The National Audit Office today published a critical report into the continued funding of Kids Company. Kirsty Weakley looks at what it tells us about the government’s relationship with the charity.

From reading the NAO’s report it appears that the charity and successive central government departments found themselves trapped in a vicious cycle.

The NAO said it has identified a “consistent pattern of behaviour” when Kids Company approached the end of a funding arrangement whereby it would lobby ministers and issue warning of imminent closure and redundancies via the press.

A government department then provided funding but stipulated that the charity needed to become sustainable, only to find that the charity returned at the end of the grant period making the same claim again.

And so the government coughed up again. And again. And again. Until things came to a head in the summer.