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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The Financial Times publishes a response from ISC

8 July 2008

The Financial Times has published a letter from Matthew Burgess, Acting Chief Executive at the Independent Schools Council in response to their 'Tribunal opens class-actions.'

ISC's Letter in the Financial Times - published 8th July 2008

Letter to the Financial Times:

It is not the job of schools to clarify charity law
Published: July 8 2008 03:00 | Last updated: July 8 2008 03:00

From Mr Matthew Burgess.

Sir, You report ("Tribunal opens class-actions to schools", July 7) that Alison McKenna, the first president of the Charity Tribunal, provides welcome reassurance to independent schools that they can band together to fight the Charity Commission in class action-style claims. At issue is the Charity Commission's guidance on fee-charging which, unfortunately, places insufficient weight on the fact that providing full-time education is an expensive endeavour. Charitable independent schools are not-for-profit organisations reliant on recovering their costs from fee-paying parents. To stereotype them as exclusive clubs and demand free places and shared facilities as pre-conditions to charitable status is to miss the point. Schools have bills to pay like the rest of us. In fact, independent schools already assist pupils and their parents to the tune of £350m each year.

No one, schools included, welcomes an opportunity to waste precious resources to correct dubious interpretations of the law to prove what they already know. More than 1,000 Independent Schools Council schools have been meeting a "public benefit" test since long before it became a fashionable media topic. It is not the job of schools to clarify charity law through the courts - the Charity Commission, as regulator of charities, has a responsibility to get the law right and issue guidance consistent with it.

What independent schools will welcome is a recognition from the Charity Commission that meeting the educational needs of half a million children is, and has always been, a charitable pursuit.

Matthew Burgess,
Acting Chief Executive,
Independent Schools Council,
London WC2H 7HH, UK