Vulnerable children were harmed by charity’s “systemic” failures, inquiry finds

Serious mismanagement and systemic failures of governance at the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) harmed some children in its care and exposed others to undue risk, an inquiry by the charity regulator has concluded.1

The report by the Charity Commission for England and Wales declared, “The commission considers elements of the failings identified by the inquiry, and the associated reviews, as constituting misconduct and collectively, as serious mismanagement in the administration of the charity.”

The inquiry could be characterised as “lifting the lid on a metaphorical can of worms,” the regulator said. Much of its report focuses on failings at the RNIB Pears Centre in Coventry, a school and children’s …