Save The Children misled public while failing to deal with sexual harassment allegations against top bosses, report reveals

Save the Children UK let down women who complained and the public through serious failures including a cover-up in how it handled sexual harassment claims against senior staff, according to a watchdog’s damning report.

The Charity Commission found “serious weaknesses” in the charity’s workplace culture following a probe into its response to allegations of misconduct and harassment against staff between 2012 and 2015.

Former Save the Children UK chief executive Justin Forsyth faced three complaints by female staff of misconduct, and Brendan Cox, husband of the murdered Labour MP Jo Cox, was publicly accused of sexually assaulting a woman.

The charity said it had “accepted in full” the findings, and apologised to the women affected.

Save the Children UK (SCFUK) has faced accusations for several years that it failed to properly investigate claims of sexual harassment and inappropriate behaviour by Mr Forsyth, 54, and Mr Cox, 41.

The commission highlights a wide range of failings, including the charity not identifying its chief executive as the subject of harassment complaints when it made a serious incident report to the regulator in 2015.

The watchdog says this amounted to the omission of material facts, and to “mismanagement in the administration of the charity”.

It also said one of the charity’s public statements, in February 2018, was “not wholly accurate”, and described its approach to reports in the media as “unduly defensive”.

These allegations, and the way in which the charity responded, had a “corrosive impact on its internal culture”, the watchdog says.

Trustees were “poorly served” by not receiving a copy of the full findings of an external report on corporate culture later that year, the commission found.

The report said there were 13 complaints of general bullying and five complaints categorised as sexual harassment between 2016 and June 2018.

But since October 2018, the charity has made significant progress in implementing changes, the commission added.

Helen Stephenson, chief executive of the commission, said charities should be led by those who acted as models for the highest standards and who were held to account when they fell short.

She said: “This responsibility is especially pronounced in large, household-name charities: their leaders are powerful and highly respected. The impact of failures in leadership in such charities can also have implications for public trust and confidence beyond the charity itself.

“So they must use that power responsibly, and in a way that reflects legitimate expectations of charity.

“Save the Children UK let complainants and the public down. It must work hard now to rebuild its reputation.”

The allegations against Mr Forsyth and Mr Cox were made between 2012 and 2015, and came to public attention in 2018.

In May that year it also emerged the charity had failed to inform Unicef that Mr Forsyth, who became its chief executive, had earlier been investigated over alleged sexual misconduct.

The charity temporarily suspended bids for future cash from taxpayers in the light of the scandal, as did Oxfam, which was accused of covering up claims that staff used prostitutes while delivering aid to disaster-stricken Haiti in 2011.

In 2015, Mr Forsyth apologised unreservedly to the three women, and when the allegations resurfaced in February 2018, he quit his role as Unicef deputy executive director.

Mr Cox, who was Save the Children’s chief strategist in 2015, admitted that he made “mistakes” and behaved in a way that caused some women “hurt and offence” in his time there.

He resigned from the charity in September 2015, amid the allegations of inappropriate behaviour towards women, but at the time denied that was the reason he quit.

The commission said the charity recognised the seriousness of the complaints and it had found no evidence of deliberate attempts to brush these under the carpet.

The charity instigated two external reviews into culture and morale, and has since taken steps to respond to the findings.

Kevin Watkins, who took over as chief executive of SCFUK in 2016, having previously served on the board, said: “I unreservedly apologise to the women affected by the behaviour of these two senior executives.

“The harm they suffered was compounded by a failure to respond appropriately to complaints and then by our defensive handling of media enquiries about the cases.”

He said staff had a right to expect the highest standards of support and protection. “I’m determined to work with them to build an organisational culture that reflects our values,” he added.

The charity said it had since strengthened reporting and whistleblowing policies that allow staff to raise concerns anonymously and had committed itself to independently investigating any future allegations against executives or trustees.

The Daily Mail reported that a leaked memo from Mr Watkins said that many staff were still unhappy with the way they were treated, particularly those from minorities.

Baroness Stowell of Beeston, chairwoman of the commission, added: “This is not only about treating complainants with the seriousness and respect they deserve, it is also about demonstrating that no one gets a pass because they are doing important work or are motivated by the desire to help some of the most vulnerable people around the world.”

Additional reporting by PA