Save the Children suspends UK funding bids over abuse scandal

Save the Children is to suspend bidding for UK government funding in the wake of the scandal over alleged sexual abuse and inappropriate behaviour by staff in the charity sector.

The announcement follows the launch of a Charity Commission inquiry into the handling of sexual harassment allegations against two senior Save the Children executives in 2012 and 2015.

Kevin Watkins, the charity’s chief executive, said the reports of the incidents made his “stomach churn” and he was fully committed to implementing the changes needed.

The NGO, which has been one of the largest recipients of Department for International Development (DfID) funding, secured contracts worth £91m from the UK government in 2016 alone, according to last year’s annual report.

DfID funding for another NGO, Oxfam, was suspended earlier this year after it was accused of covering up claims that staff used sex workers while delivering aid to Haiti in 2011.

Watkins said in a statement that the suspension of bids would last until the international development secretary, Penny Mordaunt, was satisfied that the charity was upholding the standards expected by DfID.

“While I greatly regret both the circumstances that have brought us to this juncture and the consequences for children, I fully recognise our responsibility to meet the high standards that you rightly expect,” he said in a letter to Mordaunt.

“I speak for everyone at Save the Children when I say that we are absolutely committed to building back trust in our organisation – from the children and communities that we serve, to our donors and supporters and UK taxpayers.”

Watkins told BBC Radio 4’s World at One programme: “I am heartbroken that we have to scale back our work in areas that we could be, with DfID, driving an agenda that would make a difference to some of the world’s poorest children.”

Save the Children’s international chairman, Sir Alan Parker, quit his role last week amid what he described as the “complex mix of challenges” facing the charity sector.

It emerged earlier this year that Justin Forsyth, the charity’s former chief executive, and Brendan Cox, the former policy director and widower of the MP Jo Cox, had left Save the Children in 2015 after allegations of misconduct.

Staff had been calling for Parker’s resignation since the failings emerged. A 2015 report leaked to the BBC suggested that Parker’s “very close” relationship with Forsyth may have affected how he responded to complaints.

Save the Children’s portfolio of ongoing DfID-funded programmes is not affected by the move, according to the charity, which said it reached 56 million children directly last year. Around seven million were supported through programmes funded by UK aid.