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Charity Commission opens statutory inquiry into Save the Children UK

Melanie May | 11 April 2018 | News

The Charity Commission has opened a statutory inquiry into Save the Children UK over concerns about the charity’s handling, reporting and response to serious allegations of misconduct and harassment against senior staff members in 2012 and 2015.
The Commission was previously in regulatory engagement with Save the Children UK in 2015-16, following the charity’s report of a serious incident relating to allegations of misconduct and harassment against a senior staff member, and an anonymous complaint about the charity’s response to further allegations against senior staff members. An independent review was conducted and assurances made by the charity that recommendations were being acted upon.
The Commission re-engaged with the charity in February 2018 when it was responding to further public scrutiny about the 2015 issues, with the charity announcing a new review into its workplace culture.
As a result of that more recent engagement with the charity, alongside new information from other sources that has recently come into the regulator’s possession, the Commission is concerned about:

As a result, the Commission opened a statutory inquiry into the charity on 4 April 2018. The new investigation will examine, among other matters, whether trustees have:

The inquiry is purely concerned with the issues of safeguarding in the context of misconduct and harassment of the charity’s staff.

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Michelle Russell, Director of Investigations and Enforcement at the Charity Commission said:

“This inquiry centres specifically on how the charity handled complaints in 2012 and 2015 about senior members of staff, and how the charity responded to and managed public and media scrutiny of those events in 2018.

“Opening a formal investigation does not necessarily mean that we have concluded that there has been wrongdoing by the trustees of The Save the Children Fund. However, we do have questions that must be answered, and we need to hold the charity formally accountable for providing them in a clear and timely manner.”

 

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