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A last ditch attempt by staff to stop the Children’s Society pulling out of Wales has failed, writes Alex Dobson.

Representatives from the Children’s Society are now due to appear before the Welsh affairs select committee to explain their controversial withdrawal from 13 key advocacy projects across the principality.

At a meeting last week staff from Wales met with trustees from the charity to present plans for a rescue package that would safeguard vital children’s work within Wales, but their recommendations were turned down. The society has however expressed a willingness to explore the possibility of working in Wales until March 2003, subject to financial constraints.

A joint statement from the Children’s Society and the Wales staff group says: "The society was unable to offer the £4 million reserves requested by the staff group, but agreed that in order for the work to continue, further funds would be needed. The society agreed to explore further funding options including the possibility of financial support from a range of bodies, including from the society itself.

"The society and staff group will continue to work collaboratively with an aim to secure the long-term future of services after the society withdraws from Wales."

George Jones of the Wales staff group said: "There were three requests that were put to the Board. First will you change your minds about pulling out, to which the answer was ‘No’. Second we wanted what we considered to be a moral slice of the reserves that would help us to set up a new organisation in Wales and that too was turned down, and the third request was would they support setting up an organisation to carry on the work with children in Wales, and the answer was a very guarded, ‘Yes’."

When chief executive Ian Sparks and Lady Toulson who chairs the board of trustees, appear before the select committee they are likely to be given a bumpy ride by Welsh MPs who are furious at the way the charity has handled its departure from Wales.

Meanwhile, staff in the principality are waiting for the outcome of the select committee and for the conclusions of a special task group set up by the Welsh Assembly, which is due to report later this week.

* The society has announced the name of its new chief executive to replace the retiring Ian Sparks. Bob Reitemeier is currently the charity's director of operations, a post he has held since 1998. Before joining the Children's Society he spent eight years with ActionAid.