The Charity Commission, the independent regulator of charities in England and Wales, has opened a statutory inquiry into Child Survival Fund, registered charity number 1116070.

The charity’s objects include to relieve poverty, distress and suffering amongst children and young persons throughout the world.

The inquiry, which was opened on 9 February 2017, will look at the administration, governance and management of the charity by the trustees, in particular the extent to which the trustees have:

• complied with an action plan issued by the Commission in January 2016, which set out certain steps required to be taken by the trustees to resolve issues of concern about the charity’s management and administration
• acted in the charity’s best interests and acted in accordance with their legal duties
• responsibly managed the charity’s resources and financial affairs, particularly with regard to the charity’s significant debts, fundraising costs and the proportion of fundraising income applied directly for charitable purposes
• acted with reasonable care and skill in respect of its fundraising agreement with a US based direct mailing agency and associated risks to the charity’s property
• adequately managed risks to the charity and protected the charity’s reputation, especially with regards to the conduct and transparency of fundraising activities conducted by the charity or on its behalf

The Commission has a history of regulatory engagement with the charity regarding concerns over high fundraising costs and a significant debt owed to the direct mailing agency. The Commission undertook proactive monitoring of the charity amid further concerns about the charity’s fragile financial position and the trustees’ apparent failure and inability to address ongoing issues within the charity. Further, the trustees have failed to provide reassurance to the Commission with respect to an action plan issued to the charity in January 2016, which was designed to address these concerns.

It is the Commission’s policy, after it has concluded an inquiry, to publish a report detailing what issues the inquiry looked at, what actions were undertaken as part of the inquiry and what the outcomes were. Reports of previous inquiries by the Commission are available on GOV.UK.

The charity’s details can be viewed on the Commission’s online charity search tool.

Ends

PR 24/17

Notes to editors

1. The Charity Commission is the independent regulator of charities in England and Wales. To find out more about our work, see our annual report.
2. Search for charities on our online register.
3. Section 46 of the Charities Act 2011 gives the Commission the power to institute inquiries. The opening of an inquiry gives the Commission access to a range of investigative, protective and remedial legal powers.
4. The Commission’s decision to announce the opening of a statutory inquiry is based on whether it is in the public interest to do so and with consideration of our objective to increase public trust and confidence in charities.

John Swinney made a big speech on schools last week.

The SNP Education Secretary said the “data” told him that “the status quo was not an option”, and then expressed his disappointment that “there is a strong body of opinion that does not accept the need for change and what is perhaps most worrying is that body of opinion is from within Scottish education.”  Most coverage described this as an attack on the “complacent educational establishment”.

In doing so, commentators fell into a double trap.  To oppose Mr Swinney’s proposed changes to schools is not to oppose any change at all.  The overwhelming response to his “Governance review” is that they are the wrong changes.

Secondly, this analysis accepts that the status quo is something John Swinney has stumbled upon.  In fact, today’s status quo in schools is the legacy of ten years of SNP government.

That status quo is declining budgets, 4,000 fewer teachers, 1,000 fewer support staff, a teacher recruitment crisis, and dysfunctional government bodies (Education Scotland and the Scottish Qualifications Authority).  Yes, change is needed alright.  Just not John Swinney’s changes.
For example, the SNP plans to centralise the setting of school budgets, and create unaccountable “regional boards” for a purpose which it cannot explain, except to say it wants to “strengthen the middle”, whatever that means.

In Dunbar, in my constituency, the local primary has over 1,000 pupils, while a few miles away, Stenton school has 19.  The idea that a civil servant with a formula knows enough about such diverse schools and the communities they serve to get their budget right is simply laughable.  That decision has to be taken locally.  What is more, if a head teacher or parent council think the budget is wrong, they can argue their case locally, and they do.  Good luck trying that with a faceless bureaucrat in the Scottish Government’s offices in Victoria Quay.

When Kezia Dugdale raised this at First Minister’s Questions, Nicola Sturgeon was outraged.  After all she is devolving £120m of Pupil Equity funding direct to schools.  That is true.  But the core budget for schools is over £4billion.  Only in the world of the SNP could centralising £4bn and devolving £120m be presented as “all power to the head teachers”.

This is not the only “through the looking glass” aspect of the position into which John Swinney has manoeuvred himself.  He described his Governance review as “…a vision of empowerment and devolution.”  It is full of declarations about teachers and parents “knowing best”. 

Mr Swinney’s problem is that the responses to his review from head teachers, teachers, parents and communities almost all reject his reforms, and tell him that what is needed is more resource, along with reform of Education Scotland and the SQA.  John Swinney’s speech was clear – he intends to ignore them.  They will be empowered, against their better judgement if need be.  The Education Secretary is telling head teachers, teachers, and parents that they do not know best – he does.

We should not be surprised.  When the Scottish Parliament’s education committee gathered evidence from hundreds of teachers that they had lost any faith in Education Scotland and the SQA, Mr Swinney simply rubbished the committee’s work as statistically invalid.  Instead, he said, he would base his views on the teachers he spoke to when he visited schools.  Happily, this “balanced sample” seemed very happy with everything he is doing.  It is presumably only “bad” teachers and parents who have responded to his governance review with malice aforethought, and he intends to ignore them.

John Swinney loves to talk about how much he respects teachers.  As well he might.  They are the only thing keeping our schools going through the SNP’s ten years of incompetence and budget cutting.  If he won’t listen to them his respect is just empty talk.
The status quo for teachers in Scotland is ten years of under-resourced curricular reform, lower salaries than colleagues in other countries, less preparation time, and the largest classes anywhere in the developed world.  Nothing John Swinney is currently proposing will change that status quo, fashioned by him himself over his eight years as finance secretary.

All of this was laid bare in a recent parliamentary debate, where Holyrood defeated the government and passed a motion roundly condemning their handling of education.  Last week’s speech tells us that John Swinney is not just ignoring parents and teachers, but parliament too.
That will of parliament, so sacred when it comes to an independence referendum, would seem of no import with regard to our children’s future.

———

Iain Gray is Scottish Labour's Education spokesperson. This article orginally appeared in the Herald on March 29th 2017 

First Minister Carwyn Jones said:

“Today signals the end of months of speculation and the start of a critical period of negotiation which will shape our future relationship with Europe and the wider world.

“We remain committed to the priorities set out in our white paper, Securing Wales’ Future, which puts full and unfettered access to the Single Market first and foremost.

“Our white paper sets out a sensible negotiating position for the UK as a whole, and has already influenced the UK Government’s approach in important areas including maintaining full access to the Single Market, upholding existing employment rights and the importance of transitional arrangements.

“While we have often been frustrated with the processes by which we’ve arrived at this point today, we must now concentrate on the job in hand. We stand ready to work constructively with the UK Government to secure a deal which protects Welsh businesses, our economy and the future prosperity of Wales.

“If, as negotiations progress, we believe our priorities are not being championed or our representation falls below a level we find acceptable, we will not remain silent. We will not allow Wales to be side-lined – we will be outspoken and our voice will be heard.

“As a leader of a country which voted to leave the EU, we are wholly focused on securing Wales’ future. We will step up to the plate and do all we can to deliver the best possible outcome for Wales.”

A funding round by ‘fem-tech’ business Chiaro has attracted £4.8 million of external investment. This is to support the development of 3 more smart products addressing female health and wellbeing and help it expand into 25 countries.

Joining the round are Octopus Ventures, a leading tech investor and Allbright, a venture capital fund that invests in female entrepreneurs, amongst others. It brings Chiaro’s total capital to £9.6 million.

Innovate UK awarded Chiaro a grant in its start-up phase, as it sought to leverage the latest developments in wearable technology and create a connected pelvic floor exercise tool, Elvie.

Exciting moment for tech for women

Tania Boler, chief executive and co-founder, said:

Women and consumer tech have never been a very exciting space for investors. There’s been an assumption that women aren’t early adopters of tech, which we’re trying to prove isn’t correct.

Now is an exciting moment for tech for women. There’s a big feminist movement and a paradigm shift in technology and health.

Elvie is a kegel exercise tracker for the pelvic floor. Weakened pelvic floor muscles can cause more than half of all women’s bladder, sex or prolapse problems. Women can use their smartphones to find out how to strengthen their muscles and monitor progress.

Within 6 months of the device going on sale Chiaro was making a profit. Last year the company reported direct sales of £800,000. It has recently struck deals with major retailers including John Lewis and Amazon.

Most promising startups

Chiaro is part of Tech City UK’s Upscale programme of 33 most promising startups. It has also received celebrity attention, with its product having featured on Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop website and been included in high-profile gift bags at the Academy Awards.

I am deeply concerned by the continued delay in implementing the 31 December 2016 political agreement in the DRC. Without progress it will be impossible for credible elections to be held this year leading to an historic peaceful transition of power, as is clearly the wish of the Congolese people.

The work of the National Episcopal Conference of Congo (CENCO) to broker an agreement on remaining issues is highly commendable and so it is disappointing that the political parties failed to reach consensus by CENCO’s deadline. EU Foreign Ministers are now actively considering sanctions against anyone blocking a peaceful solution, a move the UK fully supports.

I therefore call on all parties, and in particular President Kabila, to reach agreement as soon as possible. DRC’s present and future is in grave danger; a peaceful transition can only be achieved if all sides show greater flexibility.