DON’T BELIEVE THE HYPE


Rosie Chapman, Executive Director for Policy and Effectiveness at the Charity Commission, dispels some myths about the future for independent schools

They say it is generally more enjoyable to write a bad review than a good one, and this principle has been vividly demonstrated by much of the reporting on the public benefit requirement for all charities recently emphasised by the new Charities Act.

Tabloids and broadsheets columnists alike have rushed to the conclusion that applying this requirement to independent schools will result in their demise as charities.

Reports of the death of independent education have been greatly exaggerated but many parents reading them have, not unnaturally, become extremely worried. Many have written to the Commission with their concerns, so I’m pleased to have the opportunity here to dispel some of the myths and explain what the public benefit requirement actually means.

Firstly, it doesn’t just apply to charitable schools, but to each of the 190,000 registered charities set up in England and Wales. All charities have to show that their aims are for the public benefit before they can be recognised as such – but there used to be three exceptions.

Charities set up to advance education, religion or to relieve poverty were presumed to meet the public benefit requirement unless there was evidence to the contrary.

The Charities Act 2006 removed that presumption creating a level playing field for all charities. The Commission is charged with ensuring all charities meet this requirement against some key principles derived from charity law.

Last year’s consultation into these general principles of public benefit received an unprecedented number of responses – many from schools. We spent a considerable amount of time analysing them to inform revisions to the general public benefit guidance we published at the start of this year.

The general guidance applies to all charities, but we ran further consultations, which closed this July, on draft supplementary guidance for charities advancing religion or education, relieving poverty and for those that charge fees. Watch our website at www.charitycommission.gov.uk for developments on these topics.

The general guidance for all charities identifies two key principles of public benefit and, under each some important factors need to be taken into account.

The first is that a charity’s aims must provide an identifiable benefit, or benefits that are directly related to the charity’s aims. If a charity has a number of aims it must be able to demonstrate that each are for the public benefit.

The second is that these benefits must be to the public, or a sufficient section of it. Restrictions on who benefits must not be unreasonable – so a school to only educate local children with red hair would be a non-starter for charitable status.

Statements of the obvious, many may think, but it is in the unpicking of these principles that the potential for misrepresentation can creep in.

Important factors for fee-charging schools when considering who benefits are that benefits must not be unreasonably restricted based on ability to pay any fees charged, and that people in poverty must not be excluded from the opportunity to benefit. This is not about a school lowering fees to the point that more ‘middle income’ families can afford to send their children there. It is about looking at the impact of the fees on who can benefit and considering material ways for people who can’t afford those fees to benefit in a way that’s related to the school’s aims.

An obvious answer might be to provide bursaries or subsidised places, but it is by no means the only option and it may just not be an option for many schools. Resources are finite. For every Eton or Harrow with large endowments and investments there are hundreds of small, often struggling, independent schools which are just about managing to make ends meet and are loathe to put up their fees further.

But there are lots of other things schools can consider which do not involve bursaries – partnership working with state schools, providing summer schools for local children, providing weekly ‘open lessons’ or the use of pools and grounds for other local schools are just a few.

In reality, few independent schools exist in isolation; many of the best are a fundamental part of the communities in which they are located. What the public benefit requirement might entail for some is more a shift in thinking than a major overhaul of activities. It is about making explicit the benefit these charities bring to advance the education of children in their wider communities.

Many schools already do more than enough to meet the requirement; for others it may be an opportunity to look at ways in which they can do more. So some schools may well go on fundraising drives to provide more bursaries, others may approach potential partners in the state-maintained sector to ask them about their priorities and many may review their timetables to offer free slots for their facilities. There is no one-size-fits-all approach, but a whole range of options available for schools to consider, develop and deliver. Given this freedom, simply driving up fees for existing pupils in order to provide one more bursary a year implies both a paucity of imagination and a poor understanding of the choices available.

Charitable independent education in this country has a long history – most independent schools were set up as charities to provide a high standard of education for those who could not otherwise afford it. The history of these schools and of charity is inextricably linked, and schools have benefited from their charitable status since their inception.

So, despite what some of the more lurid headlines have claimed, it is in nobody’s interest if centres of excellence with so much to offer cannot justify their charitable status.

The public benefit requirement is not a means by which the Charity Commission will be used to remove the charitable status of independent schools. It is about the integrity of all charities and we are committed to working with them to help them tell the story of the very real benefits they provide.