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Public benefit test for schools 'risks class war'

Finance | Vibeka Mair | 13 Oct 2008

Charity Commission chair Dame Suzi Leather has admitted that the issue of public benefit and fee-paying schools could turn into a "class war crusade".

At a cross-party public accounts select committee (PASC) meeting last week, Conservative MP Charles Walker warned the Charity Commission that it would get a lot of pressure from both sides of the political sphere to turn the new public benefit requirement for fee-paying schools into a "class war crusade".

Leather (pictured) admitted that she was aware of this: "We haven’t gone through the last few months with our eyes and ears completely closed," she said.

The Charity Commission faced intensive grilling from the committee on confusion about the new public benefit requirement for fee-paying schools. Labour MP and committee chairman Tony Wright urged the Commission to clarify whether "simply bursaries" would be enough for schools to demonstrate public benefit.

Bursaries could be 'disbenefit'

“Some heads of public schools have said with vigour that bursaries should not meet the public benefit test, believing it to in fact be a disbenefit to wider education as it creams off the best from the state sector,” said Wright. "Have you decided that bursaries are now ok in public benefit terms?"

Leather refused to confirm, saying each case would be assessed individually. However, she said bursaries could be one way of proving the advancement of education under public benefit measures.

Conservative MP David Burrowes mooted further amendments to the Charities Act 2006 to get the law on public benefit and charitable status right.

Test an 'impossible task'

"Parliament has clearly landed the Commission with an impossible task," Burrowes said. "Does the Commission agree and do we need to look at the law again?"

Leather said the Commission would be better placed to answer the question in three years time, when all charities had reported on public benefit in their accounts.

"We will see what this way of framing the law can deliver," she explained. "The road we are going down may be slow and vague, but the impact will be a greater public understanding of charities and a greater level of public benefit delivered by charities."

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