Kids company - what a cock up!

[Northernlurker]

So I understand from the bbc that kc got the three million they were waiting for and which was given to support restructuring of the charity and promptly spent 800 grand of it on the months salary bill! What on earth were they thinking? Looks like it's totally done for now.

It has all back fired for Cameron hasn't it? He embraced the third sector/ charity sectors as able to step in & help as he dismantled the state . He has run down the NHS & Childrens Social Care. It supports his vision to reduce state services/ intervention but wow what a god awful mess.
So many will be affected by this sudden closure, the families, the staff, even the useful contribution Camilla made to discourse around vulnerable young people ( she was excellent after the riots) will be denigrated.
The organisation sounds at best badly managed/ a financial mess and at worst possible damaging to the young people it was supposed to help. The thing is in the state sector outcomes are measured if projects don't deliver what they say they do they would no way be allowed to expand nationwide.

How much money does our government spend on funding charities with taxpayer money, who makes the decisions and are there ever any conflicts of interest? Are some of the recipients very occasionally metropolitan mates?

'The thing is in the state sector outcomes are measured if projects don't deliver what they say they do they would no way be allowed to expand nationwide.'

Absolutely and that is how it should be when they are spending the money of the taxpayer. Will there be changes after this debacle in how our taxpayer money is used and more accountability for it?

I am for putting it under state control so that it can be managed effectively and so that taxpayer money is not wasted by the metroplitan elite.

Oh dear all the celebrities will have to find a new favourite charity. On some quiz show the other day a celeb said her nominated charity was Kids Company. I cringed.
The civil service have been warning about this for years, it's only because CB is chummy with leading politicians that they have been able to get government funding. They should never have been given public money.

Oh dear all the celebrities will have to find a new favourite charity. On some quiz show the other day a celeb said her nominated charity was Kids Company. I cringed.
The civil service have been warning about this for years, it's only because CB is chummy with leading politicians that they have been able to get government funding. They should never have been given public money.

The more I hear about the charity, The more I think about the Peron Foundation in Evita, and

So lessons that should be learned from this fucking mess:
Just because celebrities wet themselves with compassion over a charity doesn't mean it's 'better' than either other charities.
Any 'charity' that is all about one attention-seeking figurehead (or very small group of self-publicists) should be viewed with suspicion.
Some sort of measurable, demonstrable proof of what the money is being spent on should be absolutely mandatory for any charity or NGO. It's not difficult. If you're feeding hungry people, you can show receipts for food bought; if you are providing premises and facilities you can point to the hospital beds/housing/furniture/kids' toys the money was spent on.
Any organisation that claims to 'help' people by means of woobollocks and totally unprovable, unspecified magic treatments that the wicked capitalist establishment doesn't understand... should be speedily investigated and probably shut down as soon as possiible.
Charities should not be having to pick up after governments.

Yep agree with SGB too...I generally think we need to stop idolising people or being mesmerised by them (that's how the Saviles of this world gain power) and instead always be looking at what they are actually doing and question their motives at every point.

I always wondered about the substance of CB but then she'd get her airtime on the 6 O'clock news and we'd be told what to believe about her.
We are all so manipulated.

Changing the topic slightly...This idea of certain human beings being untouchable/beyond criticism until it's too late can be seen in the latest 'historic sex abuse' scenario starring dead politicians. All we have is so called news bulletins 'uncovering' salacious stories to distract us from abuse which is no doubt occurring right now by those in powerful positions. . Indeed a horrible result of this 'news'IMO is to almost normalise child sex abuse in the mainstream...in that there's not a day goes by that you don't hear about it BUT what is actually being done right now to stop it????? Are the establishment/legal system simply just readying themselves for all the lawsuits which will now follow and so the cycle continues...powerful people abuse, then they die, other powerful people come along 'expose' and make money etc etc

It's all so depressing.

Nothing surprises ever.
Apologies for derailing but I think it's all related somehow...

it would seem that it wasn't just politicos keen to heap (undeserved) praise on Camilla Batmanghelidjh, three years ago some posters here were queuing up to blow smoke up her arse.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/1509901-to-think-Camila-Batmanghelidjh-is-fucking-awesome?pg=4

Some of it is pretty embarrassing in its gushiness.

The whole 'historic sex abuse' thing is almost jumping the shark now. Which, again, is not that surprising. While there certainly have been plenty of powerful people who used their power to abuse the vulnerable, there was bound to come a point where chancers would start popping up going, oh [famous person with non-conventional or non-documented sexual behaviour] killed a load of children and perved on me as well. And now that person is dead so I will either get a shitload of money from somewhere or... not get sued, because the person is dead and can't sue me.

And if you're going to whine and say, no one could be that eeeeevil, just remember Karen Matthews, who faked her own kid's kidnap.

In fact, now that Cilla Black has popped her clogs, would anyone like to open a book on how long it will be until someone pops up howling that she was a nonce?

Interesting link, ComposHatComesBack including;

"She's a New Labour luvvie and irritating self promoter who's become fat on the quangocracy."

"I know some kids who'd disagree strongly with you. Can you back up that bollocks statement?"

The latter voice being the dominant one on that thread.

And yes, "So many will be affected by this sudden closure" but that closure was it seems KC's own choice. The government was giving it £3m to sort itself out.

"Most of the money was going on staff salaries"

Quote from BBC Reporter on Radio 4 Today programme. They had about 650 staff.

Makes me wonder who the people and kids demonstrating against the shut down on TV reports last night were. Were some of them staff and their families?

Maybe in future, 'philanthropists' can pay for this instead of the taxpayer.

www.buzzfeed.com/laurasilver/kids-company-supporters-say-an-emotional-goodbye-to-their-ch

Why did they close like this with no warning? Also - apparently they provided free childcare. Is that what people thought they did?

A single father despaired over what he would now do with his three children – aged 5, 7 and 9 – while he went to work.
"I will have to leave my job to look after my children. I can't work because I will have nowhere to leave them, I can't afford childcare. I will have to sign on," he said.

'Kids Company “clients,” staffers, and locals gathered at the charity’s Camberwell centre on Wednesday'

Thought so. Probably a lot of 'staffers' and their mates with some of the metropolitan elite thrown in for good measure.

"The atmosphere was tense and emotional outside the Camberwell centre as staff and locals who used Kids Company’s services gathered on news of the closure."

Incredible stuff. Public money to favour some, handed out at the whim of the metropolitan elite when other people are denied funding elsewhere and for other needs.

Sounds like free childcare for some and others who don't have advocates with "powerful friends in high places" are not so fortunate and are not beneficiaries of public taxpayer money.

"How much money does our government spend on funding charities with taxpayer money, who makes the decisions and are there ever any conflicts of interest? Are some of the recipients very occasionally metropolitan mates?"

From The Guardian in 2009: "As Howker points out, according to the National Council for Voluntary Organisations, 25,000 British charities receive more than three quarters of their funding from government. Not only does this blur the line between charity and quango (perhaps we should call them changos)..."

I'll try to find out figures, but it has been coming down since 2010. Decisions are made by officials in the relevant departments. It's very, very rare for a ministerial direction (such as was used in KC's favour) to override the (less political) decisions by civil servants.

How much?

£3.1bil, according to this article from the Institute of Fundraising quoting figures from the Charity Commission. I haven't looked at the CC link, so not sure if that includes EU grants.

I would be interested to read some of their other annual accounts as the one linked above seems rather light (and I think a previous poster mentioned colourful). It's also got spelling errors in the list of donors which slightly mars the professionalism of the document. I hope it doesn't put off philanthropists from donating though - KC has potentially been very damaging for the charity sector. I hope CB, the KC trustees and any other senior figures involved are called to account.

Thanks, AuntieStella

"at least £3.1 billion of large charities’ funds comes from public money"

That is for large charities, but you can't open a newspaper without hearing of Eton types and metropolitan types running charities that are presumably smaller. What is the effect of the loss on tax revenue due to charitable treatment of some of these "operations"?

“David Cameron, you should be ashamed of yourself,” she shouted referring to the government’s effort to claw back the funding.

www.buzzfeed.com/laurasilver/kids-company-supporters-say-an-emotional-goodbye-to-their-ch

Most probably a 'staffer', but there are millions who agree with her but for entirely different reasons.

The Mail is onto it

"PM 'mesmerised' by charity that ate up £37million public cash: Cameron's ties to Kids Company founder under scrutiny over claims Number 10 pushed through money despite concerns over mismanagement

PM's ties to charity founder Camila Batmanghelidjh are now under scrutiny
...
Figures show staff numbers at Kids' Company ballooned fourfold in 7 years
...
The PM’s ties to Camila Batmanghelidjh came under scrutiny amid toxic claims that No 10 pushed through millions more pounds of funding despite widespread concerns about mismanagement. This was furiously denied by No 10.

But yesterday Frances Harniman, a finance officer at Kids Company, told the BBC: ‘I work in finance so I saw a lot of what I deemed to be inappropriate spending on staff members whose jobs we really didn’t understand.’
...
In addition, a former ministerial advisor pointed the finger directly at Mr Cameron for overruling ministerial opposition to more money for the charity three years ago.

Dominic Cummings, a former adviser to Michael Gove when he was Education Secretary said objections to more money were steamrollered by the PM personally in 2012 and again in 2014 – after Miss Batmanghelidjh contacted the PM directly.'

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3186512/PM-mesmerised-charity-ate-37million-public-cash-Cameron-s-ties-Kids-Company-founder-scrutiny-claims-Number-10-pushed-money-despite-concerns-mismanagement.html

Of course, we have no real political opposition, they are all the same, all metropolitan elite, and therefore it is only the press that can ask any questions about this at all.

Makes me wonder who the people and kids demonstrating against the shut down on TV reports last night were

What struck me was the rather small number of said children: the threatened closure of a small primary school gets a far more impressive sad face demonstration. It's the heights/depths of the summer holidays so you would have thought that their facilities would have been running at full stretch: the problems caused for deprived families by the summer holiday, where there are no free school meals, are well known. So why could they only get about twenty (young, and pliant-looking) children together?

Lots of staff. No recorded outcomes. No sign of the clients. Talk, in fact more than talk, of money being handed out without control. Trustees asleep at the wheel (you'd have thought that Alan Botney would have been around the famous and charismatic enough to have some critical faculties, but apparently not). Very dubious research work which looks like it came to pre-ordained conclusions. Shambles.

'So why could they only get about twenty (young, and pliant-looking) children together? '

Good question.

'Shambles.'

Yes, and a metaphor for how our metropolitan elite spend our taxpayer money. We are just the public, we just stump up for their "initiatives".

'We went through it all with Michael [Gove] who made the decision they would get no more money. She (Camila Batmanghelidjh) wrote to Cameron.

‘Cameron’s office then told our Private Office that the Prime Minister personally ordered that the money be paid. This was in the period 2011-12.’

He said a similar incident happened in 2014. ‘Officials tried again to stop it and Cameron again said “Give them the money”. Camila went directly to Cameron.’ Esther Keller, director of services for Kids Company in Bristol blamed the charity’s difficulties on there being ‘too many young people needing our services’.

She added: ‘How would you feel if somebody turns up and tells you they are desperate, they want to take their own life, because they can’t take any more?’

Miss Batmanghelidjh was feted by Gordon Brown and Mr Cameron, and addressed Tory conference. Famous for her colourful dress, she attracted legions of celebrity supporters including JK Rowling.'

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3186512/PM-mesmerised-charity-ate-37million-public-cash-Cameron-s-ties-Kids-Company-founder-scrutiny-claims-Number-10-pushed-money-despite-concerns-mismanagement.html

A lot of respect for Gove in all of this, some good old-fashioned common sense which is lacking in the rest of them.

What struck me as odd in the coverage on radio 4 was a denial of allegations of abuse. I haven't heard any allegations of abuse. Is that where this is going next?