Child sex abuse claims among cases newly reported to charity watchdog

Allegations of sexual abuse of children and rape of volunteers abroad are among the 80 serious safeguarding incidents reported to the Charity Commission by aid organisations since the Oxfam scandal broke, it has emerged.

Penny Mordaunt, the international development secretary, said 26 charities had come forward to report recent and historical cases, covering the “full spectrum” of incidents where people had been harmed or were at risk of harm.

The Charity Commission said the incidents ranged from very serious allegations of abuse, including sexual abuse of volunteers, beneficiaries and children, to reports of safeguarding procedures not being followed.

Some aid charities had come forward with allegations that it had not been previously aware of, said the commission, which refused to name the charities involved. Seven aid groups had reported incidents that had taken place over the last financial year, it said.

The commission said reporting of serious incidents across all charities had doubled since early February, after allegations of sexual misconduct by Oxfam workers following the 2010 earthquake in Haiti. The commission, which normally receives reports of 50 serious incidents a week across all UK charities, said it had seen that number rise to 100, with the increase relating specifically to safeguarding issues.

“The sector needs to recognise it has a responsibility here and the weight it has given in the past is not good enough,” said Mordaunt, speaking at a safeguarding meeting of charity heads convened after the Oxfam revelations.

Mordaunt announced “tough and exacting” standards that all aid organisations would have to meet if they were to apply for funding from the Department for International Development (DfID).

It also emerged that one in four – or 37 of the 179 British charities receiving aid from DfID – had failed to provide the government with sufficient detail on their safeguarding policies, organisational culture or handling of allegations and incidents. Mordaunt said DfID was seeking details from those organisations and all 179 charities had already responded to requests for information, with many supplying details of reporting and allegations.

However, Mordaunt said she saw “little evidence” of robust reporting across the sector. “Across the returns, we saw important examples of good practice, but overall, there was too little evidence in the areas of robust risk management, comprehensive reporting, responsibility being taken at the highest level for safeguarding, and of beneficiaries always being put first.”

DfID’s own internal review, published on Monday afternoon, revealed 14 cases of sexual misconduct by staff, five of them from last year, which have already been investigated, it said. In addition, DfID is currently examining a number of newly reported cases. The Cabinet Office is overseeing its review.

The majority of the cases already investigated, which stretch back as far as 1995, relate to sexual harassment of one staff member by another, both in the UK and abroad.

In a separate development on Monday, the international development committee announced an inquiry into sexual exploitation and sexual abuse in the aid sector.

The new safeguarding standards announced by DfID include an assessment of codes of conduct, how organisations respond and handle incidents and whether their risk management systems put beneficiaries first.

“Organisations should not bid for new funding unless they are prepared to meet these tough new standards,” Mordaunt said. “We will not approve funds to them unless they pass our new standards. We will also start to apply these new standards to organisations we have ongoing work with.”

The department said it expected charities to sign up to a new vetting system, to agree protection for whistleblowers and victims of exploitation, and to allow an external body to scrutinise safeguarding.

In a speech to the safeguarding summit, Lady Tina Stowell told charity heads that aid charities had abused their “trusted status” by failing to put the welfare of the “blameless ahead of their corporate reputation”.

“In some cases, your own staff and volunteers were taken advantage of by those in positions of trust and power,” she said.

She added that the Charity Commission was committed to working with DfID to identify practical solutions to stop sexual exploitation and abuse within charities, and to rebuild trust.