Save the Children boss steps down

A City PR grandee quit last night as Save the Children International chairman weeks after it was embroiled in a sexual harassment scandal. Sir Alan Parker, founder of Brunswick PR, had been under pressure to resign for his handling of harassment claims involving former charity executives.

ONE of the City’s leading PR grandees quit last night as chairman of Save the Children International, weeks after the charity was embroiled in a sexual harassment scandal.

Sir Alan Parker, the founder of Brunswick PR which advises some of the UK’S biggest companies, had been under pressure to quit for his handling of harassment claims involving James Forsyth and Brendan Cox, former charity executives.

The charity admitted in February that an internal investigation found Mr Forsyth had made “unsuitable and thoughtless” comments to the women in 2011 and 2015.

However, Mr Forsyth was allowed to leave in 2016 and take a job with Unicef, the UN agency, supported by a reference from Save the Children. Unicef said no mention was made of the investigation.

The investigations were overseen by Sir Alan, who at the time was Save the Children’s UK chairman and sat on the charity’s performance and remuneration committee.

Save the Children said in a statement last night that Sir Alan’s 10 years with the charity was due to expire in December and “he felt it right at this moment to bring forward his succession”. In a letter to his colleagues, Sir Alan wrote: “Given the complex mix of challenges the organisation and the sector is facing, it is my view that a change is needed.”

It comes after cases of sexual abuse and harassment of vulnerable people and staff reported to the regulator by charities trebled in the wake of the Oxfam scandal.

The Charity Commission said yesterday it had opened 440 new cases after receiving 523 reports in February and March. The figure is half the number received in the 12 months to the end of March 2017, and treble the 176 received in the same two-month period last year.

Thirty-three charities funded by the Government, including Oxfam and Save the Children, submitted 219 incident reports. Of those, 127 new cases related to historical allegations across 24 charities.

Oxfam was plunged into crisis in February when it emerged that some workers in Haiti had engaged in sex parties with prostitutes in the aftermath of the 2010 earthquake.

It reverberated through the entire aid sector, including Save The Children, which the regulator last week announced was also subject to a statutory inquiry. The Charity Commission said new reports of “serious safeguarding incidents” covered incidents from a failure to follow procedures to physical or sexual abuse, and were filed either by charities or by whistle-blowers. It said: “The reports cover a wide spectrum and some relate to risks of harm that a charity has identified, rather than to incidents of harm – for example, internal audits showing that safeguarding procedures were not followed in certain situations.”

Its safeguarding task force, set up following the Oxfam revelations, is more than half way through reviewing historical cases since April 1 2014 and it said it had found just one of more than 2,000 reports involved alleged criminal behaviour that had not been reported to authorities at the time.

The commission, which did not name the charity involved, said the matter had been reported to the police.