Hundreds of children harmed by UK charities

Hundreds of children have been harmed by British charities, figures revealed last night.

reports of serious incidents involving adults and children at charities soared to 2,114 in the seven months since the Oxfam sexual misconduct scandal – ten every day.

The Charity Commission said this included 583 cases of children having been harmed, some sexually.

And, shockingly, the watchdog said it believed there was still ‘significant and systemic’ underreporting of serious incidents.

These included sexual abuse, bulcharities, lying, physical attacks and being involved in a car crash.

The interim report of the commission’s ‘safeguarding taskforce’, published last night, provides the first indication of the full extent of abuse committed by Britain’s charitable sector.

The taskforce was set up following the revelation in February that Oxfam staff had used prostitutes in the aftermath of a humanitarian disaster in Haiti.

It soon emerged that dozens of cases of sexual misconduct had been reported by the charity – with some victims being young volunteers in Oxfam shops.

The scandal also led to resignations at save the Children.

The Charity Commission report – which looked at all charities in the uK – found that those which dole out foreign aid or help in humanitarian catastrophes are much The Mail, February 12, 2018 more likely than others to report ‘safeguarding incidents’. The 2,114 cases reported between February and september this year is compared to 1,580 throughout the whole year of 2017/18 and 1,203 the year before.

The commission took a detailed look at 1,228 safeguarding reports received between February and May 2018.

It found that 29 per cent of the cases were from overseas aid or famine relief charities, compared with just 12 per cent from disability charities, 12 per cent from religious 12 per cent from education charities and 11 per cent from charities dealing with younger people.

The majority of reports related to incidents of or concerns about potential harm to individuals, including but not limited to sexual abuse or harassment.

And in cases where an individual was identified as having allegedly been harmed, 47.5 per cent are related to a child, and 32 per cent to an adult. In the rest, the age of the individual could not be identified.

The report said: ‘The reports submitted covered a wide spectrum of incidents. However, our analysis does suggest that the majority of reports related to incidents of or concerns about potential harm having come to individuals. ‘These covered a range of types of incident, and were not limited to alleged sexual abuse or harassment.

‘Incidents reported included, for example, an allegation of bullying against a staff member, a road accident resulting in serious harm to a child and a service user physically attacking a volunteer.

‘Only 56 serious incidents involved no individual identified as having allegedly been harmed or placed at risk of harm. For example, one report saw a charity failing to conduct disclosure and Barring service checks; no actual harm occurred as a result.’

sarah Atkinson, policy director at the commission, said she was concerned about under-reporting.

Only 1.5 per cent of registered charities have submitted any kind of serious incident report since 2014, and only 0.9 per cent have reported a safeguarding incident since 2014.