Industry News
Public benefit guidance given cautious welcome
Posted on 16th January 2008
The Independent Schools Council (ISC) has given a cautious welcome to the Charity Commission's new public benefit guidance.
Under guidelines published on Wednesday all charities will now have to publicly detail the benefits they bring to society in order to retain their tax breaks.
In the build up to the announcement there had been much speculation about what the new guidelines would mean for independent schools with charitable status, with some prominent figures from the private education sector warning that any major changes could have an adverse impact on smaller schools.
However, ISC chief executive Jonathan Shephard said he was happy with the guidance and, in particular, the fact the commission had taken notice of expert assessments of its draft proposals and removed "many ambiguities".
Mr Shephard continued: "There remain some fuzzy edges, which we hope to see cleared up in the further guidance on fee-charging and educational charities, which will be issued, in draft, for consultation next month."
Under the guidelines there is a proportionate approach to public benefit and the Charity Commission will not expect poorly funded charities to contribute a lot, he added.