Working with the State Sector - your answer to the public benefit test?

The Charity Commission's latest draft public benefit guidance emphasises the need for charitable schools to be imaginative in how they demonstrate public benefit. They suggest a non-exhaustive list of suitable activities and suggest that schools "pick and mix" from this menu or come up with other ways of contributing to their local communities.

For many charitable schools, providing bursaries will feature large in their public benefit CV. However, this will not always be popular with your parents who may resent subsidising the fees of other children or indeed with state schools who may fear a "brain drain" to the independent sector.

But there are other ways of widening access to your educational services, know-how and experience to children from poorer backgrounds whose parents can't afford your fees through collaboration with education institutions in the state sector.

Both the Charity Commission and the DCSF are keen to push independent schools in this direction. New models have been introduced to encourage collaboration between state schools themselves and with other education institutions and there is an active policy to persuade independent schools to both work with and, where their business models are failing, to join the state sector.

There are different levels of involvement to choose from, which will no doubt give you different degrees of credit towards an acceptable level of public benefit.

Sponsoring an Academy

Labour's flagship academy programme was launched in 2000. Academies are new schools which are intended to replace low performing schools and promote new opportunities for disadvantaged pupils. The main differences between academies and maintained schools are that academies are:

• funded directly by the DCSF rather than their local authority (no fees are paid by parents);
• intended to cater for all abilities but are allowed to set their own admissions arrangements (subject to the DCSF's School Admissions Code) and select up to 10% of their pupils on aptitude;
• vested within a charitable company limited by guarantee which is registered with the Charity Commission; and are
• governed by a Board of Governors, the majority of whom are appointed by the lead sponsor.

Through the appointments it can make to the Board of Governors, the lead sponsor is expected to take a strong lead in the governance of an academy, taking key decisions on strategic direction, recruitment and setting the curriculum which should have an emphasis on a particular specialism such as foreign languages or business and enterprise.

However, although academies are often described as "independent", they do not have anywhere near the same degree of independence as independent schools. They are directly accountable to the DCSF through their funding agreement and Memorandum and Articles of Association which are meant to closely follow DCSF model documents.

In order to meet their revised target of 400 academies by 2010, the DCSF has extended the invitation to become a sponsor of an academy to other education institutions, whilst waiving the requirement to pay the £2 million sponsorship fee expected of commercial sponsors.

The DCSF recognise that independent schools have much to give to the academy programme in terms of their strong leadership, governance, shared facilities and activities and expertise in delivering world class educational services.

Therefore, since last summer, the Schools Minister, Lord Adonis, and the Schools Commissioner, Sir Bruce Liddington, have invested much time and effort in trying to persuade independent schools to become involved in the academies programme either as lead sponsors or as co-sponsors providing educational expertise whilst looking to other sponsors to take the lead.

Signing up to the academies programme as a lead or co-sponsor is a big commitment for Governors and the senior management team, but the rewards can be worthwhile in terms of raising the profile of your school, adding significantly to your public benefit CV and contributing to the success of the local community in line with the original aims of the founders of your school charity and your current charitable objects.

Schools which have already signed up to the academies programme as lead sponsors include Wellington College and Dulwich College. According to DCSF figures more than 20 other independent schools are committed to supporting academies, including Woodard Schools which is sponsoring three academies in West Sussex in partnership with West Sussex County Council.

Beyond the academies programme, there are further ways in which you might wish to consider working with the state sector.

Partnering a Trust School

Trust schools are another new model of state school which has recently been developed to enable local authority schools to enter into formal partnering arrangements with other education institutions and commercial organisations.

The model involves the formation of an independent charitable trust which holds legal title to the school's land, but unlike an academy, the trust does not directly govern the school. Instead the trust has input into the strategic direction of the school and appoints a majority or minority of Governors onto the school's governing body. The trust partners typically include universities, further education colleges, local charities, significant local businesses and other organisations (including in one case, the Rugby Football Union), who are able to contribute to the school's specialist area.

As with the academies programme, the involvement of independent schools would be welcomed as you have desirable educational expertise. There would also be the opportunity for your school to benefit from the working relationship with the other trust partners and raise your profile in the local community. Your contribution would also, of course, count towards your public benefit profile.

Sharing resource

Sharing your facilities with local state schools is a lesser commitment to the state sector but still counts towards your public benefit profile provided their use of the facilities is free or subsided. However, be warned that sharing facilities with adults in the community (such as the local rugby club) may not count if your charitable objects specify the education of children.

You might also consider offering your teachers to local state school to help them cover certain specialist subjects or conversely open some classes or lectures to their pupils. Senior schools might also encourage sixth formers to spend a few hours a week as teaching assistants at a local primary school.

Such forms of collaboration may operate on an ad hoc basis or alternatively the relationship with the relevant secondary or primary school could be formalised in a trust school arrangement, but any activities which give children whose parents cannot afford your fees access to your school or expertise all count towards demonstrating public benefit.

Written by Barney Northover - Partner
0117 314 5395
bnorthover@vwl.co.uk