Private schools to be assessed by charities watchdog

Education Correspondent

Friday 7 September 2012

SCOTLAND'S charities watchdog has announced plans to investigate some of the country's most elite private schools.

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Andrew Denholm Education Correspondent

The Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR) will assess whether 40 schools, including Fettes in Edinburgh, Edinburgh Academy, Glasgow Academy and Glasgow High School, should retain their charitable status.

The move is the latest in a series of inspections by the OSCR since legislation was introduced by the Scottish Parliament in 2006 to tighten control of charities. Under the new rules, charities must be able to demonstrate they have a charitable aim and benefit the public.

The OSCR has been looking at whether the fees charged by private schools of up to £30,000 a year are unduly restrictive and whether bursary schemes are sufficient.The watchdog has previously made it clear that it is not enough to provide traditional scholarship schemes that give financial support to talented pupils regardless of their financial background. Instead, the OSCR said it wanted to see independent schools spending more of their income on means-tested bursaries reaching families from a range of lower incomes. Being classed as "charities" brings multi-million-pound benefits to the fee-paying schools with 80% discounts on their non-domestic rates.David Robb, the OSCR's chief executive, said the process was aimed at maintaining public confidence in charitable status: "Charities need to be seen to be providing public benefit – that is what the legislation requires the regulator to ensure. "Our reviews of charitable status have been ongoing since 2006 and we have gained considerable experience as Scotland's charity regulator. We believe it's right, as agreed by our board in January of this year, that we now proceed to complete our assessment of the remaining schools in this priority group."Mr Robb said the review would give the schools the chance to "demonstrate the benefit they provide and how they address any restrictions".The Scottish Council of Independent Schools (SCIS) had previously urged the charities regulator to remove private schools from its list of high-risk institutions. The independent sector spoke out after statistics showed schools had been spending millions of pounds on additional bursaries for pupils from poorer backgrounds."Emerging trends in increased financial assistance, increased number of beneficiaries and enhanced non-charged-for benefits provided by the schools constitute grounds for reducing their risk status," a SCIS spokesman said last year.

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Private schools to be assessed by charities watchdog

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