Hind raps the Telegraph for its reporting on public benefit and private schools

Governance | Vibeka Mair | 14 Jul 2010

Andrew Hind, chief executive of the Charity Commission, has written to the Daily Telegraph, complaining that its coverage on public benefit and schools is misleading.

The letter comes in the wake of widespread reporting of the Commission’s recent report on public benefit and fee-paying charities, in which two private schools met the regulator’s requirement for public benefit by offering more bursaries.

A day before the report was released, The Telegraph featured an editorial with the title 'Private schools forced to offer more free places, A spiteful class war', in which it criticised the Commission’s "heavy-handed" approach to public schools.

In his letter Hind (pictured) complained that the report was written before the publication of the Commission’s official report and painted “an incomplete and misleading picture”.

“Had your article been entitled 'Charities forced to offer more free places' or your editorial read 'The charities have now been forced to give free places to children from poor homes', I wonder if the tone might have been slightly altered?” said Hind.

Hind also stressed that the Commission did not solely take account of bursary support in its public benefit assessments of charitable independent schools:

“Although fee reductions are an obvious way of making the services of a fee-charging charity more widely accessible, this is certainly not the only way to do this.

"The summary plans published today illustrate this very clearly, demonstrating that we have taken into account the totality of benefits provided, including work with local communities and state schools as well as bursaries. Indeed, neither school plans to increase its fee as part of these changes.”

Directory: Charity Commission
Who's Who: Andrew Hind

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