Independent Schools as vehicles of social mobility? Digging deeper into the Statistics.

Approximately 6.5% of UK school children are currently educated in independent schools. However, this general figure masks a much more complex reality. In practice, about 3% of 5-year olds and approximately 15% of school pupils over the age of 16 attend an independent school (ISC Annual Census and Annual Report 2019, p.13). 

The use of historic data 

Critics of independent education often point to the disproportionate role that former pupils play in public life: 65% of senior judges, 57% of Members of the House of Lords, 52% of diplomats and so on (Sutton Trust Elitist Britain 2019). Yet these statistics belie the fact that many schools which are today independent schools were Direct Grant schools at the time when these senior figures were at school. Direct schools such as Manchester Grammar, Bradford Grammar, Leeds Grammar, Haberdashers’ Aske’s and Latymer Upper were all significant feeders to university, Oxbridge and into the professions. 

If we genuinely want an informed (rather than ideologically partisan) debate about the place of independent schools in our society, it would be useful to know what proportion of the leading figures educated at independent schools in the Sutton Trust’s Elitist Britain survey were themselves beneficiaries of the Direct Grant scheme. These data would give an indication of the extent to which independent schools were a vehicle for social mobility in the 1960s and 1970s, and thus inform debates about future policy. 

There is little doubt that the abolition of the Direct Grant scheme in 1976 and of its successor, the Assisted Places Scheme, in 1997 had a significant impact on the independent sector’s ability to transform lives on a large scale. There is little doubt too, that above inflation fee increases over the past thirty years have limited the number who are able to afford access to independent schools.

Independent schools as vehicles of social mobility 

And yet we know that Independent schools still have the ability to be vehicles of social mobility and to transform lives. That a third of students at Oxford University who come from low-income backgrounds and qualified for free school meals went to independent schools, is testimony to this. In the words of Professor Louise Richardson, Vice Chancellor of Oxford University: 

“The reality is that independent schools are identifying these smart, poor kids. They are bringing them in, giving them scholarships and educating them, and then they apply to us, and we take them.” (‘Oxford’s admission problem is because state schools fail to push their brightest pupils’ vice chancellor suggests’  Daily Telegraph 18/07/2019) 

The question of scale 

There are many in the sector who are committed to broadening access to independent schools. There is a clear direction of travel, and we all recognise that there is a long way to go. 

According to figures from the Independent Schools Council, 176,633 students (34%) received some help with their fees. Of these 5998 students (1.1%) last year were in receipt of 100% or more bursary assistance, and a further 11,566 (2.2%) over 75% funding. Critics are wont to focus on the 1.1% statistic, but this is rather simplistic, for bursaries of this nature tend to be awarded to students of secondary schooling age, especially in the sixth form. And it is really the sixth form bursaries that matter because this where independent schools can have their greatest impact. This because the sector is, as we have seen, a more significantly player at this age group; and also because it is the key springboard that provides access to university. 

Again, we need more aggregated data to have an informed debate. We need to know what the proportion of sixth formers are on full bursaries in independent schools and, importantly, what they go on to do after school and where. 

So, for me, the debate here is not whether or not Independent schools are vehicles of social mobility, but whether or not they are so on a scale that is appropriate and acceptable within society. 

Even without access to data, and despite the valiant efforts of the pioneers like Philip Britton and Sue Hincks at Bolton School, there is little doubt that this figure currently is too low. 

A possible way forward . . . 

The annual cost of state education per student in England is £6,000 (Institute of Fiscal Studies 2019 annual report on education spending in England) and £4,900 in the sixth form. The average annual fee for an independent day school at secondary is £15,522 and £15,027 in the sixth form (ISC Census 2019 p.18). 

One possible way forward would be for all parents (below a certain family income threshold?) to choose to be able opt out of the maintained sector and move their funding to the independent school of their choice. 

Such an approach is not new. In 2010, Paul Collier, Professor of Economics and Public Policy in the Blavatnik School of Government, Oxford University, argued that the ban on "blended funding" that causes the "Educational Apartheid" that is the British system of schooling. (Private v state: here's how to bridge the educational divide Independent 14/01/2010) 

An educational credit or voucher system would provide greater scope for existing independent schools to open their doors wider at no additional total per capita cost to the state. In this context it is possible to conceive of a situation where independent schools offer both a much greater number of bursaries which top up to 100% of school fees; and a significant number of ‘match funded’ bursaries, making private education much more affordable to a wider population.
I believe that the time has come for society to reinstate a mechanism that broadens access to independent schools. Just as the Direct Grant system provided opportunities for all to go to top schools before 1976, so, too, a combination of a voucher and a bursary system could provide the same opportunities for social mobility from 2020.

This article was published on the PSPR Blog (13/01/2020)

Press coverage of the Tribunal Ruling on Charitable Benefit

The Print Media have divided along predictable lines in response to the Tribunal's decision to overturn the Charity Commission's guidance on what constitutes "public benefit":

• Victory for private schools in charitable status fight (Times) (Subscription required)
• Private school charity rules to be overhauled after legal challenge (Telegraph)
• Schools win fight over charity status (Independent)
• Private schools win £100m charities tax relief test case (Guardian)
• Private schools: a measure of public benefit (Guardian)
• Private schools escape charity meddlers as judge frees them to decide how they meet their duty to the poor (Daily Mail)
• Private schools win review on charitable status (Financial Times)
• Independent schools win charity fight on bursaries (Evening Standard)
• Letters: Defining public benefit (Telegraph)

Tribunal overturns Charity Commission guidance on public benefit

Independent Schools around the country were delighted to receive the news that the Upper Tribunal yesterday overruled the Charity Commission’s approach to public benefit and discredited controversial parts of the Commission’s statutory guidance as “obscure or wrong”. The ruling brings welcome clarification of the law, and ensures responsibility for public benefit decisions is taken away from the Commission and returned to School governors.

Many Independent Schools felt that the Charity Commission applied too narrow a measure of what constitutes "public benefit" by placing too great an emphasis on means-tested bursaries, whilst ignoring the many wider ways in which Independent Schools contribute to educating the Nation's youth and benefit and enrich their local communities. It was felt that the Commission's guidance was prescriptive and interventionist and failed to provide sufficient clarity for trustees on the underlying principles of public benefit relevant to schools.

The Independent Schools Council (ISC) initiated legal proceedings to establish the right principles which apply to the establishment and operation of independent schools as charities.

The Tribunal ruled that the Charity Commission's guidance was wrong in key aspects and establishes three principles of enormous significance for schools:

1. It puts governors firmly back in the driving seat on decisions relating to public benefit. 
2. It breaks the link between bursaries and public benefit. Bursaries remain important but not to the exclusion of other activities which reach out beyond the school gates.
3. It lays to rest any notion that the Commission can threaten independent schools with the loss of charitable status based on the Commission’s assessment of whether or not the school is doing enough to meet its public benefit requirement.

The ruling expressly recognises that schools are no different to many thousands of fee-charging charities which provide high value services and have no option but to recover their costs through levying fees.

Elitism is not a dirty word in Education

Interesting Editorial in the Daily Telegraph on education

"... the problem lies not in the universities, but in the state-school system. Because of the failure of the "bog-standard comprehensives", to use a phrase coined by Alastair Campbell, the percentage of state-school students at Cambridge is lower than in 1980. Within the high-flying Russell Group of universities, the intake from independent schools is hugely disproportionate and, among state-school students, England's 164 surviving grammar schools are similarly over-represented.

What, then, to do? Yes, we could pack the universities with poorly performing students in the name of "fairness". Yet Britain's leading universities have evolved over centuries to world-class standards. To vandalise that national asset would be a mortal blow, leaving us hopelessly uncompetitive. Elitism is not a dirty word: it is the precondition for meritocracy. Lord Mandelson knows that; but he is playing pre-election politics.

The Government's overriding concern should not be those few institutions that are succeeding, but the many that are not. Instead, we have an education policy predicated upon the same prejudices as the Hunting Act. A future Tory government must not be inhibited by self-consciousness about its leaders' Bullingdon background. It must implement reforms that rebuild the ladder of opportunity for gifted students from poor backgrounds, and so secure Britain's place in a globalised, highly skilled and meritocratic world."

I believe that, despite the end of the Assisted Places Scheme, that independent schools will continue to have an important part to play in 'rebuilding the ladder of opportunity for gifted pupils from poor backgrounds'. The Independent Schools Council would do the sector a great service if it were to research the number of pupils from poor backgrounds at Oxford and Cambridge - and the Russell Group universities - who have been educated in independent Schools. I would not be surprised if the independent sector has given more young people from humble backgrounds the opportunity to go on to top universities than the whole of the comprehensive school system.

Click here to read the DT editorial in full