Save the Children, the global charity mired in allegations that it failed to investigate sexual abuse and inappropriate behaviour by staff, is to be formally investigated by the Charity Commission.

In a statement announcing a statutory inquiry, the commission said it had been prompted by “concerns about the charity’s handling, reporting and response to serious allegations of misconduct and harassment against senior staff members in 2012 and 2015”.

The commission describes a statutory inquiry as its “most serious form of engagement” with a charity.



The news, announced on Tuesday night, will be another blow for the charity two months after it emerged that both Justin Forsyth, its former chief executive, and Brendan Cox, the former policy director and widower of the MP Jo Cox, left the charity in 2015 following allegations of misconduct. The two men knew each other from their years working for Gordon Brown and the Labour party.

After he left Save the Children, Forsyth went on to a senior role at Unicef. He resigned in February after the reports of inappropriate behaviour emerged. Cox also resigned from the charities More in Common and the Jo Cox Foundation, set up in the aftermath of his wife’s murder.

The commission, which itself has been criticised for failing to follow up allegations involving the charities it polices, has been working with Save the Children since the facts about Forsyth and Cox emerged in the wake of the scandal involving Oxfam workers in Haiti.

Save the Children is already reviewing its workplace culture and the implementation of recommendations made by a previous review.

But the Charity Commission said its recent work with it, and new information from other sources that has recently come into the regulator’s possession, meant that the commission wanted to make further inquiries.

It says it is concerned about how the 2015 allegations were reported to the commission, and how other complaints were handled and reviewed. It also questions “the charity’s decision-making since February 2018 on its public position regarding these allegations”.

In wording that suggests that new witnesses may have come forward, the statement says the investigation will look at the frankness of the charity’s disclosure to the commission of “serious incidents relating to staffing matters”.

However, the investigation is only into the management of the charity itself, not its charitable work.

It will take place in private, hearing evidence from staff, past and present and any other witnesses, and examining documentation. It will be conducted by the commission’s investigations and enforcement unit, headed by Michelle Russell.

But charity law is intended to ensure that charities serve their beneficiaries, and although the report will be published, the commission has no power of sanction. A spokesman emphasised that the decision to open a statutory investigation did not mean it had established any evidence of wrongdoing. It carried out more than 100 such inquiries last year.

In February, Save the Children’s current chief executive, Kevin Watkins, announced a “root and branch review” of the charity’s organisational culture, including measures to preserve staff safety and “any behavioural challenges among senior leadership”.

The charity said the review would commence by the end of this week and that it would report its findings in June. The final report will be “published, shared with the Charity Commission and made available to government and every single member of staff”.

In evidence to a House of Commons committee at the time, Watkins said Save the Children dealt with 193 child protection and 35 sexual harassment cases involving allegations against its staff around the world last year.

He told the international development select committee that the misconduct cases in 120 countries led to 30 dismissals.

A Save the Children spokesman said: “We apologise for any pain these matters have caused and sincerely hope that the complainants feel able to help us with the review in the coming weeks.

“This is so that we can better support our skilled and highly valued staff as they help change the lives of millions of children around the world every day.”

As the scandal threatened the vital work of numerous charities, the heads of 22 aid organisations took the unprecedented step of apologising for the sector’s failure to tackle sexual abuse. They vowed to toughen safeguards against misconduct.

The letter, signed by the heads of ActionAid UK, Christian Aid, Cafod, Care International UK, as well as Oxfam, Save the Children and others, said: “We are truly sorry.”

The scandal has been blamed for last month’s Sport Relief event raising a third less than expected on the night.