Edinburgh's Latest Charity Scandal

Charity linked to dodgy land deal suddenly makes staff redundant

When I wrote to Paul Lawrence, Chief Executive of Edinburgh Council, at the beginning of this month I explicitly stated that when the next Edinburgh Council funded charity scandal occurred he would not be able to say he wasn’t warned. I did not expect that scandal to come so soon. Or so close to home. In the letter I highlighted the Council’s refusal to provide transparency or accountability in regards funded groups in the city. Residents had asked for an audit of all funded groups in the Old Town area and an independent evaluation of those groups. As I said at the time, the Council did not only reject this reasonable request, they reacted with intense hostility to it. A response which confirmed for working class citizens the Council hierarchy’s complicity in a funding-led model that does not work for working class people. It is a model characterised by incompetence and bad practice (and worse). Like Edinburgh Council itself.

Over the last few days the Old Town has been a buzz with rumours of another charity scandal. The Council and their funded proxies have went to great efforts to cover it up and mislead people about the severity of the charity’s internal problems and the hugely negative social consequences of the charity’s (mis)management and board failure. The charity in question is Canongate Youth. After speaking to young people and their families who use the service and professionals very close to the situation, here is what we know. And what Edinburgh Council don’t want you to know.

Canongate Youth have made several members of staff redundant. This has been done suddenly and it has been stressed to me it is ‘not voluntary’. The people being made redundant include key staff members. Some with over ten, and even twenty, years service. Out of a staff team of nine, six experienced members of staff are being made redundant. Three members of staff, none with over three years experience, are being retained. This is terrible for the workers being made redundant and for the local community as it will have a seriously detrimental impact on service delivery.

To compound matters Canongate Youth are currently advertising for sessional workers. The adverts suggest two things. Firstly, the sessional workers will be doing basically the same job as those made redundant. So experienced staff are being made redundant and replaced with sessional workers on much worse terms and conditions. Secondly, it seems likely these job descriptions were done via AI. So we have to ask, who is making these decisions? Who is in charge of this fiasco?

Advertised this week.

Canongate Youth are currently being led by a part-time interim manager (the manager is on maternity leave). In fact, this is the replacement interim manager as the last one left after a short period. Perhaps seeing the writing on the wall with the running of the organisation? This is possible because over the last few days there has been no shortage of people, both service users, staff and professionals in partner organisations, who have raised concerns with me about the running of the organisation.

So where are the board and what is their responsibility in all this? The answer seems to be missing in action. I have not found one person with knowledge of the situation who views the board as effective or even competent. They have been variously described to me as ‘disinterested’, ‘spineless’ and worse. But the board have legal responsibilities here. So what consequences will follow? Who is accountable for this organisation joining the long list of state funded charities which are run into the ground and fail the people they are funded to help?

We must remember Edinburgh Council moved Canongate Youth into Dumbiedykes community centre after the Council’s dodgy land deal at South Bridge Resource Centre. This deal resulted in the local area losing a busy and much loved community centre and all the services that flowed from it. While the Fringe Society (another charity, obviously) gained a building and surrounding land worth tens of millions, for £1 on a 100 years lease. Canongate Youth are scheduled to return to Infirmary Street once the Fringe Society’s new (state funded) headquarters opens. As Canongate Youth’s current landlord and one of their funders, what oversight and evaluation has been put in place by Edinburgh Council? Or are they hoping just to move the problem along. Like they move our public buildings along. From public spaces to private spaces. Are these state funded, mismanaged, failing charities just public problems that become private problems?

And, where are the trade unions? They are currently saying this is all terrible and has been handled abysmally by the charity, but it is not illegal. Is that it? Why are they not highlighting this situation? Why did they not highlight the dodgy land deal that saw Canongate Youth moved into Dumbiedykes community centre in the first place? It had hugely detrimental impact, not only on local services, but also on their members. So why the silence? If they continue to turn a blind eye to the closure of our social infrastructure and the blatant scandal of workers being made redundant by charities to be immediately replaced by sessional workers, they will have no members left.

Many professionals in community work and local residents have their own explanations of the root cause of the Canongate Youth crisis. Personally, I think whether it is corruption or incompetence is irrelevant. It just once again highlights the structural failings of the poverty industry. This is a particular crisis at a particular organisation but we should not forget it is the funding-led model which is failing everyone. It does not work for workers or working class communities.

Canongate Youth has been a part of the Old Town community for decades. It was formally Canongate Youth Project before the last reorganisation and has been much loved. Residents are shocked and disgusted that they are treating their workers in this manner. Canongate Youth do not receive all their funding from Edinburgh Council (far from it), so other funders have questions to answer here to. What contact did funders have with the board and management team? Were funders aware this crisis was pending? What evaluations have been undertaken with the organisation to ensure they were using their funding as intended? Are they happy to continue to fund failure? What steps were taken to make sure the organisation was being competently managed? Because it clearly wasn’t.

For many years I have been arguing for an audit and independent evaluation of state funded charities. Starting with those funded in working class areas. Too many times I have encountered first hand how corrupt and incompetent many of them are. The poverty industry is a job creation scheme for talentless middle class people. Missionaries paying their mortgages on the backs of other people’s poverty. As we have shown many times, there is an alternative. Led by people not funding. Focusing on Solidarity Not Charity. There is a reason Edinburgh Council and the Scottish Government are so resistant to transparency and accountability in charity land. Because they know, and we know, that the mismanagement at Canongate Youth is not the exception but the rule.

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