8 July 2010

Dear Sir,

Today's articles on the Charity Commission's public benefit work were written before the publication this morning of our latest reports and therefore paint an incomplete and misleading picture, (Private schools forced to offer more free places, A spiteful class war, 08.07.10)

The public benefit requirement was introduced by Parliament through the Charities Act 2006 and applies to all charities.  Whilst based in charity law, the requirement reflects what the public expects of charities; that they exist and operate for the public good.  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.

We have always been very clear that we do not solely take account of bursary support in our public benefit assessments of charitable independent schools and that much depends on the circumstances of each charity.  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.

The Commission looks at all opportunities to benefit and we have provided numerous examples of non-bursary provision in our guidance, for example partnership working with state schools, including academies.

Yours sincerely,

Andrew Hind
Chief Executive
Charity Commission
30 Millbank
London
SW1P 4DU