Charity regulator makes small change to guidance for fee-charging educational charities.
The Charity Commission has updated its guidance on ways that trustees of fee-charging educational charities, including charitable independent schools, can ensure they run their charities for the public benefit.
The guidance has always made it clear that sharing facilities with local state schools is one way in which trustees of charitable independent schools can fulfil their public benefit duty by making provision for the poor to benefit. The updated guidance now encourages trustees of charitable schools, as a matter of good practice, to comment on their individual approaches to public benefit in sports, drama, music and other arts in their trustee annual report.
The commission has updated its example trustee annual report for a charitable school to reflect the recommendation in the updated guidance.
The move follows concerns raised in Parliament during debates on the Charities (Protection and Social Investment) Bill that too few sports and arts facilities owned by charitable independent schools are accessible to students in state education.
