Kids Company pressed every funding button – but lost sight of kids it was set up to serve

National Audit Office report offers lesson for everyone providing public services for disadvantaged people – beneficiaries must come first

So far the fall-out from Kids Company’s collapse has mainly focused on the organisation itself. Attention has been concentrated on why it closed its doors so quickly, why a final grant was given by government against the advice of its experts and why trustees seemed so slow to act when questions about its governance were raised.

Now, with the publication of the National Audit Office’s (NAO) inquiry report, an even more worrying picture of the wider ramifications of Kids Company’s demise emerges. Remember, this is an organisation that, according to the NAO report, received £42m of state funding, mostly from the Department for Education and its predecessors. In 2008, Kids Company received 20% of such state funding; 42 other charities shared the rest.

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from Voluntary Sector Network | The Guardian http://ift.tt/1LDzOTa