This article is from the source 'guardian' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.
You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/aug/09/kids-company-camila-batmanghelidjh-i-saw-the-good-work-it-did-and-mourn-its-passing
The article has changed 3 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.
| Version 1 | Version 2 |
|---|---|
| I saw the great work Kids Company did myself. That’s why I mourn its passing | I saw the great work Kids Company did myself. That’s why I mourn its passing |
| (3 days later) | |
| As I watched Camila Batmanghelidjh being mobbed by the small crowd demonstrating about the closure of Kids Company outside Downing Street last week, it struck me that she was more like a character out of children’s book than a real person. She appeared out of nowhere, said a few words that no one could hear and then slowly made her way through the photographers to a cab and vanished: a great, big, fruitily dressed fairy godmother who, when you come to think of it, bears not the slightest resemblance to any of the other seven billion people on the planet. | |
| I was with my daughter, Charlie, who until last week worked for Batmanghelidjh at Kids Company as a corporate fundraiser and also a mentor to a young boy who is one of the charity’s clients. It was an affecting moment because a lot of those present relied on Batmanghelidjh’s extraordinary ability to conjure money from government and rich donors, and now, with the collapse, they faced a multitude of hardship. The queen of compassion and munificence had been brought to earth; the spell was broken, the magic gone. | I was with my daughter, Charlie, who until last week worked for Batmanghelidjh at Kids Company as a corporate fundraiser and also a mentor to a young boy who is one of the charity’s clients. It was an affecting moment because a lot of those present relied on Batmanghelidjh’s extraordinary ability to conjure money from government and rich donors, and now, with the collapse, they faced a multitude of hardship. The queen of compassion and munificence had been brought to earth; the spell was broken, the magic gone. |
| Whose fault was this? The view of the rightwing press is that this is a story of ego and hubris and that the closure might have been avoided if Batmanghelidjh and her board of trustees had recognised that she exhibited the symptoms of founder’s syndrome, which holds that the individual who has the vision to found an enterprise is not necessarily the best person to run it. | Whose fault was this? The view of the rightwing press is that this is a story of ego and hubris and that the closure might have been avoided if Batmanghelidjh and her board of trustees had recognised that she exhibited the symptoms of founder’s syndrome, which holds that the individual who has the vision to found an enterprise is not necessarily the best person to run it. |
| There may be something in the second point but given Batmanghelidjh had already agreed to step aside from the day-to-day running of the charity and that the chair of the trustees, the BBC executive Alan Yentob, was also going, the collapse does seem unusually wasteful and harsh. The lifeline from chaos was removed from a lot of children and 600 of my daughter’s colleagues lost their jobs and, for the moment, their purpose in life. | There may be something in the second point but given Batmanghelidjh had already agreed to step aside from the day-to-day running of the charity and that the chair of the trustees, the BBC executive Alan Yentob, was also going, the collapse does seem unusually wasteful and harsh. The lifeline from chaos was removed from a lot of children and 600 of my daughter’s colleagues lost their jobs and, for the moment, their purpose in life. |
| These things are not to be dismissed lightly because there are two uncomplicated truths in this story. In the 19 years since Batmanghelidjh founded the organisation it has helped thousands upon thousands of young people survive the sort of hardship and emotional damage that most of us have not the slightest clue about, still less do anything to mitigate. Second, the love, friendship, generosity and structure that the organisation brought into the lives of people who have so little was an example of the human spirit at its best. | |
| It is true that I do have a personal interest in the closure, but quite apart from taking pleasure and a bit of pride from watching my daughter’s devotion to a job that was never about enrichment or advancement, I’ve learned a lot about the difficulties of operating in the space between government and local authorities. More important was the understanding of the unbureaucratic model that Kids Company worked to. I saw it in action when a friend told me about the case of a young girl he’d found living rough on the streets of London. He was paying for her to stay in a hotel and was getting no help or advice from local social services. I told my daughter and within a day the charity had rallied round with ideas for shelter, medical care, therapy and education. The response was immediate, imaginative and empathetic. | It is true that I do have a personal interest in the closure, but quite apart from taking pleasure and a bit of pride from watching my daughter’s devotion to a job that was never about enrichment or advancement, I’ve learned a lot about the difficulties of operating in the space between government and local authorities. More important was the understanding of the unbureaucratic model that Kids Company worked to. I saw it in action when a friend told me about the case of a young girl he’d found living rough on the streets of London. He was paying for her to stay in a hotel and was getting no help or advice from local social services. I told my daughter and within a day the charity had rallied round with ideas for shelter, medical care, therapy and education. The response was immediate, imaginative and empathetic. |
| The key to grasping what we have lost with the closure is that Batmanghelidjh’s operation was based on relationships rather than structures. Outside No 10 last week, Rachel Nichols, head of clinical operations at Kids Company, told me: “Children need parenting; they need secure attachments and people they can go to, who will be there for them, no matter what; and that is in the middle of our ethos. This is what we do for children in our society – we love them and care for them. That’s what we did at Kids Company.” | The key to grasping what we have lost with the closure is that Batmanghelidjh’s operation was based on relationships rather than structures. Outside No 10 last week, Rachel Nichols, head of clinical operations at Kids Company, told me: “Children need parenting; they need secure attachments and people they can go to, who will be there for them, no matter what; and that is in the middle of our ethos. This is what we do for children in our society – we love them and care for them. That’s what we did at Kids Company.” |
| Of course there were faults in the organisation and as a journalist I subscribe to the view that the media must hold public organisations and politicians to account. Kids Company, the recipient of £150m of donations and public money over its lifetime, can be no exception. | Of course there were faults in the organisation and as a journalist I subscribe to the view that the media must hold public organisations and politicians to account. Kids Company, the recipient of £150m of donations and public money over its lifetime, can be no exception. |
| The charity needed to be more specific about the way money was spent and it is plain that the model, however beneficial to the thousands of damaged children, was not sustainable. But this does not add up to financial impropriety, and it is worth remembering that all the financial audits insisted upon by ministers gave the charity a clean bill of health. The one serious problem was the allegations of sexual abuse, which proved to be the coup de grace. I will come to these later. | The charity needed to be more specific about the way money was spent and it is plain that the model, however beneficial to the thousands of damaged children, was not sustainable. But this does not add up to financial impropriety, and it is worth remembering that all the financial audits insisted upon by ministers gave the charity a clean bill of health. The one serious problem was the allegations of sexual abuse, which proved to be the coup de grace. I will come to these later. |
| In general, it seemed to me the process of scrutiny over the last weeks got it wrong. Too often there was a lack of fair-mindedness and proportion in the questioning. Kids Company became an illusory scandal where the scale of coverage evoked enormous wrongdoing, which was simply never the case. Stories such as the prime minister’s surprisingly resilient support for the charity, the lobbying of a Conservative party co-treasurer – James Lupton – and the embedding of two civil servants to help restructure the organisation somehow became examples of the wickedness that had taken root in the charity. In a less feverish moment, these would surely be seen as a commendable recognition among politicians of the problems Kids Company faced in sustaining itself and, as important, in the children they were helping. | In general, it seemed to me the process of scrutiny over the last weeks got it wrong. Too often there was a lack of fair-mindedness and proportion in the questioning. Kids Company became an illusory scandal where the scale of coverage evoked enormous wrongdoing, which was simply never the case. Stories such as the prime minister’s surprisingly resilient support for the charity, the lobbying of a Conservative party co-treasurer – James Lupton – and the embedding of two civil servants to help restructure the organisation somehow became examples of the wickedness that had taken root in the charity. In a less feverish moment, these would surely be seen as a commendable recognition among politicians of the problems Kids Company faced in sustaining itself and, as important, in the children they were helping. |
| One point that has been forgotten is that scattered to the winds in the closure was a great deal of expertise that will be very hard to reassemble. Kids Company really did know how to deal with a child whose existence is made hell by gangs on his estate, has suffered prolonged sexual abuse, has witnessed killings in their country of origin, or is being brought up by a mother too emotionally damaged to be a proper parent. | One point that has been forgotten is that scattered to the winds in the closure was a great deal of expertise that will be very hard to reassemble. Kids Company really did know how to deal with a child whose existence is made hell by gangs on his estate, has suffered prolonged sexual abuse, has witnessed killings in their country of origin, or is being brought up by a mother too emotionally damaged to be a proper parent. |
| As significant to the people who worked there were the many mentoring relationships between Kids Company and its clients, all of which ceased on Wednesday because of the lack of insurance cover. The mentors, who included some funders, had friendships that turned out to be as rewarding to them as the children they were helping. That is true of my daughter, who has mentored a young lad for the last 18 months but cannot continue to see him. What sort of message about the adult world does he take from that? | As significant to the people who worked there were the many mentoring relationships between Kids Company and its clients, all of which ceased on Wednesday because of the lack of insurance cover. The mentors, who included some funders, had friendships that turned out to be as rewarding to them as the children they were helping. That is true of my daughter, who has mentored a young lad for the last 18 months but cannot continue to see him. What sort of message about the adult world does he take from that? |
| A lot has been lost but the hard fact is that the charity would have faced big cuts in its current budget of £23m a year anyway. The restructuring was under way – the team at the top was to be refreshed by four new trustees from the corporate world. After the intervention of David Cameron, government money was made available and it looked as though Alan Yentob had just about succeeded in launching the life raft. | A lot has been lost but the hard fact is that the charity would have faced big cuts in its current budget of £23m a year anyway. The restructuring was under way – the team at the top was to be refreshed by four new trustees from the corporate world. After the intervention of David Cameron, government money was made available and it looked as though Alan Yentob had just about succeeded in launching the life raft. |
| Then came the killer blow from Yentob’s colleagues at BBC’s Newsnight, which – possibly because of the show’s history in suppressing the Jimmy Savile investigation – felt compelled to investigate allegations made about two centres in London. These triggered a police inquiry that was announced at the moment the rescue package was ready. Money promised from donors evaporated and the new trustees dispersed. | Then came the killer blow from Yentob’s colleagues at BBC’s Newsnight, which – possibly because of the show’s history in suppressing the Jimmy Savile investigation – felt compelled to investigate allegations made about two centres in London. These triggered a police inquiry that was announced at the moment the rescue package was ready. Money promised from donors evaporated and the new trustees dispersed. |
| The allegations involve a 22-year-old male client of Kids Company who was said to have used its premises to sexually exploit girls of between 16 and 17 years old, exactly the sort of abuse that is common in the gangs of London estates. Camila Batmanghelidjh protested she had no knowledge of the abuse and she had not been given enough time to respond to the allegations, which it has to be said were of a fairly vague nature. | The allegations involve a 22-year-old male client of Kids Company who was said to have used its premises to sexually exploit girls of between 16 and 17 years old, exactly the sort of abuse that is common in the gangs of London estates. Camila Batmanghelidjh protested she had no knowledge of the abuse and she had not been given enough time to respond to the allegations, which it has to be said were of a fairly vague nature. |
| Added to this were the charges that Kids Company had ignored, or tried to suppress action concerning the smoking of “skunk” on its premises and a violent attack with a snooker ball on one member of staff, neither of which is particularly surprising given the troubled backgrounds of the charity’s clients. Skunk and violent outbursts are not so rare on the streets of south London. | Added to this were the charges that Kids Company had ignored, or tried to suppress action concerning the smoking of “skunk” on its premises and a violent attack with a snooker ball on one member of staff, neither of which is particularly surprising given the troubled backgrounds of the charity’s clients. Skunk and violent outbursts are not so rare on the streets of south London. |
| The police inquiry may discover more, but, as they stand, these allegations certainly do not merit the closure of the charity. | The police inquiry may discover more, but, as they stand, these allegations certainly do not merit the closure of the charity. |
| A lot of good work has been destroyed, many children will go without the vital help they need and this peculiarly imaginative way of turning people’s lives around, born of the bizarre figure of Batmanghelidjh, has been snuffed out. Whatever the lessons to be learned, this is not a good result for scrutiny. | A lot of good work has been destroyed, many children will go without the vital help they need and this peculiarly imaginative way of turning people’s lives around, born of the bizarre figure of Batmanghelidjh, has been snuffed out. Whatever the lessons to be learned, this is not a good result for scrutiny. |