Story of Kids Company to Biteback

Biteback is to publish the story of charity Kids Company by its founder Camila Batmanghelidjh.

Iain Dale, m.d. of Biteback, acquired UK & Commonwealth rights to Kids from Caroline Michel at PFD.

Kids Company was a charity started by Batmanghelidjh in 1996 to provide support to deprived children. It went into liquidation in August last year.

Batmanghelidjh will write the book with journalist Tim Rayment, who was sent to investigate Camila for the Sunday Times, but decided instead “that the real public interest lay in hearing her message”.

In this new book, Batmanghelidjh lays out the thinking behind a model of care that “broke the cycle of neglect for thousands of vulnerable children”. She reveals the “true scale of Britain’s failure in children’s services, making public two decades of candid exchanges with prime ministers and senior politicians to explain why the sector has not improved since Victorian times”. She also reveals the “deceits used by the authorities to stop the magnitude of the problem becoming known”.

The publisher added: "Above all this is a book of hope. Drawing on a plethora of moving case histories, Kids presents the science that gives cause for optimism; proof that even the most troubled young lives can be turned around. Looking forward rather than back, the authors show how a new model of support could be cheaper and far more effective than existing provision. Kids Company has gone, and yet it is imperative that the breakthroughs in understanding that came from its work are now shared with the widest audience."

Dale said: "When Kids Company collapsed last summer, much of the charity’s excellent work with vulnerable children was forgotten in a blur of sensationalist headlines. I’m delighted to be publishing Camila and Tim’s book, which reveals the surprising truth. It’s an important story that deserves to be told."

Batmanghelidjh said: "Over two decades thousands of staff, volunteers, clinicians, donors, children and families worked together to create a community in Kids Company that vulnerable children and young people could trust and be strengthened by. So much was learnt through trial and error, research and practice. In writing this book, we can share the learning. This is also a book about the truth that too many people were too scared to hear, and it is dedicated to all the children whose bravery inspired us every day to keep going against the odds. I am grateful to Iain Dale, Caroline Michel and Tim Rayment for their integrity and courage in giving voice to all those maltreated children and young people who were made to disappear."

Rayment said: "People understand instinctively that the collapse of Kids Company obscures a bigger truth. This is an untold story from a silenced voice."

Kids will be published in October 2016 and supported by a major publicity campaign.

All proceeds due to Batmanghelidjh from Kids will be donated to a food bank which is continuing to support the children and families abandoned as a result of Kids Company's closure.