The Charity Commission failed to properly handle safeguarding concerns relating to historic child sexual abuse at a charity, the Parliamentary Ombudsman has found.  

Damian Murray, 66, complained that the Commission and the Department for Education (DfE) failed to properly respond to his serious allegations regarding the possible concealment of child sexual abuse by a charity that founded and ran a college. 

It is not the role of the Commission to investigate such incidents itself, but our investigation found the Commission failed to understand or consider all the issues in Damian’s complaint. It did not show that it had looked at all the relevant evidence relating to his complaint, and it did not assess the charity’s failings in accordance with its risk and safeguarding guidance. 

The Ombudsman recommended that the Commission apologises to Damian and provides a financial remedy. The Commission must also take action to stop the same failures being repeated, including reviewing its handling of the case, its risk assessment and communication guidance. 

The Commission does not accept our findings, but it has said it will comply with our recommendations. We are in discussion with the Commission about its compliance.   

Our investigation also found failings with DfE’s decision-making process. DfE complied with our recommendations for service improvements, and we are satisfied with the actions it took to put things right. 

Damian, from Leeds, who previously waived his right to anonymity, said:   

“The Ombudsman has correctly identified the serious injustice and maladministration to which I was subjected by DfE and the Charity Commission when raising my concerns. 

 

“I am very grateful to the Parliamentary Ombudsman for the seriousness, thoroughness, and empathy with which it has dealt with my complaint.  

 

“The continuing refusal by the Commission to do its job properly, to respond constructively to the Ombudsman’s findings, or even to acknowledge the serious, well-evidenced concerns that I put to it, is simply unacceptable.”  

Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman Rebecca Hilsenrath said:  

“A well-handled complaint has the power to ascertain the facts, bring closure and create lasting positive change. In this case, the Charity Commission failed to properly handle Damian’s complaint about serious safeguarding concerns. 

 

“It is important that the Commission acknowledges its mistakes and puts things right. The Commission has provided financial redress, but discussions remain ongoing about other aspects of compliance.

 

“Learning and service improvements are at the heart of our investigations and are what most of our complainants seek.  The Commission must accept accountability and take decisive action on the basis of our recommendations so that others do not undergo the same experiences in the future.” 

Read the full investigation summary. 

The Ombudsman investigated another case last year where the Charity Commission failed to properly handle serious safeguarding concerns relating to sexual exploitation at a charity.  

The Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) took eight years to inform a British ex-pat about a change to his pension that would leave him £3,000 a year worse off.

The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) is urging Government bodies to make sure their communication with the public is always fair, clear, and consistent.

Adrian Furnival, 82, and his wife Sheila, 67, moved to Brittany in 1994. Adrian found out in 2018 via an annual statement from DWP that from 2020 he would no longer receive Adult Dependency Increase (ADI) payments, a supplement given to households when the main earner reached State Pension age, but their partner had not. This meant he would be over £250 a month worse off.

People who lived in the UK had been told about the change to ADI payments eight years earlier in 2010.

PHSO found that the Department failed to properly communicate the changes to Adrian and that DWP should have told him about the changes in April 2010. The Department also failed to respond to his initial queries and complaints in a timely way.

The Ombudsman recommended that DWP apologise and pay Adrian £675 for the injustice he suffered.

The number of those who were living abroad and entitled to ADI is unknown but in May 2019, a year before ADI ended, DWP told Parliament that 10,817 people were still in receipt of ADI. The Ombudsman recommended that DWP should also provide a comparable remedy to anyone who approaches the Department in a similar situation.

Rebecca Hilsenrath, Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman, said:

“Poor communication from Government departments damages trust in public services.

“DWP has a history of failing to communicate pension policy changes clearly and failing to learn from its mistakes. In Adrian’s case, this meant that, without the right information, he lost the opportunity to prepare for his retirement. It also caused him unnecessary financial worry.

“Anyone who believes they have had a similar experience to Adrian should contact DWP. DWP has complied with our recommendations and will provide a comparable remedy to anyone who approaches them with a similar situation.”

Adrian, who was born in Bedford and served in the Army, said:

“It came as a shock to me. They sent the leaflet to us every year, so they could have told us at any point from 2010 onwards.

“The key issue for me is why I wasn’t told that my income would be going down by approximately £70 a week sooner. We only have our pensions as income, so we were worried about what we were going to do to make ends meet. 

“If they had told us at the same time as everyone else, we could have had eight more years to plan for the shortfall. That would have given us enough time to do something, my wife or I could have tried to get a job. By 2018 we had no way of replacing that income.

“This could have been handled much better and I knew that it could well effect other people in the same situation. When I first queried it with DWP, they took nine months to reply and it felt like we just went round and round. Which is why I then raised it with my MP and brought my complaint to the Ombudsman.”

In December, DWP accepted PHSO’s finding of maladministration in how it communicated changes to the State Pension age to women born in the 1950s and apologised. The Department said it will learn lessons and work with the Ombudsman to create an action plan to make sure future changes are communicated well. The Department did not accept our recommendations in full and will not create a compensation scheme for women affected.