Thirty-six separate investigations into Kids Company are being undertaken by police and children’s services, according to written evidence submitted to the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee.
David Quirke-Thornton, strategic director for children’s services in the London Borough of Southwark, where the bulk of Kids Company’s work was carried out, has sent written evidence to the Pacac inquiry into the collapse of Kids Company.
He said: “I cannot disclose confidential details of the safeguarding and child protection investigations being undertaken by police and children’s services.
“However, I can advise the committee that there are 36 investigations relating to Kids Company.”
He was also highly critical of the charity's leadership.
He said: “The ethics of practice within Kids Company appears to me to have been compromised by a cult of personality; a wilful blindness to the consequences and impact of their model on children, young people and their families; and a lack of acceptance by the leadership of the organisation of their accessorial liability.”
Quirke-Thornton visited the charity's offices a number of times to receive details of its clients after it collapsed and he said that he asked for all details. He added that he had received 1,699 cases and that these were individuals, not families. He said no client files had been refused.
“I found no evidence to support the claims by Kids Company that they were working with 36,000 children and young people of whom they said 15,933 were ‘high needs/high risk’ clients," he wrote. "The number of cases handed over to local government suggests that they were working with considerably fewer clients than they repeatedly stated,” he said.
He also criticised the “surrogate-family” model used by the charity.
“A model of ‘surrogate family’ for children and young people living with their families runs the risk of confusing children and young people, disempowering parents and inconsistency of approach,” he said.
‘Regulatory blind spot’
MPs have previously expressed surprise that the charity was not inspected.
Quirke-Thornton said that he thought it would be inappropriate for there to be an inspection framework for all charities working with young people. But that: “Kids Company was directly providing education and therapy to children and young people.
“It is my professional view that organisations providing such services directly to children and young people should be regulated and inspected. Kids Company operated in a regulatory blind spot.”
