Kids Company is being investigated by Metropolitan Police officers specialising in sexual offences and child abuse, it was announced yesterday.

Kids Company's chief executive and founder, Camila Batmanghelidjh, who is due to step down later this year following government pressure to resign, has said the charity is unaware of any allegations.

A police announcement yesterday said: “The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) has today, Thursday 30 July, commenced an investigation into a number of allegations of crime involving a children's charity.

“The investigation is being led by officers from the Complex Case Team of the Sexual Offences, Exploitation and Child Abuse Command.”

In a statement, Batmanghelidjh said yesterday: “It is with a deep sense of shock and sadness that I write this, having just found out that there are a number of allegations made against Kids Company and that there is a police investigation.”

She continued to say that the charity and its staff take the welfare of children “very seriously”, and that, for 19 years, the charity has “built a community aimed at protecting and generating resilience in some of the most vulnerable”.

She said that people at the charity “rigorously honour” their safeguarding duties, and that if Kids Company had been aware of “any allegations we report them to the police and they are investigated”.

The statement, which appears on the charity’s website, says that in the last 19 years, there have been “no child protection rulings that have found us falling short of safeguarding the people in our care”.

However, she added that the charity forms part of a “large community and there is always the possibility that people within it may engage in inappropriate conduct”.

She went on to say: “If we had been aware of sexual assaults taking place on our premises we would have reported these to the police and the local safeguarding board. So you can understand that I am taken aback by allegations which now present themselves years later about which I knew nothing.”

Batmanghelidjh said that the charity will be cooperating with the police fully. She said: “If these allegations are true, I am filled with horror at the thought that someone may have been harmed in our care and we were not aware of it.”

The charity has been in the media spotlight in the last couple of months after a joint investigation by BBC Newsnight and Buzzfeed found that the government was withholding £3m worth of funding from Kids Company, which would not be released unless Batmanghelidjh stepped down from her role as chief executive.

Letters also emerged from Richard Heaton, permanent secretary to the Cabinet Office and first parliamentary counsel, who advised against the charity receiving a government grant - but was overruled by ministers.

It also emerged that the government had written off almost £600,000 in tax owed by Kids Company.

Following this, Batmanghelidjh said she would step down from the role, to take up one as the charity’s president, once a replacement had been found. She said she is likely to be replaced in October, and that the recruitment process has now begun.

In her statement yesterday, Batmanghelidjh noted that the charity had been at the receiving end of a “systematic set of allegations” for the past eight months, which, she says, have to date “all been unfounded”.

She said: “If it is found that we have fallen short, we will engage in the reparation that is required to honour the trust of those who support us and the extraordinarily courageous children, young people and families who turn to us for care.”

Batmanghelidjh added that that the charity will openly share any information to “bring clarity to these allegations”, but cannot comment further until the police investigation “informs us of the presenting allegations, we cannot comment publicly”.

Speaking to BBC Newsnight last night, policy editor Chris Cook said that the programme and Buzzfeed sought independent expert opinion after hearing "disturbing allegations" about the charity made last week by a former employee of the charity. They were advised to pass it over to the authorities.

The Charity Commission today said that it has been in contact with the charity since early July over concerns "that were unfolding in the public domain relating to the charity’s funding and governance".

A spokeswoman said: "We are aware of the current police investigation. We cannot comment further at this time.”

The police is asking anyone with information or concerns to contact the investigating team on 0208 217 6538, or the NSPCC helpline on 0808 800 5000.