Private schools win battle to stay elitist

London: Rules requiring private schools to give free places to poor pupils are to be torn up, after a crunch court ruling.

In a victory for independent schools, the Charity Commission was ordered to scrap its controversial guidance, which orders schools to offer bursaries or risk losing charitable status.

Judges on the Upper Tribunal, a body which rules on contentious areas of law, gave the Commission three weeks to withdraw its most sweeping guidelines or have them quashed completely.

The ruling comes after a fierce political row over demands that fee-paying schools must provide wider public benefit in order to keep millions in tax breaks.

The public benefit rules were widely seen by independent schools as a crusade by Dame Suzi Leather, the Labour-appointed quangocrat who heads the Charity Commission.

That has pressed private schools to open up their playing fields and sports facilities to local state schools and offer tuition to some local pupils.

But they baulked at being forced to hand out free places in order to remain in business after the Charity Commission said providing bursaries was the most straightforward way of satisfying the rules. School heads claimed that would drive up fees for existing parents and price some families out of independent education altogether.

In October, the Upper Tribunal ruled parts of the Commission's guidance were erroneous.

Vague guidance

The Independent Schools Council had brought a case against the commission arguing its guidance must be quashed because it was too vague and claimed the commission was guilty of micromanaging individual charities.

The commission argued its guidelines were clear and it had only provided supportive assistance to help schools keep charitable status.

Yesterday, the commission was told to withdraw parts of its guidance, specifically those relating to public benefit and fee-charging charities, which includes independent schools.

Crucially, the judges also decided each case depended on its own facts and it was a matter for the trustees of a charitable independent school rather than the Charity Commission or the tribunal to decide how trustees' obligations to provide public benefit should be achieved.

— Daily Mail