Description
Keeping Kids Company, formerly Kids Company, was an incorporated and registered charity, founded by Camila Batmanghelidjh in 1996 to provide support to deprived inner city children. From its original "drop-in" centre in south London it expanded over the following two decades to be a prominent children's charity operating 11 centres, mostly within Greater London, but also in Bristol and Liverpool. The charity claimed that from 2011 it was supporting 36,000 children per year, although this figure is disputed. Funding was provided by businesses and through government grants.
In 2015, it was first reported that Kids Company was in significant financial difficulty. A £3 million grant from the government was temporarily withheld until Batmanghelidjh agreed to resign as chief executive. After the grant was made, the government withdrew it and sought to reclaim the amount after alleged breaches of the grant's terms. A police investigation into allegations of sexual abuse at the charity was also announced. On 5 August 2015, the charity ceased operations and announced it would begin the process of placing itself into compulsory liquidation.
On 20 August 2015, a winding-up order against Kids Company was made at the High Court of Justice of England and Wales, on the petition of Kids Company presented on 12 August 2015. On the making of the winding-up order, an official receiver – Matthew Stone – was assigned as the liquidator of the company. In February 2021, after a three-year case, Mrs Justice Falk in the High Court rejected the Official Receiver's assertion that Batmanghelidjh and the other trustees were unfit to be directors of a charity.
