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Complaints against Save the Children UK soared by 78 per cent in a year, thanks largely to the fallout from its rejection of a £750,000 donation.
According to its annual report and accounts, published today, the charity’s income rose by £54m – from £240.4m in 2021 to £294.4m in 2022.
Donations for families caught up in the Ukraine war accounted for £33m of the increase, while funding from the United Nations was up by £10m, largely for work in Ethiopia and Yemen.
Income from individuals and communities rose by £5m but regular donations fell by £900,000 as investment in fundraising was reduced after the Covid-19 pandemic.
The charity, which has 844 staff and 3,689 volunteers, posted expenditure of £286m in 2022, compared to £236m in 2021. Shop trading income grew from £7m to £9m as customers returned after Covid.
There were 465 complaints against Save the Children UK in 2022 – up from 269 in 2021.
Its annual report says: “The increase in complaints is primarily for two reasons. First, the recommencement of face-to-face fundraising activities.
“Second, the decision to decline a gift from Neptune Energy, a fossil fuel company.”
In March 2022, the charity found itself the subject of some criticism when it rejected a £750,000 donation from Neptune on the grounds that it would breach the charity’s recently-adopted policies on accepting money linked to fossil fuels.
Neptune Energy made the donation instead to the International Committee of the Red Cross and the International Rescue Committee. It was used to address the humanitarian situation in Ukraine.
The charity today made it clear that its stance would not change. The annual report said: “Save the Children UK will continue to take a principled stand on important issues affecting children, which may generate complaints when the issues are complex and controversial.”
The accounts show that seven members of staff earned over £110,000 in 2022, including chief executive Gwen Hines, whose pay remained at £143,000 year-on-year.
Save the Children UK said, in 2022, it supported 48.8 million children and 38.3 million adults and responded to 107 emergencies in 66 countries.
In a joint introduction to the report, Hines and Dr Tsitsi Chawatama-Kwambana, the chair, said overlapping crises in 2022 had tested the charity’s teams as never before.
They said: “Just as the world began to emerge from the disruption caused by Covid-19, soaring food and fuel prices threw millions of families into poverty and hunger.
“Here in the UK, 30 per cent of children are now growing up in poverty, with their parents unable to afford basics like food, heating and clothing.
“Extreme weather linked to the climate crisis is becoming far more common and those least responsible for carbon emissions suffer most – from families facing famine in East Africa after the worst drought in 40 years to those in Pakistan where one-third of the country was left under water by unprecedented floods.”
In 2022, the charity spent £76m on emergencies, £56m on education and £44m on health.
Mean pay for men was 4.9 per cent higher than for women – down from 7.6 per cent the year before. The ethnicity pay gap was 3.8 per cent.
The report says four safeguarding investigations were carried out and two volunteers were dismissed for sexual harassment. Action was taken against another volunteer for aggressive behaviour but an allegation of misconduct by a member of staff was found to be unsubstantiated.