St Anselm School, one of three charities that has failed the Charity Commission’s initial public benefit assessments, expects “a game of ping pong” with the Commission over the next nine months.

Today, Highfield Priory School, St Anselm’s School Trust and Penylan House Jewish Retirement and Nursing Home will be responding to the Charity Commission’s public benefit report from July which said the charities did not provide enough opportunity for those who couldn’t afford their fees and gave them 12 months to come up with an action plan.

Simon Northcott, head master at St Anselm's School, told Charity News Alert that he had told the Commission today that he looked forward to working with it over the next nine months to hammer out a plan. But he added that past conversations with the Commission on the matter hadn’t been fruitful.

“After the assessment findings I went to see the Commission in Taunton but I didn’t get a straight answer. I talked to Nick Mott, head of the public benefit review and Louise Drew, a senior public benefit officer who came and inspected us. I asked what did we have to do and they talked in riddles.

“I expect the process will be one of consultation with the Commission. It will be like a game of ping pong. We will propose something and they will say yes or no and go back and forth. It will be a guessing game for us which will take up a lot of our time.”

Northcott also said he was not surprised with Charity Commission chair Dame Suzi Leather’s announcement last week that charities could have up to five years to satisfy public benefit requirements: “It wasn’t news to us. We have been told we’d get a fair amount of time to come up with a plan.”

Penlyan House Jewish Retirement and Nursing Home said it had told the Commission its board was considering a response. Highfield Priory School was finalising its response as Charity News Alert went out.