It’s a shame that Parliament TV doesn’t feature in the week’s top TV listings – because the drama that unfolded last week as Camilla Batmanghelidjh and Alan Yentob appeared before the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Select Committee was as riveting as anything that the mainstream television channels had to offer.
“Psychobabble” was the verdict of one Committee member, after sitting through the incomprehensible expositions offered by Camilla Batmaghelidjh. Avoiding the questions and offering unintelligible explanations of the activities of the charity, she by turns frustrated and infuriated the Committee who demanded answers and received only obfuscation.
For his part, Alan Yentob could do little better. His contributions were unsatisfactory and unconvincing. When the facts clearly point to the contrary, Mr Yentob simply asserted that, under his stewardship, the charity was “well run.”
Whatever one’s views of the merits or otherwise of this once-lauded charity, it was an unedifying spectacle.
After burning through nearly £30m of taxpayer funds since 2008 (according to the Sunday Times), ‘accountability’ appears to be a word absent from the vocabulary of either the charity’s Chief Executive or its Chairman. The picture presented was one of cash easily acquired by the charity and freely distributed.
Similarly, claims that the charity had helped some 36,000 vulnerable “clients” seemed to be debunked by the lack of case files or other records about the beneficiaries of the alleged financial munificence from government. The picture presented was one of gross exaggeration of the scope of the charity’s work. Certain individuals described as clients of the charity’s services may have actually been employees of the charity or, in some cases, family and friends – even classmates at school.
I have written in a previous article about the spotlight shining on the activities of Kids Company and the need for answers about the manifest deficiencies in its governance and management. That the two individuals who sat at the head of the charity should give such a poor and unapologetic account of themselves only confirmed the level of ineptitude and lack of oversight.
The Select Committee hearing ran for three hours last Thursday morning. If it expected elucidation and insight into what had caused this charity’s demise, the Committee received none from the mouths of the two leading witnesses they had called before them. However the body language spoke volumes: Camilla Batmanghelidjh’s performance was described as ‘bristling with defiance’ by the Financial Times. There were points at which, during Camilla Batmanghelidjh’s evidence, Alan Yentob sat with his head in his hands.
It was a disservice to the charity about which they both professed to care so passionately. And perhaps that was part of the problem. Trustees volunteering their time to sit on charity boards feel strongly about their charity’s purpose. The need to be objective about the business needs of the organisation and the obligations of good charity governance are not always given the necessary priority. This may be exacerbated in charities which have come to rely on a steady pipeline of taxpayer funding
In its own response to the Select Committee’s inquiry, the Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary Organisations (ACEVO) has also highlighted the strains on charity governance which it says are permeating the sector. While pointing out that there is no obvious connection between government funding of the third sector and failing charities, ACEVO calls for more investment to be made in charity governance.
And where does the Charity Commission sit in all this? Hopefully the regulator was glued to its TV set throughout the Select Committee hearing. It should have been uncomfortable viewing. While the Commission has also launched a statutory inquiry into the failure of Kids Company, its own role requires close scrutiny. Filings of annual accounts which repeatedly raised concerns about the lack of reserves in the charity appear to have sounded no alarm bells within the Charity Commission.
Taxpayers, as well as philanthropic donors to charities of all shapes and sizes, deserve better. It is time for the Charity Commission to put its own house in order.
No one emerges from the Kids Company debacle with any credit. Plainly there are lessons to be learned. At the moment, with the repercussions of the fallout still reverberating across the sector, it is hard to see how by whom those lessons will be heeded.
October 2015
Christine Berry is a partner in Taylor Vinters LLP. She is co-founder of the Desmond Elliott Charitable Trust (which awards an annual literary prize for debut fiction); and a trustee of the Addenbrooke’s Charitable Trust (the NHS charity that supports Cambridge University Hospitals). Click here for more information or call +44 (0)1223 225281
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