Probe launches into children’s charity over ‘serious safeguarding concerns’

The Charity Commission has launched a statutory inquiry into an international children’s charity “over serious safeguarding concerns”.

The probe follows the charity CISV International submitting a serious incident report earlier this year relating to its safeguarding.

“The report raised several serious concerns about the charity’s safeguarding policies and procedures, and its inability to enforce compliance by member associations,” said the regulator.

“Due to the nature of these concerns, the Commission has escalated its engagement to a statutory inquiry.”

Its investigation will look at whether trustees have “adequate oversight” of the charity.

Whether the charity has “systems in place to identify, assess and manage risks to beneficiaries” will also be looked at, as will whether there has been any misconduct or mismanagement by trustees.

Interim manager

In addition, Emma Moody of Womble Bond Dickenson has been appointed as interim manager at the charity during the investigation.

She will be responsible for safeguarding matters at the charity, after the regulator told trustees that they are not permitted “to make decisions or take actions relating to safeguarding”.

The regulator has told trustees that they must “cooperate fully” with Moody and her team.

Safety and welfare ‘our greatest priority’

In a statement CISV International stresses that when trustees became aware of safeguarding concerns, these were reported to the regulator “in a timely fashion”.

The charity has pledged to work with Moody and her team to help enforce safeguarding policies and procedures across its 62 national associations across the world.

“The safety and welfare of our participants is our greatest priority and this is why we will be working with Emma to assess whether imminent programmes can proceed while we build organisational safeguarding resilience in our governance and ways of working,” said the charity.

Its secretary general Tanya Perez Echeverria, Secretary General, CISV International added: “We are confident that, through this collaboration, we will not only address current challenges but emerge as a stronger, more consistent organisation, with safeguarding embedded more clearly across all 62 countries.

“At the same time, we are also very sorry to the families we serve for any uncertainty and disruption that this process may cause to our programmes over the coming months.”