Charity scandal as chief of Save The Children resigns
A CHILDREN’S charity was rocked last night after a senior executive at Save The Children resigned over allegations of ‘inappropriate behaviour’.
Chief strategist Brendan Cox denied claims against him but left in September. The charity’s £160,000-a-year chief executive Justin Forsyth has now quit for unconnected reasons.
Both were senior advisers to former Prime Minister Gordon Brown. Mr Cox’s wife, Jo, is a Labour MP and former aide to Mr Brown’s wife Sarah. Mrs Cox also runs the Labour Women’s Network where she is ‘equalities and discrimination’ adviser. Mr Cox, Save The Children’s director of policy and advocacy, left in September after complaints against him by women members of staff.
A source said Mr Cox denied any wrongdoing but agreed to leave his post. The source denied Mr Forsyth had quit due to the dispute involving Mr Cox – but said it had ‘hurt him’.
The charity investigated claims that Mr Forsyth failed to act firmly against Mr Cox but found no evidence to support the charge, the source added. An insider said: ‘Some people were unhappy there was no proper internal investigation. Brendan packed his bags and left suddenly.’
One individual who has worked with Save The Children said: ‘Several of the women complained about inappropriate behaviour by Brendan. When the charity did nothing about it they threatened to make a huge fuss. Shortly afterwards it was announced that Brendan was leaving. Then we heard Justin was going as well.’
Mr Forsyth said he was leaving after discussions with charity chairman Sir Alan Parker, adding: ‘I hope to take a short breather before the next step of my career.’
SCANDAL-HIT Kids Company spent tens of thousands of pounds sending staff and clients to a £240-an-hour Harley Street hypnotherapist.
Trevor Silvester, a former police officer and a martial arts enthusiast, has no Government-recognised qualifications, prompting MPs to question the charity’s duty of care.
Silvester was appointed by Kids Company founder Camila Batmanghelidjh in 2011, and continued to work with the charity until it closed in July, with 600 job losses, amid claims of financial chaos and sexual abuse.
The ‘cognitive hypnotherapy’ methods he deployed have been described as ‘weird’ by one former client.
The source, who wishes to remain anonymous, said: ‘Trevor’s techniques included something called tapping.
‘He would ask me to think of a bad memory and then tap parts of my body such as my forehead as I did so. It was meant to “interrupt” the bad memory.’
Silvester treated young people over 18 suffering the effects of drug addiction and sex abuse, as well as several members of staff, whose treatment was also funded by the charity.
Former Children’s Minister Tim Loughton said: ‘This raises serious questions about whether damaged young people should have been referred to therapists with proper qualifications rather than to a hypnotherapist on Batmanghelidjh’s list of practitioners.’
Silvester removed all mention of Kids Company from his website after The Mail on Sunday contacted him.
Last week the National Audit Office confirmed the charity was given £46million of public money between 2002 and 2015 despite repeated warnings from civil servants about the way it was run.
Batmanghelidjh is facing a new crisis after misleading Parliament at least three times when quizzed by the Public Administration Committee.
She told them Kids Company ‘did not receive one pence of local authority funding’. But the National Audit Office found it received £2million;
She said: ‘I do not personally diagnose’ any clients. But correspondence seen by this newspaper confirms she diagnosed at least one;
She said Kids Company had been ‘advised’ by the Charity Commission not to return a £200,000 donation to a 78-year-old widow who wanted it back after becoming unhappy with the charity’s conduct. But the watchdog can find no record of such
advice.