I wonder if anyone else who watched  Camila’s Kids Company: The Inside Story last night on BBC1 was left feeling very uneasy about how charities are run and scrutinised? How could such a large charity meet such a disastrous end? Who was ultimately responsible?

I was mesmerised at times, alarmed and saddened too. Camila herself is a unique character who clearly is passionate in what she does and has a big heart. She could win over donors and staff. Certainly the families and children that were filmed loved her. The sudden closure of the charity was devastating for many people. But it raises questions on many fronts; why were the government putting such huge sums of money into an organisation that appeared to be creating a culture of dependency? Why were they not seeking to address the root causes of the problems? What information was being fed to the trustees? Were they really so mis-informed or disengaged to not see where it was heading?

Having being a charity director for the best part of 15 years and worked with two very engaged trustee boards it is hard to see how the trustees of Kids Company failed so miserably in their responsibilities. And ultimately it is the trustees where the buck stops. Camila or any charity chief executive is delegated the day to day running of the charity but the directors who retain the responsibility are the trustees.

They should be the critical friend that requests the information, can analyse and scrutinise it and act accordingly. They should have, and I am sure they did have, a reserves policy in place that sets out what the reserves are held for and how much should be held, what the minimum would be before it triggers remedial actions that will stabilise things.

I think it is important to reassure our funders and families that at Rett UK we have a very engaged trustee board. They meet quarterly and receive reports from myself as CEO on all aspects of our work. There is a separate financial report that goes to the treasurer first for scrutiny before it goes before the full board at the trustee meetings. We have a reserve policy which requires us to maintain as a minimum, an amount equivalent to three months worth of our annual expenditure budget. If we reach our reserve minimum we convene an emergency financial sub committee meeting where we discuss and agree actions that need to be taken should the reserves fall below the minimum. This could be doing an emergency appeal, cutting services and staff hours or other costs, or a combination of these things. Sitting back and not doing anything whilst the situation worsens is not an option.

I would encourage anyone who has any concerns or  interest in  how Rett UK manages it’s finances to get in touch. Our accounts are published on our web site and also on the charity commission website but we want our stakeholders to know that we operate in a transparent way and are happy to be scrutinised for how we manage the money that so many people have worked so hard to raise for us.

This is your charity and we answer to you at the end of the day.

Becky Jenner CEO