Alan Yentob, the chairman of trustees, signed an email received by the Cabinet Office just weeks before Kids Company collapsed, claiming that areas of London would “descend into savagery” unless the charity received a £3 million grant. At least seven government departments contributed to grants between 2000 and 2015.
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A chart included in the report shows that between 2011 and 2013, Kids Company received more than twice the amount of funding than Barnados – a charity that covers the whole of the UK. In 2008 Kids Company received 20% of the available funding for the grant programme; the remainder was shared between 42 other charities.
The money was paid on July 30, the same day officials learned that the Metropolitan Police was investigating the charity over allegations of physical and sexual abuse.
June 2015: Officials cast doubt on the financial figures produced by Kids Company, and said they had limited confidence in the charity’s willingness or ability to change.
Over the course of five years between 2008 and 2013, the Department of Education gave Kids Company grants totalling £21.7 million ($US33.1 million), an average of more than £4.5 million ($US6.9 million) per year.
A report by the National Audit Office, published on Thursday, said it noticed a pattern in how Kids Company behaved when it asked for money.
Officials first raised concerns about its management in 2002, saying other charities offered “better value for money”. It was at this stage that officials first raised concerns about setting a “dangerous precedent” and that “other organisations were more effective”.
So, for PR reasons, Cameron’s government continued to hand out millions to Kids Company against advice.
This arrangement meant Kids Company has not had to compete for its annual grant since 2013.
When the charity was then unsuccessful in its bids for funding from another DfE programme, the department extended its grant to keep the charity afloat while it co-ordinated cross-government discussions about continuing to fund the charity.
Was it fully funded by the Government?
Mandarins responsible for a few of the funding decisions will be called before the powerful Commons Public Accounts Committee on Monday.
Meg Hillier, committee chair, said: “It is unbelievable that over 13 years taxpayers’ money has been given to Kids Company with little focus on what it was actually achieving for the children it was supporting”.
The NAO disclosed that Kids Company used the same recipe to request money from the Government on six occasions since 2002 – and that ministers gave in every time.
One of the documents uncovered by the NAO investigation is a proposal that was drawn up by the Department for Education warning that the government would suffer “reputational damage” if it stopped funding the charity. The charity had already received a grant of £4.3 million for 2015-16.
“The officials within the Department for Education who look into these grant applications very closely were very clear that there were a few very serious question marks over such a grant”, he said.
“I was constantly asking for the performance indicators, the data, to see if it was having the effect we were promised”. It was founded by Camila Batmanghelidjh.
In particular, they will be asked which minister ordered the final £3million of funds to be released this summer.
Did they help 36,000 people?
A government spokesperson said: “Since 2002, successive governments have provided financial assistance to the charity to help it deliver services for vulnerable young people”.
March 2015: Cash flow problems were persisting and officials were concerned that the charity would continue to rely on public funding.
“I was very sceptical at the time, and very against giving them such a large amount of money”, Mr Loughton said.
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Downing Street said ministers from “successive governments” had believed it was the “right thing to do to support this charity”.
