About us > Introduction
Frequently Asked Questions
(…or what you have always wanted to know about the Charity but were too afraid to ask!)
1. General Information:
1.1 What is The Harpur Trust?
1.2 What is The Bedford Charity?
1.3 Why do you have two names?
1.4 What do you do apart from running the private schools?
1.5 How can we find out more information about the Charity?
1.6 How can I obtain a copy of the annual report?
1.7 Why don’t you tell people what you do?
1.8 Why are you wasting money on advertising?
2. The Schools:
2.1 How can I obtain information on the Trust schools?
2.2 Why don’t all your schools use one set of Bursars/ teachers/ suppliers?
2.3 How much subsidy do the Schools receive from the Trust/Endowment?
2.4 If the Schools are not receiving any subsidy from the Trust why are they not independent from the Charity and what benefit do they gain by remaining within the Charity umbrella?
2.5 Why don’t you make all your pupils travel to school on buses and thus solve the transport problem in Bedford?
2.6 Your schools cream off the best young people from state schools,
don’t they?
3. School Fees and Bursaries:
3.1 Why is the Harpur Trust not providing bursaries any more?”
3.2 Why do you entice students from state schools with bursaries?
3.3 Why don’t you give more bursary places to poor students?
3.4 Poor children can’t pass your schools’ entrance tests because they haven’t been to posh prep schools can they?
3.5 Your schools fix fees with other posh schools don’t they?
3.6 Why are your school fees so high?
3.7 Why are the school fee increases so much more than inflation every year?
4. Grants:
4.1 Who do you help with grants? Can I get one and what charitable assistance do you offer?
4.2 How do I find out about or get funding?
4.3 What are your grants programmes?
4.4 Do school fees pay for the grants programme?
4.5 Your grants programme is tiny and it’s only to make your schools charitable isn’t it?
4.6 Why do you only give grants to rich people or to your own schools?
5. Almshouses:
5.1 What are Almshouses and how can you apply for a place in one?
5.2 Why is the Almshouse management now managed by BCHA?
6. Finance and Funding:
6.1 Where do The Harpur Trust funds come from?
6.2 How much is the endowment and what percentage is spent each year?
6.3 You have loads of money – why don’t you spend it on the poor (maintained schools/disabled/other group)?
6.4 You don’t have as much money as you used to – is that because you have made bad investment decisions?
6.5 How much money do you give away each year?
7. Academies and links with maintained schools:
7.1 Is the Charity going to be running the maintained schools?
7.2 Why is the Charity considering sponsoring John Bunyan to become an Academy?
7.3 What is an Academy and why it is beneficial for the Charity to become involved?
7.4 Why aren’t you sponsoring more Academies?
8. Public Benefit:
8.1 How is the Charity delivering public benefit in the local community?
8.2 What assistance do you offer poorer families with school fees?
8.3 Your schools will fail the public benefit test won’t they?
8.4 You are only (sponsoring an Academy/making grants/running almshouses etc) to pass the public benefit test aren’t you?
9. Trustees, Officers and Staff:
9.1 Who are your Trustees and staff?
9.2 Why are all your Trustees so secretive?
9.3 Why don’t your Trustees hold all of their meetings in public?
9.4 How do you become a Trustee of the Charity?
9.5 How many of your Trustees are from ethnic minorities / have a disability / are women?
9.6 How can you make decisions from BME groups etc when your grants committee has only one BME member?
9.7 What training do your Trustees have on diversity issues?
9.8 What knowledge/experience does the Charity’s Grants Committee have of the issues they make decisions on (e.g. substances misuse, mental health, poverty etc)?
9.9 You are a Charity – why do you pay teachers (any staff) as much as you do?
10. Governance:
10.1 You aren’t accountable to the public are you?
10.2 Who are you accountable to?
10.3 You are not democratic are you?
10.4 You are always being prosecuted for health and safety issues aren’t you?
10.5 You run the local Council don’t you?
11. Future Plans:
11.1 What is the Charity’s strategic plan / vision for the next five years?
Answers
1. General Information:
1.1 What is The Harpur Trust?
The Bedford Charity, also known as the Harpur Trust, is one of the 200 largest charities in the UK, but a local one, with three charitable objects:
- The promotion of education
- The relief of those who are sick or in need, hardship or distress
- The provision of recreational facilities with a social welfare purpose within the town of Bedford and the surrounding area.
The Trust has been in existence since 1566 when it was founded by Sir William Harpur a tailor from Bedford. Sir William executed a deed of gift creating an endowment to sustain a school he had already established in Bedford. The endowment also made provision for the marriage of poor maids of the town, for deprived children to be nourished and informed and for any residue to be distributed to the poor or the town. (More information on the Charity’s history can be found on www.bedfordcharity.org.uk)
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1.2 What is The Bedford Charity?
The Bedford Charity and the Harpur Trust are the same organisation (see above).
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1.3 Why do you have two names?
From 1566 until 1764 Sir William Harpur’s gift and the original school it supported (Bedford Grammar School) were administered by the Bedford Corporation. The visitors were New College, Oxford, and they appointed the Master and his deputy (the Usher). In 1764, an Act of Parliament established the Bedford Charity to take over the administration and this is the formal name of the organisation. The term “Harpur Trust” is often used and it recognises Sir William Harpur’s original gift being held “in trust” for the people of Bedford and is strongly associated with the Charity’s schools. When the Trustees last considered the matter in the 1990s they concluded that retaining both names was important.
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1.4 What do you do apart from running the private schools?
The Charity administers the four main independent schools in Bedford; Bedford School, Bedford High School for Girls, Bedford Modern School, Dame Alice Harpur School and also Pilgrims Pre-Preparatory School, which is a separate charitable company limited by guarantee.
In addition to providing high quality education, the Charity is a major contributor to valuable community activities within the Borough. Grants are awarded from the Charity’s responsive programme totalling approximately £500,000 each year, plus a number of themed grant programmes awarding up to £100,000 each year for each theme. The Charity’s total grant making budget in 2009 will be nearly £1M.
The Charity also owns 39 almshouse dwellings in Bedford and Bromham, which are managed on its behalf by Bedford Citizens Housing Association (BCHA).
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1.5 How can we find out more information about the Charity?
Detailed information can be found on the Charity’s website www.bedfordcharity.org.uk
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1.6 How can I obtain a copy of the annual report?
Visit www.bedfordcharity.org.uk and download a copy of the PDF file or call 01234 369500 for a copy to be posted to you.
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1.7 Why don’t you tell people what you do?
The Charity avoids spending money on general advertising as it depletes the funds available for grants and rarely reaches our target markets (e.g. community groups looking for funding).
Instead we have chosen to communicate information on our grant making programmes, almshouses and general community activities via the following, targeted media; local and national press coverage/stories, attending funding fairs, speaking at local community events (e.g. W.I. and Probus Groups), grants features in local magazines and parish newsletters, providing links from local funding related websites (e.g. BRCC, CVS) and from the Charity’s own website.
Future plans include increasing our presence at local community events, wider distribution of the annual report and targeted poster drops to local community centres/groups.
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1.8 Why are you wasting money on advertising?
The Charity does not spend any money on general advertising and instead relies on free press coverage to communicate its work within the local community. This is to ensure that grants funds are not depleted unnecessarily.
The Harpur Trust schools do engage in advertising to promote their own schools, courses and special events.
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2. The Schools:
2.1 How can I obtain information on the Trust schools?
Visit www.bedfordcharity.org.uk and follow the links or visit the school sites at the following addresses:
Bedford School www.bedfordschool.org.uk
Bedford High School for Girls www.bedfordhigh.co.uk
Bedford Modern School www.bedmod.co.uk
Dame Alice Harpur School www.dahs.co.uk
Pilgrims Pre-Preparatory School www.pilgrims-info.co.uk
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2.2 Why don’t all your schools use one set of bursars/teachers/suppliers?
Although the schools are a central part of the Charity, they retain a large degree of operational autonomy to develop their own style and educational offer.
Nevertheless, they do cooperate in several areas including IT and energy procurement. In addition, the schools obtain central services from the Harpur Trust Office (HTO) including common billing and payroll services and HR support.
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2.3 How much subsidy do the Schools receive from the Trust/Endowment?
Following the decision to allocate out central administrative costs as part of the implementation of the 2004 strategic plan, the Charity’s schools now receive NO direct subsidy from the endowment income. They do obviously benefit from the fees paid for from the bursary funds, which have historically been funded from the endowment income. But as part of the same strategic plan, the funding of bursaries is being phased from the endowment income to contributions from school fee income, and therefore in the near future all available endowment income will be utilised for community grants purposes.
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2.4 If the Schools are not receiving any subsidy from the Trust why are they not independent from the Charity and what benefit do they gain by remaining within the Charity umbrella?
The schools benefit by having common services for payroll, fees and billing. They also receive advice on such matters as new legal requirements and regulations, employment law and human resource issues and health and safety legislation. They do, however, pay for the allocated cost of these services, and therefore only benefit financially from any economies and efficiencies arising from the sharing of the provision.
As part of the Charity, they do not pay rent for their site and can obtain loans for development projects at favourable rates using the Charity’s assets as collateral.
They also benefit from being part of an organisation within which they can share ideas and take advantage of the support of others who share their ambitions and philosophy of education.
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2.5 Why don’t you make all your pupils travel to school on buses and thus solve the transport problem in Bedford?
The Charity and its schools encourage all pupils/parents to walk, use cycles, public transport or the designated school buses for travel to/from school whenever possible. To aid this process each school publishes public/school specific transport information on its websites and also have Travel Plans. Whilst we can encourage pupils to use the available transport systems we cannot enforce them do so.
Based on 2006 LEA Survey data, of all the car journeys to and from schools in Bedford, Harpur Trust Schools are responsible for 31.8% and LEA schools are responsible for 68.2%. Asking our pupils alone to travel by bus will not dramatically ease transport issues in the town. 33% of Harpur Trust pupils already use buses – only 10% of LEA pupils use buses. Nevertheless, congestion caused by the “school run” – whether to independent or state schools – is a problem for everyone living in Bedford and the Charity is working with the local authority transport committee to encourage students and staff to walk, cycle or use public transport whenever possible.
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2.6 Your schools cream off the best young people from state schools, don’t they?
The Charity’s main schools are selective but not as highly selective as many independent schools; our most recent analysis indicates that our schools admit a range of students across the upper 30% of ability.
It is, of course, a matter for parents to decide which school their children attend. If the Charity’s schools did not exist it does not follow that all of our students would attend maintained sector schools. It seems very likely that the Charity’s schools are attractive to parents and people may well choose to live in and near Bedford because of the opportunities they provide; if the schools were not here fewer people may choose to live in Bedford.
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3. School Fees and Bursaries:
3.1 Why is the Harpur Trust not providing bursaries any more?”
It is providing bursaries as before; indeed, it is the intention of Trustees to increase the number of bursaries; what has changed is the method of funding them.
Trustees reviewed the method for the funding of bursaries as part of the Charity’s current strategic plan, which came into operation in July 2004. It had become evident that whilst the income from the endowment assets (used to provide funding for the bursary awards) had increased over time, the growth rate was insufficient to match the growth in the school fees to which the bursaries awarded related. The result had been the diminishing number of bursary places that were able to be offered at the Charity’s schools.
Putting this into numbers, in the financial year 1995/96 the actual expenditure from the bursary funds represented the equivalent of 245 fully funded places based on the average fee at the Charity’s schools. By the financial year 2007/8, the number of fully funded places based on the average fee at the Charity’s schools had fallen to 97.
Trustees were, however, determined that bursaries should continue to be made available, a decision that pre-dates the debate on public benefit. They therefore determined that over a period of years the funding for the bursary awards should be gradually transferred from the income arising from the endowment to the income from the schools’ activities. This will result in a constant proportion of bursary places at each school being made available whatever the respective growth rates of fees. The endowment income previously used to fund bursary places will now be used for the grants programme in furtherance of the Charity’s objects. The mechanism of the funding transfer had been planned initially to replace the existing funding (some 3.5% of fee income) but subsequently the Trustees have determined that they will increase this funding in successive years to a total of 5.5%.
The end result will be that the equivalent number of fully funded places should increase to around 200 based on current school numbers.
Therefore, the Bedford Charity (the Harpur Trust) continues to provide bursaries and in fact is increasing the amount of funds available for the Trustees’ discretionary awards. What has changed is the source from which those funds are provided.
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3.2 Why do you entice students from state schools with bursaries?
It is not a matter of enticement but of trying to make the benefits of education at the Charity’s schools available to the widest possible section of the community. School fees are obviously expensive (despite our best efforts to keep them down) and not everyone can afford them; the Trustees wish to make access to the Charity’s schools as wide as possible and bursary provision is one method of doing that for students who might benefit from the education we provide but who could not attend our schools without financial assistance.
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3.3 Why don’t you give more bursary places to poor students?
The Charity can only consider applications that are received, and there are unfortunately financial limits on the amount of support that can be applied. Following the review of the bursary process that was conducted during 2006 and 2007, the Trustees increased the scales used as guidance for bursary remission. This will hopefully enable more families on low incomes to consider one of the schools as an option. In addition, each of the schools that make funds available for awards will also now review their policy for seeking out and making awards. The results of this will then be monitored to ensure that funds are being applied as far as possible in accordance with the policy targets.
The recently revised scales mean that anyone “in poverty”, which by one of the Government’s definitions is with an income less than 60% of the median national income, is eligible for full-fees support where funds are available.
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3.4 Poor children can’t pass your schools’ entrance tests because they haven’t been to posh prep schools can they?
The Charity and its schools will consider an application from any pupil regardless of their social background, ethnicity, previous schooling etc. The school entrance tests form only one part of the application process to gain a place at the schools.
The schools do everything they can to reduce artificial barriers or advantages caused by previous education or tutoring. For example, Bedford School in cooperation with the University of Durham, has devised a test which better measures potential and is less sensitive to previous attainment levels. This makes it easier for students from all backgrounds to be assessed fairly and on an equal footing.
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3.5 Your schools fix fees with other posh schools don’t they?
The Trustees do not collude with other schools when setting fees and have never done so.
They do consider a very wide range of factors when deciding fees in order to keep them as low as possible and they set a maximum fee increase level each year. Each school within the Charity has to set a fee below the level authorised by the Trustees.
This desire to ensure that fees were as low as possible has led in the past to schools sharing information, which for many years was a legitimate and lawful thing to do. When the law changed with the introduction of the Enterprise Act 2000 such information sharing became unlawful and the practice should have ceased. Unfortunately, the significance of the change in the law was missed by all schools and all legal advisors. In 2004, the Office of Fair Trading investigated a complaint about this information sharing and this led to about 50 schools being prosecuted and ultimately fined. Whilst Bedford School was included in this group and had to pay a proportion of the fine, the information was not used to artificially inflate fees. As a Charity, all fees received are used in furtherance of the Charity’s objects, and all Bedford School’s fee income has been applied for the benefit of the provision of the schools education and resources.
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3.6 Why are your school fees so high?
Education is very expensive – even in the maintained sector - the average amount of money allocated by the state for the education of a student is around £5,000 per annum but this figure does NOT include any allowance for capital expenditure on building renewal or replacement etc. The facilities and lower student teacher ratio in independent schools mean that there will inevitably be additional costs.
The fees of the Charity’s schools are broadly in line with other independent schools providing similar education and the Trustees use benchmarking data provided by the auditors, Howarth Clark Whitehill to monitor this. In 2008/9, the day fees at the Charity’s upper schools varied from £9,801 (at Bedford Modern School) to £14,367 at (Bedford School).
Over the last five years, the fees at the Charity’s schools have increased by an average of 4.5% whilst the average for the independent sector as a whole has been 6.6%.
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3.7 Why are the school fee increases so much more than inflation every year?
The two key short term components that drive school fee inflation are salaries and pupil numbers. There are other factors such as improvements to facilities and financing costs (driven by interest rates) but these tend to take effect over a longer time frame.
During the 1990’s the Charity’s schools all sought to improve their facilities at a time when pupil numbers experienced a gradual decline. In addition, staffing increased with the desire to improve the pupil teacher ratio and thus the quality of the education provided. All of these factors led to a series of high fee increases over a number of years.
As part of the Trustees’ strategic plan, it was concluded that this position could not continue, and a fee cap mechanism was introduced, limiting future fee increases to a maximum linked to the higher of teachers’ salary inflation and CPI. This has resulted in fee increases for the Charity’s schools being at the lower end of the range of increases for independent schools over the last five years. It is expected that the Trustees will review the operation of this mechanism in the next strategic plan due during 2009/10.
School fee increases are a delicate balance of ensuring that sufficient funds exist to enable the level of educational provision to be maintained, without either over resourcing the facilities or producing excessive monetary surpluses. The Trustees constantly strive to ensure that the right balance is maintained according to the perceived needs.
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4. Grants:
4.1 Who do you help with grants? Can I get one and what charitable assistance do you offer?
We are a general grant giving Charity with three broad areas of activity:
- the promotion of education;
- the promotion of any charitable purpose for the relief of people who are sick or in need, hardship or distress;
- the provision of recreational facilities with a social welfare purpose
Our grant giving programmes are restricted to activities taking place in the Borough of Bedford, or those directly involving residents of the Borough.
The organisation making the application must be a registered charity or other non-profit making body. The organisation must be based in the Borough of Bedford, and/or be conducting specific activities aiming to meet the needs of people who are normally resident in the Borough. The Borough comprises the town of Bedford and the surrounding area of North Bedfordshire. Most grants are awarded to organisations but a small number of grants are made to individuals each year, generally older students, who are pursuing continuing and vocational education. Details are available on request.
A full list of grants awarded in the last year can be found on www.bedfordcharity.org.uk
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4.2 How do I find out about or get funding?
Information of the Charity’s grants programme can be found on www.bedfordcharity.org.uk or by calling the Grants Manager, Lucy Bardner on 01234 369500.
Information on alternative funding sources within the local area can be obtained from Community and Voluntary Service Mid and North Bedfordshire (CVS) Tel: 01234 354366 or Bedfordshire Rural Communities Charity Tel: 01234 838771.
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4.3 What are your grants programmes?
The Charity runs the following grants programmes:
The Responsive Programme – with a fund of approximately £500,000 per year:
The three broad areas of charitable activity under this programme encompass the promotion of education; relief of poverty, hardship or distress and the provision of recreational facilities with a social welfare purpose.
Themed Grants Programme – awarding up to £100,000 per year for each theme. There are currently four programmes:
- Excellence in Education
- Voluntary Sector Infrastructure Support
- Homelessness
- Child and Adolescent Mental Health
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4.4 Do school fees pay for the grants programme?
No - school fees do not pay for the grants programme. The grants programme is funded from the endowment income. Whilst the Charity is only a single legal entity, for budgeting and accounting purposes each of the separate business units are financed from the resources they raise with central costs allocated out in accordance with agreed formulae. Therefore, whilst it would be allowed under Charity accounting rules, there is no cross subsidy of one business unit by another.
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4.5 Your grants programme is tiny and it’s only to make your schools charitable isn’t it?
The Charity’s grants programme is a very important part of our work, and Sir William Harpur’s original gift to the town made provisions for those in hardship, such as the nourishment of poor children and the provision of dowries for poor girls. The grants programme is growing rapidly with an extra £100,000 added per year at present and our level of grant making compares very favourably with other local or regional grant makers. For example, national grant maker the Lloyds TSB Foundation made awards totalling £1,245,099 in 2006 in its Eastern region, which covers Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Norfolk and Suffolk. It therefore awarded approximately £207,500 per county. In the same period Bedfordshire and Luton Community Foundation made awards totalling £197,000. The Bedford Charity makes awards within a much smaller area, one district as opposed to a whole county, and yet made awards of £631,900 in the same period, more than triple the amount awarded by Lloyds TSB Foundation or BLCF within a whole county.
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4.6 Why do you only give grants to rich people or to your own schools?
We do not give grants to rich people! Very rarely, we have made grants to our own schools but only to support the wider community. For example, when Pilgrims and Bedford School wanted to set up an extra curricula “maths academy” for gifted and talented children the Charity used grant funding to enable this to be made available at a low cost to children from maintained sector schools and to enable the development of e-learning facility so that specialist resources from the academy could be accessed by all local schools.
Grants are available and awarded to a broad spectrum of community groups, state schools and individuals within the area of benefit.
The Charity makes grants in support of all three of its charitable objects and the Trustees have flexibility to allocate resources to each object according to perceived need.
A full list of grants awarded in the past year is available on www.bedfordcharity.org.uk
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5. Almshouses:
5.1 What are Almshouses and how can you apply for a place in one?
Almshouses offer a secure yet independent lifestyle for people in need of a more sheltered environment. Residents have private accommodation with their own front doors. The Harpur Trust’s almshouses are managed by a scheme manager, who is able to provide support to residents. All properties are fitted with an emergency alarm system enabling residents to contact help 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
Residents are not charged rent, but they do have to pay a weekly maintenance charge, which includes a charge for support services. Many residents receive assistance with this charge through Housing Benefit and the Supporting People Grant. In general, the weekly maintenance charge is below the rents charged by local housing associations.
To be considered for almshouse accommodation certain criteria needs to be met and places allocated following an assessment of need. A copy of these criteria, an application form and frequently asked questions is available on www.bedfordcharity.org.uk/almshouses.
Alternatively please contact the Scheme Manager:
Scheme Manager
The Bedford Charity (The Harpur Trust)
Harpur House
32 Cardington Road
Bedford
MK40 0BS
Tel: 01234 344556
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5.2 Why is the Almshouse management now managed by BCHA?
BCHA, as specialist housing providers, have far greater experience and specialist knowledge of providing housing support for older people than the Bedford Charity. They employ more specialist staff and can keep up with new legislation to ensure residents get the most up to date support. Therefore the current standard of support residents receive will not change but improve over time.
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6. Finance and Funding:
6.1 Where do The Harpur Trust funds come from?
The Charity benefits from a permanent endowment as a result of a gift in 1566 by Sir William Harpur. Over the succeeding 450 years, the value of the endowment has grown to a sum of £59.8M (at 30 June 2008).
This endowment consists of property situated on some of the original gift of land, together with an investment portfolio, which has been purchased out of proceeds from the sale of properties or leases on the properties on the original gift of land.
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6.2 How much is the endowment and what percentage is spent each year?
The endowment is currently valued at £59.8M (at 30 June 2008). Up to 30 June 2008, net income arising of 3.8% or £2.26M was spent on various activities. Full details of the accounts can be found in the Annual Report of Trustees and Accounts on the Charity’s website.
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6.3 You have loads of money – why don’t you spend it on the poor (maintained schools/disabled/other group)?
As a permanently endowed trust, the Charity is not allowed to spend the capital in its endowment, only the income arising from it. The Trustees decide how much to spend of that income using a formula (based on one used for many years at Yale University in the USA) developed to ensure as much money as possible is spent on charitable activities whilst maintaining the “purchasing power” of the funds for future years and beneficiaries.
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6.4 You don’t have as much money as you used to – is that because you have made bad investment decisions?
No – in fact the level of the Charity’s endowment funds have gone from £47.2M in 2000 to £59.8M by June 2008. During this period, the trustees have diversified the investment assets of the Charity with a view to seeking to ensure the longer term sustainability of income distribution. During this period, the trustees have sought to maintain the quantum of actual cash distributed whilst recognising that previous distribution levels have perhaps been too high. This may have led to the perception of having less money, although in reality, the level of actual distribution has been constant, and its growth is now forecast for future years.
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6.5 How much money do you give away each year?
As a permanently endowed trust, the Charity is not allowed to spend the capital in its endowment, only the income arising from it. The Trustees decide how much to spend of that income using a formula (based on one used for many years at Yale University in the USA) developed to ensure as much money as possible is spent on charitable activities whilst maintaining the “purchasing power” of the funds for future years and beneficiaries.
In 2007/8, the endowment assets generated a net income after direct and attributable allocated costs of £2.26M. After deducting the costs of governance of the Charity of £310k, the remaining net distribution of £1.95M was allocated as £0.84M for bursaries and £1.11M for community grants.
This, together with the use of available reserve funds, facilitated actual grants awards of £831k and bursary expenditure of £1,038k during the year.
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7. Academies and links with maintained schools:
7.1 Is the Charity going to be running the maintained schools?
No - it is not the Charity’s intention to start running maintained sector schools.
The Charity and its schools have enjoyed close working relationships with the local authority and maintained schools for many years, funding projects which add value to the services which schools provide anyway. For example, Biddenham Upper School received funding for the Bedford part of its Dreams & Teams project, which aims to develop leadership in young people through sports and international links. Alongside counterparts from South Africa, students planned, prepared and ran sports festivals for schools in the Bedford community. The group of schools which make up the Bedfordshire Alliance of Nursery and Lower Schools received an award for a research project looking at the benefits of using a technique known as mind mapping with the pupils, particularly those who don’t like writing. However as part of its strategic review process, the Charity considered how it could foster and develop even closer working relationships with these schools to the benefit of pupils/staff, the local community and the Charity’s schools.
Academies:
One of the initiatives that the Charity is pursuing is a proposal to sponsor an Academy at John Bunyan School. An academy is an independent state school that aims to raise standards and transform education in disadvantaged areas. They do not charge fees or select on ability and in this case would serve the local community near to the current school. If this goes ahead, a separate trust will be established to act as the governing body of the Academy and this would be accountable to the Department for Children Schools and Families (DCSF) in London. All funding for the school would come from government sources but the sponsors (The Charity and Bedford College) would each put £1M into a trust fund for the sole use of the Academy.
Links with maintained sector schools:
A second initiative that the Charity is developing is its contacts with maintained sector schools that wish to form “trusts”. The Trustees have decided to support such trusts where a school or a group of schools decide that it would be in the best interests of students to form one. To that end, the Charity will accept an invitation to be a member of local trusts and to foster educational links between schools within such trusts and its own schools, for their mutual benefit.
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7.2 Why is the Charity considering sponsoring John Bunyan to become an Academy?
The Charity has recently undertaken a review of its own strategic direction including how it links with the maintained sector schools. In response to requests and approaches from schools in the maintained sector the Charity is considering how its activities in this area can be enhanced and expanded. One of the major outcomes from this review to date is the possibility of sponsoring John Bunyan to become an Academy.
The Charity has a long association with John Bunyan School and had provided funding for several specialist projects and the school’s bid for Specialist College status. Despite this help and the hard work of the local authority and teachers at John Bunyan, the levels of attainment have not been satisfactory for some time and the school faces many challenges situated as it is in one of the most disadvantaged areas of Bedford. The Trustees consider that the establishment of an Academy could be an effective way of improving the levels of attainment and of raising the aspirations of students, parents and staff alike as well as providing a focus and excellent facilities for activities in the local community.
Also see question 7.1 for more information on Academies
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7.3 What is an Academy and why it is beneficial for the Charity to become involved?
Academies are a new type of independent state school that aim to raise standards and transform education in areas where current performance and opportunities need improvement. They are sponsored and managed by independent sponsors and their annual funding comes entirely and directly from the government. No fees are paid by parents. The government believes that ‘this independent status is crucial in giving the Academy freedom and flexibility to do whatever is necessary to provide effective teaching, 21st century learning environment, organisation, staffing and governance.’
The Trustees believe that it is important that the possibility of sponsoring an Academy at John Bunyan is investigated. It could be one of the most effective ways of transforming the life chances of young people in the local community and if it were successful would therefore be one of the most effective ways of pursuing the Charity’s charitable objects.
The Trustees also believe that cooperation between the independent and maintained sectors in educational matters will be of great potential value to both sectors by stimulating the exchange of information and ideas to the benefit of all young people, whichever school they attend.
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7.4 Why aren’t you sponsoring more Academies?
First, the Trustees have yet to decide formally on the sponsorship of an Academy at John Bunyan; they can only do this properly at the end of the feasibility stage in 2009.
Second, the process of sponsoring an Academy is very resource intensive and the Charity does not have the capacity to take on more than one sponsorship at a time,
Finally, Academies were originally intended to be set up at failing schools in areas of disadvantage and so may not be a suitable option for other schools in the Charity’s area of activity.
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8. Public Benefit:
8.1 How is the Charity delivering public benefit in the local community?
Bedford residents benefit from the Charity in a number of ways. The grants programme supports an extremely broad range of charities and other not for profit organisations working in the community, from residents associations to state schools. Our two almshouse schemes provide affordable, supported accommodation for older members of the community. The Charity also runs regular events and seminars linked to our three charitable objects which aim to stimulate debate and share knowledge. Examples include a conference on Child and Adolescent Mental Health and a seminar for local homelessness organisations sharing specialist techniques developed by a group of homelessness experts in London. The Charity’s schools also educate over 3,500 young people, which is in itself a charitable activity and for the public benefit.
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8.2 What assistance do you offer poorer families with school fees?
The Charity’s schools offer mean-tested bursary places to families on lower incomes. In 2006/7, 151 pupils held places at the Charity’s schools and received means tested fees support, of which 26 received full fee remission.
To be eligible the pupil must be aged 11+ at the start of the academic year i.e. in Year 7 or above and the gross parental income must be below £50,000 (this figure may include a notional assessment where a family have assets in excess of £250,000). Support is offered on a sliding scale dependent upon income. At an approximate income of £15,000 or less, which is approximately equivalent to two thirds of the national median wage and hence the government’s definition of poverty, families would be eligible for full fee support. Eligibility does not mean entitlement, of course; Trustees can only make awards where there are sufficient funds available and the number of applicants usually exceeds the funds available.
To apply for a Bursary contact the Registrar or Admissions Secretary at the relevant School for an application form.
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8.3 Your schools will fail the public benefit test won’t they?
We have yet to hear exactly how the Charity Commission will propose to interpret the requirements of the Charities Act but it seems very likely that all of the Charity’s schools would independently pass any reasonable public benefit requirement. In fact, it is the Charity as a whole that would be assessed, not the schools individually.
The Charity has played a prominent role in the development of the understanding of the public benefit requirement through the Association of Charitable Foundations (ACF) and the Charity Law Association. It has also expressed an interest in exploring with the Commission early “pilot assessments” of public benefit, which it believes would make the practical implications of the law clearer to everyone.
The Charity’s schools deliver a wide range of public benefit, in addition to offering means-tested bursary places to families on lower incomes, to the local community and a full list of activities from the past year can be found on www.bedfordcharity.org.uk.
Examples of broad public benefit include:
- Taking education beyond the schools
- Making our facilities available to the community
- Helping others to promote education
- Enriching and broadening the experience of education
- Pupils and staff working in the community
- Enriching community life
- Supporting sport, recreation and the arts in the community
Links between the Charity’s schools and the local community continue to grow with help from the Community Co-ordinators Forum. The forum provides an opportunity for our schools to network with representatives of local voluntary groups and the Charity’s grants and almshouse officers to discuss ways the schools and pupils can serve the local community.
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8.4 You are only (sponsoring an Academy/making grants/running almshouses etc) to pass the public benefit test aren’t you?
No, the two things are entirely unconnected.
The Charity has been making grants and running almshouses for hundreds of years before the Charities Act and the subsequent raising of the issue of public benefit. Likewise, it was the government that first raised the possibility of the Charity sponsoring an Academy with the Charity. Trustees would continue with their investigation of sponsorship even if the public benefit requirement was already satisfied without it, as they believe is the case.
Also see question 8.3
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9. Trustees, Officers and Staff:
9.1 Who are your Trustees and staff?
The Charity has 26 Trustees who form an incorporated Governing Body. 8 are nominated, 2 are representative members from the local authorities and the remaining 16 are co-opted, elected by the Trustees.
All terms of office are for five years with the exception of representative members who are in office for four years.
A full list of Trustees and senior staff at the Harpur Trust offices can be found on www.bedfordcharity.org.uk
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9.2 Why are all your Trustees so secretive?
They are not! Trustees are unpaid volunteers who give of their time and talents to help support the Charity. Generally they are rather modest people who would prefer not to advertise their personal part in the Charity’s work.
As an independent foundation, the Charity must be run according to the Scheme authorised by the Charity Commission, to whom the Trustees must report every year. However, under the Scheme, Trustees are given wide powers to use their discretion in making decisions regarding the use of the Charity’s assets. Their discussions are usually confidential so that they can speak frankly, openly and honestly and use their personal knowledge and judgment, acting together, in the best interests of the beneficiaries.
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9.3 Why don’t your Trustees hold all of their meetings in public?
The first part of each of the meetings of the Governing Body is open to the public but the Trustees then consider matters privately in committee.
Also see question 9.2
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9.4 How do you become a Trustee of the Charity?
Of the Charity’s 26 Trustees, currently 16 come from nominating bodies or local authorities and 10 are elected as co-opted Trustees by the trustee body (see question 9.2).
The Charity is currently considering ways in which to find suitably motivated and talented people to become Trustees and this may in the future mean that there are more opportunities for individuals to put themselves forward to become Trustees.
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9.5 How many of your Trustees are from ethnic minorities/have a disability/are women?
Currently, 8 of the 26 Trustees (there are four vacant positions) including the Chairman, are women. The Charity does not keep records of the disabilities of its Trustees and nor, at present, is it aware that any of its Trustees would describe themselves from an ethnic minority.
The Charity is currently considering ways in which to find suitably motivated and talented people to become Trustees and this may in the future mean that there are more opportunities for individuals to put themselves forward to become Trustees. One of the factors that will be considered during this process is the diversity of the governing body of Trustees.
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9.6 How can you make decisions from BME groups etc when your grants committee has only one BME member?
Bedford has a very diverse make up, and it would be impossible to ensure that our committees include representatives of every minority community. We therefore seek advice from specialist agencies such as Bedford Racial Equality Council and MENTER where appropriate. We attend conferences and lectures to ensure that we keep abreast of issues affecting minority groups, and aim to facilitate debate through events such as our Harpur seminar on Muslims in Britain, organised in conjunction with the national organisation Forward Thinking.
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9.7 What training do your Trustees have on diversity issues?
Trustees have had explanation of issues affecting Muslims in Britain from Forward Thinking. All Trustees have the opportunity to take part in visits to funded projects at which issues affecting the groups they work with are explained, for example issues affecting people with learning disabilities were dealt with on a visit to Autism Bedfordshire. Trustees on the Grants Committee also invite applicants to their meetings to explain issues with which they are unfamiliar.
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9.8 What knowledge/experience does the Charity’s Grants Committee have of the issues they make decisions on (e.g. substances misuse, mental health, poverty etc)?
Grants Committee members come from a wide range of backgrounds and have experience of a number of issues through their professional and personal lives or through their own voluntary activities. We aim to address gaps in expertise by seeking advice from external bodies on particular issues, by sharing reports and research with the Committee and by carefully selecting the co-opted members of the Grants Committee.
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9.9 You are a Charity – why do you pay teachers (any staff) as much as you do?
Charities are not businesses but they must be run in a businesslike manner and to do that requires competent and well-motivated employees who also need to look after their families. If the Charity does not provide adequate remuneration it will not attract the people it needs. Paying staff is specifically accepted as being essential to Charities in the Charity Commission’s draft guidance on the new Charities Act.
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10. Governance:
10.1 You aren’t accountable to the public are you?
No - as an independent foundation, the Charity must be run according to the Scheme authorised by the Charity Commission, to whom the Trustees must report every year.
Under the Scheme, Trustees are given wide powers to use their discretion in making decisions regarding the use of the Charity’s assets. The Trustees are accountable to the beneficiaries of the Charity, and ultimately the courts, through proper running of the Charity in accordance with the Scheme.
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10.2 Who are you accountable to?
Also see question 10.1
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10.3 You are not democratic are you?
Not in the usually accepted sense of political democracy. Like most charities, the Bedford Charity is supervised by Trustees who are unpaid volunteers. Although two of our 26 Trustees are nominated by local authorities, most are not elected politicians.
Not being “democratic” in the political sense is important for independent foundations; they can take decisions that may be contrary to the government’s agenda but which are necessary in the best interest of the Charity’s beneficiaries.
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10.4 You are always being prosecuted for health and safety issues aren’t you?
No – the Charity takes Health and Safety very seriously and has an excellent record on keeping its employees and the students at its schools safe, despite employing over 1400 men and women and educating nearly 4,000 young people.
The Charity was prosecuted in 2003 and was fined £15,000 following an accident suffered by a boy who fell off a wall at one of its schools
Sadly, in 1994 a boy died following an accident in a swimming pool at one of the Charity’s schools. The prosecution by the HSE resulted in a fine of £21,000.
These are the only two prosecutions of the Charity under Health and Safety legislation in the last 15 years.
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10.5 You run the local Council don’t you?
No! There are two local councillors who are nominated to be Trustees by the local authorities but that is the only link. Councillors who sit as Trustees must, by law, act as individuals and exercise their personal discretion and judgment.
Before the Act of Parliament in 1764, that established the Bedford Charity, Bedford Corporation administered Sir William Harpur’s gift, whilst New College, Oxford, appointed the school staff. Since then, and particularly in recent years, the links between the local authority and the Charity have grown ever more tenuous and they are now entirely separate organisations.
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11. Future Plans:
11.1 What is the Charity’s strategic plan / vision for the next five years?
The Trustees’ vision for the Bedford Charity in 2009 is:
The Bedford Charity will continue to serve the residents of the Borough of Bedford, first through an increasing, creative and constructive grants programme, which recognises the importance of education as a means of improving the life chances of all in society and in particular the disadvantaged. Second, the Charity’s schools will continue to provide excellent independent education, whilst widening access and enhancing their existing ethos of valuing public service. Third, the Charity will provide accommodation to cater for those whose needs can best be met by the Charity’s almshouse.
The Trustees have set a strategy for the five-year period 2004-2009, which describes the main strands of activity to achieve their vision. A full copy is available on www.bedfordcharity.org.uk
The Trustees will develop the Charity’s next Strategic Plan during 2009.
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