In the past, independent schools escaped close scrutiny as to their charitable status as it was presumed that their role as educators was of sufficient benefit to the community. However, the current Charity Commission is undergoing a consultation that ends on June 6, on what exactly constitutes a public benefit and schools may find out that simply hiring out playing fields for a fee is not sufficient.

Mr. Johnson reiterated this point in a recent newspaper interview. He said, “They need to do more to earn their charitable status. The original purpose of schools like Dulwich College was to educate the poor. Private schools in general have lost that sense and need to recapture it.

“It’s not enough just to lend their playing fields; it’s about opening up their science labs, lending their teachers to the state sector, sponsoring academies and forming trusts. Schools like Eton could be doing more,” he added.

The Charity Commission has raised concerns that independent schools are too exclusive. It said in March that it would like to see more free places and scholarships being offered to children from poorer backgrounds. This comes at a time when the Commission for Racial Equality has also warned that the present education policy could increase racial segregation in certain communities.

But it is generally agreed across all political parties that creaming off the brightest children into independent schools will only further destabilise the state school system. In fact, the old government-assisted places scheme that aimed to do just that was phenomenally unpopular by the time it was abolished by New Labour in 1997.

Fiona Millar, columnist at the Guardian newspaper believes that independent schools should prove that they are helping to break down the barriers in society. “Public benefit is more likely from offering support to all children, in particular the most challenging and least likely to succeed, maybe through the sort of ‘urban collegiate’ ideas outlined by the London schools commissioner Tim Brighouse,” she wrote last month.

“If they are to exist and earn charitable status, private schools should provide evidence that they contribute to breaking down segregation by class, ethnicity and academic ability. That should be clearly evaluated and set against the financial benefits that accrue from charitable status, including the assets that stem from historic charitable endowments and gifts,” she added.

But Jonathan Shephard, general secretary of the Independent Schools Council believes independent schools more than justify their charitable status. “Yes, there is an enormous subsidy,” he writes in response to Millar’s article. “But it’s the independent sector subsidising the state. Independent Schools Council (ISC) schools save the state more than £2bn a year by educating 500,000 children at no cost to the state. They also pay £200m in irrecoverable VAT. And they give help with fees of nearly £300m. This is in return for about £100m in fiscal benefits from charitable status.”

Shephard also points out, “Twenty-five per cent of children in ISC schools come from postcodes with average or below-average incomes. Hundreds of thousands of our parents are less well off than parents sending children to state schools at no cost. Many can only dream of the holidays enjoyed by parents who have bought their way into the catchment area of a good local state school,” he adds.

Alan Johnson’s ideas have certainly met with a mixed reaction from teachers and governors. But most are in agreement that independent schools need to do more to enhance their local communities. Anthony Seldon, master of famous Wellington College in Berkshire told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that he would be happy to lend out teachers to state schools.

“It’s been a great tragedy for British education over the last hundred years that there has been an apartheid between the state and independent sectors – and this is not helpful for the children, nor the teachers, nor the country at large,” he said.

Others believe that the implication that state schools would benefit from teachers from the private sector is frankly patronising. Novelist John O’ Farrell, who chairs the governors of Lambeth Academy in South London appeared on the same radio programme and said that state school teachers have to employ special skills to teach a more varied community than their private school counterparts.

“We don’t really need private school teachers in the state system,” he said. “What might be useful is the odd highly specialised teacher, teachers of Chinese or something, but that aside I think Alan Johnson needs to pick his words carefully because I think it does sound patronising to the wonderful teachers we have in state schools,” he added.

Mr. Johnson is currently in the race for the deputy leadership of the Labour party and has submitted a number of proposals to the Charity Commission on the subject of how independent schools can improve their services to the community. The Commission has confirmed that it plans to publish general guidance in October on how independent schools will have to pre they bring a “public benefit” if the cost of their fees are beyond the means of those on low incomes.

As Education Today went to press, a total of 72 submissions had been received by the Commission by interested parties; however, a spokesperson said many more were expected just before the deadline date of June 6. Some private schools already appear to be reluctant to increase their involvement with state schools in order to prove their charity credentials.

Tony Little, head of Eton College, picked out by the Education Secretary for particular criticism, told the Financial Times. “Ultimately, private schools have to look after their own pupils and their own parents before they get enmeshed in a vast bureaucratic exercise that will suck in huge amounts of management time.” He did suggest, however, he would be willing to offer support to an academy in science teaching and sport.

Time will tell whether this is deemed enough by the Charity Commission, which explained that in its general guidance to be published in October, it will lay down basic principles followed by “sub sector guidance” for fee paying charities. Private schools and hospitals will be one of the first sub-sector guides to be published.

The report seems certain to send shock waves through the independent schools sector and will undoubtedly result in more administrative headaches for a number of schools. But it will be interesting to see whether the Charity Commission and the government, which may at this time have Alan Johnson as it deputy leader, will actually have any teeth on this issue when it comes to schools that don’t comply.

In its draft guidance, published for consultation, the Commission said: “We might use our regulatory powers to enforce change if the trustees are not cooperating with us.” The Chairwoman of the Commission, Dame Suzi Leather certainly made her position clear in the statement, “All charities should report what they do for public benefit. We think that those which charge high fees where the public benefit may not be obvious should assess and report the value to the benefit they provide alongside the value to the benefits they receive – including of course the tax breaks.”

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