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Help for Heroes CEO fights back against Newsnight criticism 3

Fundraising | Tania Mason | 10 Aug 2012

Help for Heroes founder Bryn Parry has rejected the criticism of his charity reported on last night’s Newsnight programme, insisting the five-year-old charity does the best it can for wounded servicemen and women.

Newsnight and the Bureau of Investigative Journalism examined the way the UK treats its wounded returned soldiers and veterans, and alleged that despite the millions of pounds raised for ‘our boys’, they are still not getting the care they need.

The investigators said that military charities across the UK  raise over £700m each year and spend just under £500m on charitable purposes. They also collectively boast reserves of more than £1bn.

Regarding Help for Heroes specifically, former servicemen interviewed by the programme alleged that the charity was too close to the Ministry of Defence and had ended up spending most of its donations on capital construction projects (such as the restoration of Tedworth House recovery centre, pictured) at the behest of the government.

Former Royal Marine Ben McBean, who lost a leg and an arm on duty and is a patron of Help for Heroes, told the programme: “Rather than spending £100m on limbs for every single guy who has been injured, the MoD has been able to get all these Gucci buildings out of it.”

Critics also said the charity focuses its support on still-serving soldiers, and once personnel are discharged from the services, treatment is much harder to access.

Help for Heroes: Report was unbalanced

But Help for Heroes chief executive Bryn Parry told civilsociety.co.uk today that the programme did not tell the full story, and was "unbalanced and misleading".

As well as funding the building or renovation of the recovery centres, the charity spends millions of pounds funding other charities that provide direct services to individuals, and it also funds experts in the ‘support hubs’ in each recovery centre.

He also said that any donor who bothered to read any of the charity’s communications materials, such as its website or leaflets, would be well aware of what donations are spent on.

Parry pointed out that Newsnight didn't interview any of the hundreds, if not thousands, of people who have benefited from the charity's work - it just focused on three ex-servicemen who had issues with the charity.  However, programme-maker Angus Stickler told civilsociety.co.uk that the journalists spoke to at least 30 recently-discharged or still-serving servicepeople and their families.

Parry rejected the claims that Help for Heroes does the MoD’s bidding. The charity operates with a “non-political, non-critical” ethos and is certainly not allied to any political party, he said.

However, even though it won’t publicly criticise the government, “I still do my fair share of talking behind the scenes to the people in power,” he added.

“We are a very fleet-footed and very entrepreneurial charity and we have to work with this great supertanker that is the MoD – these things don’t happen quickly."

He said he had been working for years to convince the Ministry that the recovery centres must be made more accessible to veterans as well as serving personnel, and that some sort of accreditation pass would soon be issued for two of the centres sited on military bases.

Help for Heroes is 'not just a job - it's personal'

Parry was at pains to insist that H4H takes soundings from its beneficiaries and the wider Forces community, not just the MoD.

“The average age of our staff here is 29, and around 60 per cent of them have close relatives that are serving or been injured. I’m an ex-serviceman, my son fought on two tours, he’s been to five of his friends’ funerals, we’ve all lost people – we get this. This is really personal, it’s not just a job for people here. We are completely integrated into this world and because of this we are absolutely imbued with the desire to get this right and I am confident that we are.

“I am immensely proud of what we’re doing and I know that what we are doing is right. It’s part of a co-ordinated and very well-thought-out plan to deliver the best support to the wounded injured and sick of this country that has ever happened.

“This is the most significant move forward in British history and it needs to be appraised as that. This is not somebody being taken for a ride by the government, quite the contrary.”

Directory: Help for Heroes
Who's Who: Bryn Parry