The Charity Commission, the independent regulator of charities in England and Wales, has today (6 April 2017) confirmed that it opened a statutory inquiry into Believe in Magic, registered charity number 1145557 on 7 February 2017, and has frozen its bank account.

The charity has objects to relieve the needs of children and young people up to the age of 18 in the UK suffering from serious or terminal illness and their family and carers as the trustees shall determine.

The Commission engaged with the charity’s trustees in August 2016 about a number of regulatory concerns identified from multiple complaints about the charity and from the Commission’s own scrutiny of the charity.

An investigation has now been opened as the Commission has been unable to adequately address any of its concerns with the trustees and because there are indications of misconduct or mismanagement. The investigation will:

1. Consider whether, and to what extent, the charity is operating in furtherance of its charitable objects and for the public benefit.
2. Examine the administration, governance and management of the charity by the trustees, in particular the extent to which the trustees have:
   • acted in the charity’s best interests and acted in accordance with their legal duties
   • responsibly managed the charity’s resources and financial affairs
   • ensured that conflicts of interest in the charity have been adequately avoided or managed
   • properly authorised benefits to trustees and connected persons
3. Examine the trustees’ non-compliance with their reporting duties, specifically the non-submission of the charity’s annual accounts and reports.

To protect the assets of the charity, the Commission has frozen the charity’s bank account under section 76(3)(d) of the Charities Act 2011 which will prohibit the charity from making payments or withdrawing money from the account unless they have the Commission’s prior authorisation. The Commission has also directed the charity under section 47 of the Charities Act to provide information and documentation that will assist the inquiry.

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.

The charity’s details can be viewed on the Commission’s online charity search tool.

Ends

PR 31/17

Notes to editors

1. The Charity Commission is the independent regulator of charities in England and Wales. To find out more about our work, see our annual report.
2. Search for charities on our online register.
3. Details of how the Commission reports on its regulatory work can be found on GOV.UK.
4. 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.
5. The Commission’s decision to announce the opening of a statutory inquiry is based on whether it is in the public interest to do so and with consideration of our objective to increase public trust and confidence in charities.
6. An order was made on 10 March 2017 to restrict the charity’s bank account under section 76(3)(d) of the Charities Act 2011.
7. A direction was made under section 47 of the Charities Act on 10 March 2017.

Highlights from the survey:

Perceptions of GCSEs, AS and A levels

1. Confidence in the GCSE, AS and A level systems is significantly higher than in previous years. Levels of trust and confidence in the maintenance of standards have also improved.

2. Overall figures show that, compared to last year and previous waves, significantly higher proportions of stakeholders agreed that GCSEs “are a trusted qualification” (65% to 72%), that “standards are maintained year on year” (30% to 40%), and that “marking of GCSEs is accurate” (26% to 38%).

3. A significantly higher proportion of stakeholders also agreed that “AS and A level standards are maintained year on year” (37% to 47%), and that “the marking of AS and A levels is accurate” (31% to 41%).

4. Around twice as many young people agreed than disagreed that GCSE and AS and A level marking was accurate. The net proportion of teachers in agreement was also larger for both sets of qualifications than in previous years.

Perceptions of GCSE reform

1. The proportion of stakeholders who, in autumn 2016, were aware of the new 9 to 1 grading system was significantly higher than in wave 14. However, this improving picture of understanding is unlikely to reflect current levels of awareness, as Ofqual has since undertaken a wide-ranging communications and engagement campaign to raise awareness and understanding of the new grading system.

National Reference Test

1. The first National Reference Test was undertaken in England in February and March this year. The data suggest that in November last year about half of surveyed head teachers were aware of the test. Ofqual, and its delivery partner NFER, have since provided more information to schools, so these results are unlikely to be a true reflection of the current picture. Awareness and familiarity of the test is expected to improve as more schools are engaged with it over coming years.

Review of marking and appeals

1. Parents, young people and the general public strongly agreed that the systems used by schools and colleges to challenge GCSE, AS and A level results in England are fair. Teachers were also more likely to agree than disagree.

2. There was no change in the proportion of stakeholders who were aware of the review of marking, moderation and appeals systems compared with last year, and head teachers remained the group with the highest claimed awareness, at 75%.

3. When asked about whether they felt that they had adequate information about exam boards’ review of marking, moderation and appeals systems, overall more stakeholders disagreed (45%) than agreed (28%).

4. Awareness of the systems for appealing vocational qualification results was much lower, with only half of head teachers and a quarter of teachers responding that they knew about the process.

Special consideration, reasonable adjustments and malpractice

1. Head teachers and teachers agreed by significant margins that they have adequate information about the arrangements and adjustments available for eligible GCSE, AS and A level students. They also agreed that it is fair, and that the right adjustments are made for the right students.

2. They also strongly agreed that they have adequate information about what constitutes malpractice and to whom it should be reported and that allegations are fairly investigated.

Commenting on today’s release, Michelle Meadows, Deputy Chief Regulator, Ofqual, said:

We are pleased that confidence in GCSEs, AS and A levels is improving. This bears out anecdotal feedback we have had from stakeholders about how we have engaged the sector with the reform programme and other changes we have introduced.

This is one of many positives reflected in the report.

We continue to be in period of major reform and many of the systems and processes surveyed in this report are currently changing. There will inevitably be a period of bedding in as teachers and schools become more familiar with the changes. This is certainly true of the National Reference Test.

We also know that since this research was carried out we have done even more work around the new 9 to 1 grading structure, so the current position is likely to be better than reported here, but it still encouraging to see the figures increasing from this time last year.

Read the full Official Statistics.