FakeCharity, FakeStatistics

There was a news item on Radio 4 this morning, saying that 'children's charity' Action For Children had asked a few people whether they thought there was more child neglect than a year ago. A majority replied 'Yes', which AFC took as solid evidence that they need more cash. That three-minute advert on Channel 4 yesterday (which was as dull as ditchwater) must hve cost them a pretty penny, for example.

That's the fakestatistics, here are a few numbers from their 2008 accounts:

Total income (page 48) £209,568,000, of which £189,107,000 is from 'Charitable activities', with the largest income stream being 'Early years and family support' at £85,045,000. The notes don't go into further detail, but what it means is that local councils subcontract some social work to them, as explained in their 'objectives' on page 22:

Working to ensure we recover the true cost of services on our Children's Services contracts with local authorities. This is what we achieved: we significantly improved the viability of our contracted services and achieved a position close to sustainable cost recovery (other than in Scotland and Wales, where national policy caps our ability to recover full costs slightly below the actual cost). This continues to be a challenge as we strive to deliver the some levels of quality across the UK

Before you start feeling too sorry for them, the charity had also built up a nice cushion of £53,126,000 in investments, just to tide them over (page 59).