I am actually confused that cash in envelopes was allowed.

Thanks gem :)

Actually this makes me really cross because it casts a shadow over the sector when there is such great work going on, in charities of all sizes.