The Independent Schools Council (ISC) is a non-profit organisation that represents over 1,200 schools in the United Kingdom's independent education sector. The organisation comprises eight independent school associations and promotes the common interests of its member schools in the political arena, which includes the Department for Education.
The ISC was first established (then as the Independent Schools Joint Council) in 1974 by the leaders of the associations that make up the independent schools. In 1998, it reconstituted as the Independent Schools Council.
Schools that are members of the associations that constitute ISC are inspected by the Independent Schools Inspectorate (ISI). Since December 2003, ISI has been the body approved by the Secretary of State for Education and Skills for the inspection of ISC schools and reports to the DfE under the 2002 Education Act. ISI was part of ISC until, in late 2007, the ISI became its own limited company, thereby separating itself from ISC.
The current chairman of ISC is Barnaby Lenon. ISC is run by the General Secretary, Julie Robinson.
ISC has five strategic objectives:
To support the aims and objectives of its member associations, and provide a place where members from different associations might choose to meet
To protect and promote the sector through targeted, focused and effective campaigns with policy makers and opinion formers
To be a leading source of legal and regulatory guidance for the sector
To conduct and compile authoritative sector research and intelligence to underpin everything it does
To provide online access to sector and school information to inform parental decisions
Current priorities include the following activities:
To champion and channel sector consensus on public examinations and national curriculum frameworks
To protect and promote the sector’s interests on charitable status, public benefit and social mobility
To promote the sector’s view on a proportionate regulatory and inspection regime
To promote the sector’s view on the proper regulatory framework for all aspects of safeguarding
To protect and promote the sector’s interests in recruiting overseas pupils
To support schools offering early years education
To carry out annual data gathering and analysis on the sector via the Census
To analyse the sector’s performance in national exams and university offers and admissions
To carry out surveys on attitudes towards the sector and financial benchmarking
To provide support for experts groups
To promote the views of the sector, the associations and their members through the media
To ensure consistent media responses across the sector
To provide a high quality daily news service to all schools
To support the marketing and promotion of schools, including user friendly access to information about schools
To provide guidance and support for members and schools on all of the above
In 2011, the ISC challenged the Charity Commission in relation to the latter's statutory guidance on public benefit. The Upper Tribunal heard the judicial review, which was combined with an Attorney General's reference, over five days in May 2011 and reserved judgment until October 2011. The lengthy ruling upheld ISC's main ground of complaint, which was that the guidance did not reflect the true state of charity law on public benefit and charities which charge fees. A subsequent hearing and ruling in December 2011 ordered that the Commission withdraw large parts of its guidance or face a quashing order. The disputed guidance was withdrawn shortly before Christmas 2011, and replacement guidance was put out to consultation in 2012.
Girls' Schools Association (GSA) – the main association to which heads of girls' senior independent schools belong.
Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference (HMC) – represents the heads of over 240 boys' and co-educational independent senior schools.
Independent Association of Prep Schools (IAPS) – represents the heads of more than 670 boys', girls' and mixed preparatory schools for children mainly between the ages of 7 and 13. Many IAPS schools take children from age 3, however, and some schools go up to the age of 16.
Independent Schools Association (ISA) – ISA members include heads of over 370 schools for children of all ages. They represent both boarding and day schools, co-educational and single gender, and specialist schools in the arts and music.
Society of Heads (SHMIS) – represents the heads of independent schools of all sizes, many of which have a long tradition of boarding.
Association of Governing Bodies of Independent Schools (AGBIS) – represents the interests of the governing bodies of schools whose heads belong to GSA, HMC and SHMIS (and some belonging to IAPS & ISA).
Council of British International Schools (COBIS) – represents the interests of British international schools abroad.
Independent Schools' Bursars Association (ISBA) – represents the bursars of over 800 senior and junior schools.
