Charities (Protection and Social Investment) Bill [HL]

Debate between Lord Lexden and Baroness Pitkeathley

Monday 6th July 2015 Grand Committee

[Baroness Pitkeathley]

My Lords, I must take issue with the statement from the noble Lord, Lord Wallace of Saltaire, that the teaching in public schools is always better than that in state schools. I might well take issue with that but I certainly do not take issue with the fact that they have much better facilities, and that is what this is really all about.

We do not need to rehearse yet again the long-standing and tortuous arguments about what constitutes public benefit. In my intervention last week about funding the Charity Commission I talked about the quid pro quo that charities would expect in return for contributing to the funding of their regulator. Here we focus on another quid pro quo: in addition to the huge advantage that charitable status confers, independent schools are encouraged to further engage with local communities and make their facilities available for sports and arts purposes. Noble Lords have acknowledged that there is a lot of this about. There is some very good practice and it relates not only to the last Charities Bill. I remember that when I chaired the New Opportunities Fund, which did a great deal of work putting lottery money into schools, there were some excellent examples of co-operation between public and state schools. As we have heard, though, it is very patchy. Too many of the sharing facilities and projects that go on are dependent on the history of relationships between that school and its local community. Even more concerning is that they are sometimes dependent on relationships between individuals, usually teachers. This is not satisfactory.

Facilities and coaching are important, as we have heard, so far as sport, arts and music are concerned, and they are disproportionately available in the public school sector. Only this morning, we heard that the Olympic legacy has not been realised so far as participation is concerned, and too many independent schools think it sufficient to say that facilities are available to local communities whenever their own students do not need them or they are not in use. When one headmaster was asked when the facilities were available, he said, “Any evening after 9 pm or any bank holiday, but funnily enough no one seems to want them then”. Quite.

I very much support these amendments. The only anxiety I have is one that we have raised many times before in this Bill—the issue of giving the Charity Commission more responsibility without increasing its resources. This is quite a heavy policing function that would be placed on it, and that will need to be taken into consideration, but I support the amendment.

[Lord Lexden (Con)]

My Lords, I declare my interest as a former general secretary of the Independent Schools Council and as the current president of the Independent Schools Association and of the Council for Independent Education. As I recite these names, it perhaps gives an illustration of the diversity that exists in the independent sector, which, viewed from the outside, is often depicted as a rather monolithic affair determined to keep on its own side of a Berlin Wall. Nothing could be further from the truth, as this debate so far has indicated.

I am very glad indeed to hear the acknowledgements of the widespread support that is given by the Independent Schools Council to the growth of partnership activity. The results are summarised in a publication called the ISC Annual Census 2015. A great deal of detailed material is going to be made available in September on a website Schools Together, which will give a great wealth of case studies and examples of what schools are doing in sharing facilities with their local communities and state schools. It will be an extensive website because there is so much to record.

I think the issue comes to this: is there a role for the law in this matter? We are at one in acknowledging that much has been done. I stress the ISC’s continuing encouragement for the further expansion of such schemes and have very serious concerns about the implications of an attempt to specify how independent schools that are charities should demonstrate public benefit. All charities are of course required to provide public benefit. Would it be right to single out independent schools for specific guidance on what they should do? I also question whether this would be expedient because schemes for sharing facilities that are likely to succeed will do so when they reflect a deep and genuine desire on the part of state schools, local communities and independent schools to be involved in them.

Local wishes should determine what happens. It is important to remember that independent schools vary greatly in size and character. More than 50% have 350 pupils or fewer. Only a tiny minority have large endowments; the vast majority are wholly dependent on fee income. What they can do will vary from place to place depending on size and on how local communities and state schools wish to work with independent schools. I emphasise that the 1,200 schools belonging to the Independent Schools Council are keen to work with local schools and communities, contributing to the activities of local communities and work in state schools. These things are innate to them these days, forming part of the charitable ethos and purpose of the schools.

If partnership schemes are to deliver benefits to all involved—local communities, state schools and independent schools, which are enriched by partnership—I suggest that the best course is to give every encouragement to voluntary local arrangements and not seek to impose a set of requirements across the board, which I suppose would be known these days as a one-size-fits-all approach.