Schools fight was right, says charities ‘guardian’

By Chris Marshall
Published on Friday 18 November 2011 13:00

SCOTLAND’S charity regulator has defended its decision to spend three years investigating four leading private schools, claiming the move has “significantly” widened access to the institutions.

The Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR) yesterday confirmed that Hutchesons’ Grammar in Glasgow, Merchiston Castle in Edinburgh, Lomond School in Helensburgh, Argyll and Bute, and St Leonards in St Andrews will all retain their charitable status.

It came after one school source accused the investigation of being a “shambles” which had been “botched” and was “unnecessary”.

However, OSCR’s chairman, the Very Reverend Dr Graham Forbes, said the regulator’s intervention had led to the schools “significantly” widening access to meet requirements.

Dr Forbes said: “In our role as Scotland’s guardian of charitable status, we have closely scrutinised the submissions made to us by the four schools and maintained a consistent and on- going dialogue over the past three years.

“Over that period, each has been required to move from a position where access to the benefit they provided was unduly restricted by the fees they charged, to the one today where significant steps have been taken in order to meet the charity test.”

He added: “The schools have enhanced financial support for lower income families and made their facilities more widely available – in one example, from fewer than 3 per cent of pupils receiving financial support to nearly 10 per cent”.

Dr Forbes said the four schools had increased the amount of money made available for help with the cost of fees, as well as putting measures in place to allow partnerships with state schools for the sharing of resources.

“Having considered the evidence provided to us, and in the context of the charity test specified in the legislation, OSCR’s board has decided that all four schools have taken sufficient steps so that access to the benefit they provide is no longer unduly restricted.,” he said.

“We will, of course, continue to monitor the schools closely to ensure that the actions they have taken to widen access are maintained.

“Failure to meet the charity test would have seen OSCR take steps to remove the schools from the Scottish Charity Register”. The regulator’s investigation was launched in 2008 amid claims the schools did not “provide public benefit”, charged high fees and did not offer enough support to those who could not afford to pay.

However, one school source, who did not want to be named, said the exercise had been “a real waste of time,” adding that it had not led to the schools doing anything differently.

About one in 20 children in Scotland is educated by independent schools, although the figure in Edinburgh is closer to one in four children.

Dr Michael Carslaw, head- master of St Leonards in St Andrews, said his school had made “great strides” in recent years in widening access.

“I’m delighted that OSCR recognises the public benefit that St Leonards provides, not only in its provision of top- quality education but also in the active part it plays in the local community and in making its facilities and expertise available to a range of external groups.

“St Leonards provides public benefit in a number of ways, ranging from providing placements for teaching students and enabling pupils from other schools to receive high-quality musical tuition at St Leonards, to contributing to the work of the Scottish Schools Education Research Centre.

Dr Carslaw added: “St Leonards is proud of the holistic, inspiring education which it offers its students, and it is my intention that as many children as possible should benefit from having the opportunity to study at the school, regardless of background.

“St Leonards was founded for the charitable purpose of the advancement of education, and it has always been my intention that the school should remain as a charity as we continue to strive to meet this ultimate goal.”

John Edward, the director of the Scottish Council of Independent Schools (SCIS), said: “When the schools were given directions in 2008 on meeting the test, SCIS said that it was confident that they would be able to retain their charitable status, and that has proved to be the case.

“The four schools, along with those that have already been tested, make a significant contribution, not only to education in Scotland, but to their wider communities.

“SCIS has worked with member schools to broaden understanding of the charity test and to help them demonstrate their public benefit”.

According to SCIS figures , the average cost of sending a child to a private school in Scotland is £11,700 a year.

About £35 million has been given away by schools across Scotland this year in bursaries, it said.

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