CHARITY BOSS QUITS OVER SEX SCANDALS
After toxic claims of harassment cover-ups at Save the Children...
THE chairman of Save the Children International quit last night in the wake of its sex harassment scandal.
Sir Alan Parker resigned after ten years in the role following claims of a highlevel cover-up of allegations against two executives at the charity’s UK arm. It comes a week after the Charity Commission said it was carrying out a statutory inquiry into save the Children over the claims.
The watchdog is looking at whether the charity adequately reported what it knew about allegations against former chief executive Justin Forsyth and policy director Brendan Cox.
sir alan, 62, intervened personally to address accusations against the two men, the Daily Mail has been told. a save the Children source said that in both cases sir alan personally took control within 48 hours, overriding the charity’s human resources rules.
He also brought in his own lawyers to help with the cases instead of using the charity’s legal advisers.
as a result, formal investigations were abandoned and both men left discreetly.
sir alan has always denied a cover-up of the allegations.
The source said: ‘There were HR procedures that were in
Former Save the Children boss admits text shame Mail, February 21, 2018
place to deal with Brendan and Justin. Lawyers were contacted…Then Alan came in, in both cases within 48 hours, saw the advice of Save the Children’s lawyers, ignored that advice and quickly brought in new lawyers.
‘HR were totally across it and said we have to deal with this but Alan wasn’t happy…They did not follow Save [the Children]’s HR protocol … After Brendan left, the investigation into what he did just stopped.
‘The original lawyers’ letters are in the safe at Save [the Children] and the Commission are going to see them.’
Sir Alan is founder and chairman of PR firm Brunswick. Gordon Brown is godfather to his youngest son, and when David Cameron left No10 he lived temporarily at Sir Alan’s London home.
A 2015 report found Sir Alan’s ‘very close’ relationship with former Save the Children boss Mr Forsyth may have affected how he responded to complaints. Three women employees accused Mr Forsyth of inappropriate behaviour, for which he said he had apologised. He allegedly sent inappropriate texts and commented on what young female staff were wearing. It was claimed if the women did not reply, he would continue to pester them. Allegations were also made against Mr Cox, the charity’s former director of policy. He stepped down after admitting he had ‘made mistakes’.
Sir Alan was chairman of trustees at Save the Children UK when Mr Forsyth and Mr Cox left in 2015. He then went on to chair the board of Save the Children International.
The leaked 2015 report found that Sir Alan was ‘less than supportive’ when harassment claims were made by women working for the charity.
It described how Save the Children’s head of HR alerted Sir Alan to the issues. He said Sir Alan had said: ‘Justin Forsyth is very important to the organisation; people behave very differently when they’re abroad; they would have been tired; they would have needed some mutual support; what were the complainants doing by agreeing to go to his hotel room in the first place.’
The report said the head of HR was ‘frustrated’ by Sir Alan’s response ‘which he feared was a result of Sir Alan Parker and Justin Forsyth being close’.
One complainant was quoted as saying: ‘It’s more about who Alan is, and having Alan and his best mate Justin sort of talking to each other about how best to handle these girls.’
Two months ago Mr Forsyth admitted ‘personal mistakes’ over the claims he sent young women a barrage of text messages. The former aide to Tony Blair, who went on to become deputy executive director at Unicef, said he had engaged in ‘unsuitable and thoughtless conversations’ which he accepts ‘caused offence and hurt’.
He faced three complaints between 2011 and 2015, the year he left the organisation. He later resigned from his job at Unicef.
Mr Forsyth also faced questions over whether he protected Mr Cox, the widower of murdered MP Jo Cox, after he was accused of inappropriate behaviour towards women.
Mr Cox admitting he had ‘made mistakes’ and behaved in a way that caused women ‘hurt and offence’. In 2016 alone, Save the Children investigated more than 200 complaints of misconduct.
Last month protesters from the Women’s Equality Party interrupted a Save the Children board meeting to call for Sir Alan’s resignation.
Alexia Pepper de Caires, a former employee of the charity, read out a statement saying men at Save the Children UK had ‘disempowered women, sexualised their presence in the workforce and minimised their experiences’.
Sir Alan was due to leave in December but ‘felt it right at this moment to bring forward his succession’, the charity said. Announcing his resignation, he wrote: ‘Given the complex mix of challenges the organisation and the sector is facing, it is my view that a change is needed.’
He added: ‘In Save the Children UK we dealt with some unacceptable workplace behaviour, involving harassment, in our head office in Farringdon in 2012 and 2015…These issues are now subject to further review by the Charity Commission.’
Pernille Lopez, on behalf of the Save the Children Association and its international board, said: ‘We would like to thank Alan for his immense contribution to Save the Children over the past ten years.’