Children's charity faced bullying claims

Unicef UK is meeting with England and Wales’s Charity Commission following an independent report into bullying claims.

Last week the charity published a summary of the report after a number of the organisation’s senior managers accused former chair Douglas Alexander of bullying.  

Last year Sacha Deshmukh quit just five months into his role as chief executive and levelling bullying claims  against Alexander alongside a number of other senior staff.

Alexander resigned after the claims were made.

However the report dismissed claims against the former chair.

The commission opened its own case into the charity following the departures of Deshmukh, Alexander and Caroline Underwood, one of the charity’s vice-chairs, within the space of 48 hours at the end of September. 

A spokesperson for the regulator tsaid: “We are examining the findings of the report, and will be discussing them with the charity later this month. 

“In the meantime, our case remains underway.”

A Unicef spokesperson said: “As promised at the beginning of the review, we have provided the report to the Charity Commission for regulatory purposes.”