Ministers ditch private school charity ‘threat’

THE Government has ditched plans to scrap the charitable status of private schools if they do not help out neighbouring comprehensives.

Independent school headteachers had been warned they would face ‘exacting requirements’ in return for claiming lucrative tax breaks.

The Tory manifesto and a Green Paper last year both said schools would need to sponsor academies, forge partnerships with state schools or offer significant numbers of bursaries to disadvantaged pupils to qualify as a charity.

But it emerged yesterday that the plans have been quietly shelved. Instead the Department for Education has launched a new advice service, the System Partnerships Unit. This is designed to ‘encourage’ and ‘support’ independent and state schools, brokering voluntary partnerships across the country.

The move has been welcomed by independent school leaders, who said it was difficult for initiatives to be successful if schools were being ‘threatened’. But critics accused ministers of performing a ‘U-turn’, insisting private schools must prove they ‘deserve’ tax breaks.

THE Government plans to be more ‘selective’ over where new free schools are located in future, a schools minister said yesterday. In a shift of policy, Lord Nash said it was important to ensure there is not ‘too much over capacity’.