02/02/10

By Andrew Holt

The Charity Commission has welcomed the Government's decision today to withdraw from the Children, Schools and Families Bill the proposal to deem academy schools exempt charities.

The Commission had consistently argued for the removal of this provision in the Bill.

The charity regulator had warned that the proposal would have reduced the accountability and transparency of academies, creating confusion and seriously risking damage to public trust and confidence in academies and in charity more widely.

Key Parliamentarians, who have taken a longstanding interest in the voluntary sector, shared our concerns.

200 academy trusts are already registered charities and today's decision means that academies will continue to register and be regulated by the Charity Commission in the normal way.

This will ensure their legal independence and accountability.

While there are a number of other provisions in the Bill which relate to the establishment and operation of academies, we have confirmed to the Department for Children, Schools and Families that these do not in our view create any risk to the charitable status of academies.

The Charity Commission has since October had in place a joint protocol with the DCSF for academies applying to register, specifically designed to minimise bureaucracy.

This is already helping streamline the registration process and we are confident it is the right approach to registering academies.

The Charity Commission said in a statement: "Today's decision gives clarity and certainty for those academies which are currently registered charities and for those who will be establishing academies in the future. By keeping academies within the mainstream charity framework it avoids any confusion about their status, accountability, transparency or independence."

Stuart Etherington, chief executive of the National Council for Voluntary Organisations, welcomed the move. "This is a victory for common sense. More than 200 academies are already registered with the Charity Commission and to switch them to a different regulatory body would have only created confusion about what constitutes a charity and how it is held accountable.

"Charities rely on the generosity, goodwill and trust of the public. To maintain that support all charities need to be able to demonstrate that they provide a public benefit. And they must be accountable in a way everyone understands. Multiple exemptions and differing regulatory bodies do not help achieve this goal."

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