Two independent schools and one fee-paying care home have failed the first public benefit assessment from the Charity Commission for England & Wales.

Highfield Priory School, St Anselm’s School Trust, and the Penylan House Jewish Retirement and Nursing Home failed the assessment and have 12 months to submit action plans that will enable them to meet the public benefit requirement.

Dame Suzi Leather, chair of the Charity Commission, said as charities receive reputational benefits and tax breaks, “So, in return it’s right that they demonstrate how they bring real benefit to the public.”

David Lyscom, chief executive of the ISC said “We are deeply disappointed with the approach taken by the Charity Commission.”

Lyscom said that the commission focused on bursaries provided and downplayed the significance of partnerships with local school and communities. He said they, “Deliberately discounted the wider social benefits that individual schools and the independent sector as a whole provide.”

He warned focussing on bursaries, "Will inevitably lead to fee increases for the vast majority of parents."

The commission has published its Emerging Findings report with information for trustees of charities in England and Wales about meeting the public benefit requirement.

On the subject of assessing the effects of fee-charging on public benefit, the report says: “Where a charity charges high fees that many people could not afford, the trustees must demonstrate that there is sufficient opportunity for people who cannot afford those fees to benefit in a material way that is related to the charity’s aims.”

The Emerging Findings report is available on the Charity Commission website.