Kids Company, the youth charity founded by the flamboyant campaigner Camila Batmanghelidjh, could face an inquiry from the charity watchdog amid concerns over how millions of pounds of public money have been spent.
Are we talking about the charity having simply splurged the money by giving it to the teenagers sa “pocket money” or are we considering other diversions?
I’m not entirely against giving money with no strings attached to inner-city teenagers with hopelessly inept parents; I’ve donated to GiveDirectly, which gives money with no more strings to literally randomly selected rural Kenyans and carefully tracks what happens.
The question is whether Kid’s Company has been sufficiently carefully tracking what happens; I am not entirely confident that there’s an interesting paper full of significant P-values just waiting for the press.
This is why the State should not fund “charities”. Because it isn’t charity.
If private individuals want to give their money to some organisation that’s their business. The problem is the State giving them our money.
Ms. Batmanturneroverdrive is a classic example of how the “third sector” has become the same sort of problem the Trades Unions were in the 1970s and needs a similar slapping.
Kids Company isn’t a charity. It’s a way of directing taxpayers’ money in a non-transparent way. Most people are unaware that there are so many ‘charities’ receiving money from the government.
‘When I come to power’ ( there is a chance that this will not happen ) I will stop all state money to ‘charities’ and I will cut taxes proportionately, or more.
Let us also not forget that Ms. Batmanandrobin is also closely associated with Common Purpose, after all, you can’t undermine civil society and the family directly from central or local government, better to give the money to a fake charity like Kids Company and have them do it.
I assume that, in common with most of the “Third Sector” these days, Kids(‘? If not, why not?) Company paid people, some of them quite a lot. If they were giving cash away to ensure the numbers of people “helped” stayed high, this was to ensure that the Gov’t funding that, amongst other things, paid those salaries kept coming in.
On second thoughts, let’s stop assuming and go to the accounts.
Wages and salaries:
2013 £11,820,733
2012 £9,365,531
However, that doesn’t include the people dong what I would have thought is the main effort:
Youth workers, therapists, practice teachers and special project workers
2013 £1,689,550
2012 £1,668,930
Supervision consultants
2013 £572,534
2012 £622,514
Wages and salaries grew by £2.5m between 2012 and 2013. If only British industry could match that sort of growth.
As Mr Buffet so wisely observed, there’s never just one cockroach in a kitchen.
The state buys services from charities. Is it cheaper for the state to provide the services?
Is the state better able to provide such services? Social workers such brilliant staff and so cheap?
Do these services have any actual merit?
Begging the question. Who says the services need to be provided at all? In any case, it’s NALFOG.
And also, Beyond Any Legitimate Remit Of Government…?
(For Libertarians of a Tolkienesque persuasion).
Dear Mr Worstall
Some further and better particulars:
£ staff ave £ %change period
2008 5,859,600 177 33,105
2009 7,945,500 231 34,396 3.9% 08/09
2012 12,677,400 362 35,020 1.8% 09/12
2013 15,380,800 495 31,072 -11.3% 12/13
NB 133 staff were added in 2013. According to my sums, they are slumming it on £20,326 each, assuming the other 362 didn’t get a pay rise.
Average salaries in April 2013 were £26,884 – £25,480 in the private sector and £29,848 in the public sector – so the 362 employed in 2012 were doing very nicely even compared with the bloated salaries of the public sector. http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2013/dec/12/uk-median-weekly-pay-is-517-but-who-earns-that
The highest paid individual over the same period had a salary in the £10k band starting:
2008 below £60,000
2009 60,000
%change period
2012 80,000 33.3% 09/12
2013 90,000 12.5% 12/13
Approximately 50.0% increase over 4 years from 2009 to 2013 to a near 6 figure salary. Not bad for a recession.
I wonder who that person is?
DP
Original accounts data sourced via:
http://apps.charitycommission.gov.uk/Showcharity/RegisterOfCharities/DocumentList.aspx?RegisteredCharityNumber=1068298&SubsidiaryNumber=0&DocType=AccountList