Kids Company paid nearly £40,000 for a glowing report which it used as evidence that it was properly run. Pictured: Founder Camila Batmanghelidjh

Failed charity Kids Company paid nearly £40,000 for a glowing report by the London School of Economics, which it then used as evidence that it was properly run.

Camila Batmanghelidjh, the founder of the scandal-hit charity, has repeatedly pointed at the 2013 study – Kids Company; a diagnosis of the organisations and its interventions – as a ringing endorsement of its operations.

However, questions have now been raised over its rigour, after LSE repeated claims by the charity which have since been discredited, and failed to disclose that Kids Company had funded the study in the first place.

Instead, the 73-page report paints an adoring picture of Miss Batmanghelidjh, describing her as a ‘mother figure and role model’, whose ‘skills and unique qualities’ made her an ‘emotional, highly capable leader’.

Critics of the charity have already claimed that Prime Minister David Cameron was ‘mesmerised’ by Miss Batmanghelidjh, and it would appear that the report’s authors were no different.

Professor Sandra Jovchelovitch, the principal investigator, said in the preface: ‘I was immediately struck by the beauty and profound truth of her simple message: children recover with unconditional and unrelenting love’.

Based solely on interviews Professor Jovchelovitch added that she and her research team had ‘relied on the good will and insights of staff and volunteers at Kids Company, who generously gave us their time’.

However, it now appears that the study may have relied on the charity’s workers a little too heavily.

The LSE’s report states as fact that Kids Company’s ‘services reach 36,000 children, young people and their families’ – a figure the charity has cited since 2011.

However, critics claim it is a wild exaggeration, after it emerged that the number was calculated by counting the parents, siblings and even grandparents and school teachers of every child that Kids Company takes on as a so-called ‘client’.

As the charity collapsed over the last month, MPs and government officials have repeatedly asked how LSE and other institutions failed to uncover the financial chaos which left it without any money. That was before they learned of the fee attached to LSE’s study.

The London School of Economics confirmed yesterday that Kids Company paid £39,537 for the report and a one-day conference. The document bears the charity’ s logo alongside the university’s, but makes no mention of the transaction.

Questions have now been raised over the report's rigour, after LSE failed to disclose that Kids Company had funded the study in the first place. Pictured: The charity's building in Camberwell, south London

Last night, LSE defended the integrity of its report, insisting that university departments were ‘regularly commissioned by charities, businesses or the government to undertake pieces of research’, and that this is ‘standard practice’.

‘With all funding arrangements, academic impartiality and integrity remain of paramount importance. The findings and analysis of this report were based on the evidence and data collected by the researchers at the time,’ a spokesman said.

He added that it was an analysis of Kids Company’s ‘model of intervention and care’ rather than an ‘audit of Kids Company finances or management practices’.

The charity also defended the independence of the research. ‘Their report was entirely unbiased and free from any inference from Kids Company. It accurately captures the unique clinical intellectual model of children’s social care developed by Kids Company from listening to and working with children at risk, often with complex needs, over many years,’ a spokesman said.

Earlier this week, the Mail revealed that two of the children of Kids Company’s vice chairman, Richard Handover, were employed at the charity, to the tune of around £50,000 a year.