The Independent Schools Council is a politically independent, not-for-profit organisation representing 1,270 independent schools educating more than 500,000 children. It exists to promote choice, diversity and excellence in education, developing talent at all levels of ability and from all backgrounds.
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Keeping up the good work
Written by Carl SwiftOn 11th July ISC submitted its response to the Charity Commission’s latest consultation on their public benefit guidance. To those not involved in charity law, it must seem as though the public benefit debate is little more than a constant stream of consultations and responses. That’s not entirely inaccurate. The recent changes to charity law have been under discussion since 2002, and it will probably take another two or three years until we can properly understand their consequences.
Meanwhile, charities have been getting on with the day to day job of being charities. For us, that includes more that 1,050 charitable independent schools. It has been interesting to see how our members, from the smallest preparatory schools through to the well-established boarding schools, have responded to the heightened interest in their activities.
The headlines of “private schools must offer scholarships and bursaries under new charity rules” were probably inevitable, even if it misses the point that the sector has been offering such scholarships and bursaries for decades. The latest figures show that 25% of pupils receive financial help from their school.
Given the vastly different operating circumstances of independent schools, it will never be possible to reduce the debate down to the level of producing school league tables. Just as you wouldn’t lump Oxfam together with a local famine charity, it is pointless to assess what a rural preparatory school does against the activities of a large boarding school.
In all events, scholarships and bursaries form only one small part of the mosaic of charitable activities of independent schools, the central one being the education of children. This has always been charitable, and continues to be under the new law. Spreading the good work done in this area is one of the welcome opportunities arising from the legal changes.
This entry was posted on Thursday, July 31st, 2008 at 1:02 pm by Carl Swift and is filed under Public Affairs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
