FIRST REPORT
The Welsh Affairs Committee has agreed
to the following Report:
THE CHILDREN'S SOCIETY IN WALES
SUMMARY
The Children's Society is a charity which operates
in England and Wales, providing a range of services for children
and young people in need and seeking to influence Government policy
in that area. Its work with children in Wales is very highly regarded,
as is its co-operation with local government in Wales. The Charity
was founded in 1881 under the auspices of the Church of England
and retains strong links to the Anglican Church in England and
Wales. In October 2001, in response to financial pressures brought
about in part by its failure to meet ambitious fundraising targets,
the Society's Board of Trustees decided to withdraw completely
from Wales, closing 13 projects. The Committee sought written
evidence from the Society about the reasons for the decision and
called representatives to give evidence in person.
The Committee accepts that the Society is facing
financial difficulties, and acknowledges that cuts of some kind
were necessary. However, it concludes that the Society is unable
to offer compelling reasons for the decision to withdraw entirely
from Wales, rather than to implement some other pattern of cuts
(paragraph 16). It regrets the fact that nobody, not even the
Society's own managers in Wales, was consulted before the decision
was taken and that it appears to have been taken hastily, without
the involvement of the Society's own Welsh Advisory Group (paragraphs
22 & 25) and on the basis of inaccurate or incomplete information
(paragraph 23). The Committee recommends that the Children's Society
review its procedures for making information available to Trustees
in order to ensure that they are presented with more accurate
information in the future (paragraph 23).
The Committee commends the National Assembly's swift
response to the situation, which was to establish a Task Force
led by Children in Wales to examine possible options for continuing
the Society's work in Wales. The Committee calls on the UK Government
to monitor the situation closely with a view to offering any assistance
which it might reasonably give (paragraph 32). The Committee supports
the proposal of the National Assembly's Voluntary Sector Partnership
Council for the introduction of a voluntary code of practice which
would enable organisations in the voluntary sector to commit themselves
to consultation with funders, stakeholders and service users before
withdrawing from, or otherwise significantly altering their delivery
of services in, Wales. It calls on the Government to consider
whether adopting the code of practice should be a precondition
of receiving financial support from the Government (paragraph
34).
The Committee notes that some of the Children's Society's
advertising in the months following the decision may inadvertently
have given the impression that its work in Wales would continue
and recommends that the Society take pains to ensure that this
impression is not given in the future (paragraph 36).
The Committee will send a copy of the Report to the
Charity Commission so that it may take a view on whether any of
the Committee's findings warrant further investigation (paragraph
38).
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