Private school fees - act now for SEND!

Timescales for an ehcp are written in law and should be no more than 20 weeks from application. One of mine went to tribunal and still wasn’t 2 years from start of application. Some do go on for 2 years usually because the child has significant need and will be very expensive) but it is the exception.

@Phineyj they first announced this before September 2023 and I think there should be some kind of transition period in the legislation, so it probably would be close to 2 years by the end of it, if not more. The writing has been on the wall for a long time- certainly long enough for plenty of private schools to have taken extensive advice on ways around it all (like paying everything now!).

Absolutely. Taxing parents who have been forced to pay for a suitable education for disabled kids doesn’t benefit those who can’t afford to pay (in fact it will likely disadvantage them by putting further strain on resources). It’s just the politics of envy

VAT is not a "tax on luxury items". It is a tax on "value added" meaning value added at each stage of the production or consumption of the good or service.

I suppose the thing with education is the value added is rather subjective unlike e.g. a block of cheese (zero rated as deemed to be a necessity).

As it's a percentage tax, it does of course fall more heavily on expensive things.

Education isn’t a luxury. It especially isn’t a luxury if it’s simply paying for the education the state should be providing but won’t. Punishing disabled kids because you’re jealous of their parents is really low

getting an EHCP is a very long and difficult process. You’re being ridiculously naive.

There are some children with SEN whose parents have got them into the private system and now they are doing OK. The difficulties have been to some extent resolves, but now the govt are going to introduce VAT meaning some of those children lose their solution. That doesn't benefit them and it doesn't benefit anyone's children who haven't used private either.

That is simply untrue. It can be a long battle to get an EHCP.

I agree. It doesn't have to be state school kids vs private children. They are all children whose parents are trying to provide the best they can for them. Bitter sums it up. My niece goes to a fantastic all girls private secondary. We can't afford that for my DD and occasionally I am a bit jealous, but how would making it unaffordable for her parents benefit me. It wouldn't. I want her to do well.

you’re attacking op for caring about some
disabled children. It doesn’t matter if some SEN parents disagree and think they should pay more tax for the privilege of paying for a suitable education for their child (who are these people???). They can pay extra tax if they want. The purpose of ops thread is to help some SEN kids which is laudable. Why would anyone be opposed even if they were not in the group being helped?

Let's examine that statement: "those with serious SEN should get an EHCP".

Yes. It would take about two years (assuming the waits don't get longer which they probably will).

So are parents being allowed a two year grace period? No.

@User6874356 because luxuries are subject to VAT and people have to pay tax on luxury items. No one is banning people from attending these schools the government is just effectively removing an exemption. And those with serious SEN can and should get an ECHP so won’t be subject to the full fees anyway.

Isn’t a large reason children with EHCPs will be exempt from tax is to save LAs money as there are many LA funded children in independent schools.

How would it be determined without an EHCP that a child meets the criteria for exemption? If it’s a case of a school putting a children in the SEN register that could be open to abuse.

Private schools don’t tend to use QTS teachers either. Yet most still manage to deliver.

Why should those who can afford to pay privately for something the state should be paying for but isn’t be taxed? Especially when it’s a suitable education for a disabled child?

what an awful person you must be to want to punish disabled kids because you’re jealous their parents can afford to pay to stop the state failing them. It’s quite possible to care about SEN kids whose parents can afford private school and those who can’t if you’re a decent human.

In a nutshell.

Safety valve? Utter crock of shit that is. Let's reduce spending by pretending SEND doesn't exist. Lovely Tory policy there.

We need more special schools built. Sadly all political parties won't acknowledge this, why would they if they are expensive. Nothing on any manifestos about this. It's an utter mess. My LA asked the D of E for funding to build two SS and it got declined. There is over 200 children waiting for a specialist place in my LA (so have been through an EHCP process and meet the threshold to need one). That's about the capacity of two maintained special schools. Clever, clever D of E. 🙄I hope it changes after the election, but I doubt it because the economy is a pile of shit too.

I literally emailed my new Labour MP an hour after his seat was called, so I have already let him know my issues. 😂I will be like a wasp round this man. I hate being that parent, but you have to be.

@coupdetonnerre just so you know I am a school SEN governor at my local school, with 2 of my 4 kids having ECHPs for which I have successfully applied and now have to spend hours engaging with schools and the county council to try to ensure they are complied with (I.e. fight tooth and nail for the basics). I have also campaigned for equal access to education for many SEN kids including helping and directing others to resources. So I think I actually do quite a bit, yes it had been quite a struggle alongside Covid and working full time as well as multiple lengthy hospital stays for one of my kids- thanks for asking!

My comment was actually aimed at you criticising other people for not doing enough- it’s perfectly acceptable to critique the basic tenet of this thread- to galvanise affluent parents to bother their MPs about this niche issue whilst ignoring the needs of the majority who will benefit from this policy by increasing funding in the state sector. You can criticise that from whatever perspective you want without having to be a full placard waving protestor.

Why should people pay more for a SEN education that their child is not being offered by the state because another parent can’t afford it? Yes all SEN kids should get a decent education but that’s not a reason to charge VAT for children who are SEN and whose parents had to go private because it wasn’t offered .

Yes - we are talking about the life chances of ALL disabled children.

You are talking about the life chances of the small % of this country's children with SEN which are a) at private school and b) cannot afford the VAT rise.

You are assuming that most posters have no lived experience, despite many telling you that they have. You are assuming that the rest of us are not fighting or campaigning or speaking out every chance we get. You are ignoring all the parents with SEN children who disagree with you.

I have a child with learning difficulties but no EHCP. The state system failed her repeatedly but we were fortunate enough to be able to jump ship and go private. This is a luxury and I agree that that luxury should be taxed because not everyone can afford to do what we did. I believe that before we went private and I still believe it now.

I feel angry that the state system is so underfunded that even though my child attracted Pupil
Premium funding due to being a previously looked after child they could still not afford to provide the help she needed.

The state system had no problem spending my son's pupil premium money on extra tutoring to make sure he got level 9s instead of level 8s because that made their stats look good. They just can't afford to spend money on the ones who are really struggling due to learning difficulties.

We are just about to move my DC ( ASD and ADHD) to a private school. Terrible timing. We have been told by the current school that they would qualify for an ECHP but could not bring ourselves to go through the process of applying for one after the stress of getting a diagnosis.
What we will be doing is applying for DLA and carers allowance. We hope that this will cover some of the VAT. Never would have applied for this if it wasn't for the new policy.
My DC could not cope in a mainstream school which is overwhelmed by many kids with special needs.

The PPs making flippant comments about just applying for an EHCP have clearly never tried to apply for one before and I sincerely hope that they never have to.

I have and that's why I made the comment. I don't think you should be resorting to having to spend your money and go through this worry of VAT, when really the LA should be meeting your child's needs. If you spent your money on legal fees instead it may save you money in the long run. My council conceded before tribunal in the end and if your case is clear cut you probably won't need representation anyway. It was a suggestion.

It's shit having to fight I know and it is exhausting working and dealing with your child's needs too, but I think if we all concentrate on the private school debate we are missing the point - you shouldn't be worrying about this in the first place if the LA was doing their job according to the law.

My son has complex needs though, and yes he is still in mainstream and it took about 14 months to go through the process to tribunal to get him school place, but we did get there in the end. I appreciate it can be harder for HF children though as it is more difficult to evidence their needs if they are doing well academically.

So write to your MP and make all those points!