PUBLIC BENEFIT AND THE ADVANCEMENT OF EDUCATION

Charity Commission draft supplementary guidance March 2008

Introduction

The effect of the removal of the presumption of public benefit for charities advancing education is not to suggest that the advancement of education is no longer charitable, but simply that, in meeting the public benefit requirement, the same rules apply to charities advancing education as apply to all other charities.

The Meaning of the Advancement of Education

Charity law gives a wide meaning to education.

The Education Act 2002 (s.78), establishes that such education should be balanced and broadly based and:

(a)    promote the spiritual, moral, cultural, mental and physical development of pupils at the school and of society; and

(b)   prepare pupils at schools for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of later life.

Education, in the charity law context, requires the education to be deliberate.

Education does not have to be value free and completely neutral.  Education can be based on broad values that are uncontroversial which would be generally supported by objective and informed people.

Although education can have an uncontroversial broad value base, it has to allow those being educated to make up their own minds on controversial issues.

Promoting a specific point of view may be a way of furthering another charitable aim, but it would not be education.

Although education does not need to be formal, or have a formal process, it does need to have a sufficient structure for it to be capable of educating the intended audience.

There must be an identifiable benefit or benefits

The broad benefit of education is likely to be self-evident.  A society that has learning (knowledge about subjects) and skills and competences is needed to tackle the many challenges of human existence.

The national charity, The Campaign for Learning, claims that research shows that life-long learners are more likely to be happier, healthier, have better jobs, contribute more to society, live longer and have more fulfilled lives.

Education is also about personal development.  The development of an individual’s mental, physical, emotional and spiritual capabilities are of fundamental value to both the individual and to the health and well being of the society around them.  Education is about equipping people with the capacity to understand and operate successfully in society.

Benefit must be to the public or a section of the public

In the case of advancing education, the beneficiaries are those who are eligible to be recipients of the education.

Where the benefit is not to the public generally it can be to a ‘section of the public’ where restricting benefit in that way is reasonable and relevant to the charitable aim of advancing education.

Where access to benefits from education is restricted to the employees, or the children of employees, of a particular employer then that is not a sufficient section of the public.

If the restriction is to all of the people within an industry then the restriction might not affect public benefit.

This draft supplementary guidance does not address the issue of whether a restriction on the beneficial class that is related to the ability to pay fees impacts on public benefit as we are issuing separate guidance on this aspect:  Public Benefit and Fee-charging.

Educational establishments set up as commercial businesses with the aim of providing a profit for their owner(s) are not capable of having aims for the public benefit, as the private benefit to the owners is not incidental.  Nor are educational establishments set up by an employer to train its employees in the skills it needs and in the company ethos.  If the establishment offers skills training that is of wider application, and offers the opportunity to attend to a wider section of the public than just its employees, it might be capable of being a charity.