New Charity Inquiry: The Albayan Education Foundation Limited

1 Feb 2019 02:39 PM

Charity regulator opens inquiry into education charity

The Charity Commission, the independent regulator of charities in England and Wales, has opened a statutory inquiry into The Albayan Education Foundation Limited (1128083). The inquiry was opened on 13 December 2018.

The charity, whose objects include the advancement of education and the relief of individuals living in the UK and overseas who are in need or hardship, also runs a school in Birmingham. That school has been issued with a number of critical reports by Ofsted, and statutory notices by the Department for Education under section 114(5) of the Education and Skills Act 2008.

None of these issues triggered the trustees to report a serious incident to the Commission, as would have been expected under our serious incident reporting regime.

The regulator has previously engaged with the charity, issuing an action plan to the charity’s trustees aimed at improving the governance, management and administration of the charity.

However the trustees have failed to implement the action plan fully leading the Commission to have serious concerns about the ongoing viability of the charity; as a result, the Commission has opened an inquiry which will examine the governance, management and administration of the charity by its trustees, including:

• whether the trustees have complied with and fulfilled their duties and responsibilities as trustees under charity law;
• whether the trustees have complied with the requirements of other regulators, in particular the DfE;
• the financial controls and management of the charity’s funds and accounting procedures;

It is the Commission’s policy, after it has concluded an inquiry, to publish a report detailing what issues the inquiry looked at, what actions were undertaken as part of the inquiry and what the outcomes were. Reports of previous inquiries by the Commission are available on GOV.UK.

Notes to Editors

1. The Charity Commission is the regulator of charities in England and Wales. To find out more about our work see the about us page on GOV.UK.
2. Search for charities on our check charity tool.
3. Section 46 of the Charities Act 2011 gives the Commission the power to institute inquiries. The opening of an inquiry gives the Commission access to a range of investigative, protective and remedial legal powers.