To be completely shocked by this - Bridget can’t tell us the impact of the government’s VAT on Education?

[Sasskitty]

Bridget Phillipson dodges question on impact of private school tax raid

As parents and schools complain of chaos, Ms Phillipson refuses to spell out details of the assessment made by the department for education

Bridget Phillipson failed to spell out the full impact of the government’s private school VAT raid, dodging the question when asked about the possible implications for special education schools.

While she said the government has “looked at all of the potential impacts”, her answer failed to provide any real detail on the expected consequences.

It comes as parents and schools complain about the implications of the tax raid, which came into force on New Year’s Day and is expected to raise £1.5bn for the Treasury.

YABU - Bridget Phillipson has it all in hand. She just didn’t feel like answering the pesky question. The point is to piss rich people off. Leave Labour alone, they want nothing but erm oh I’m not sure.

YANBU - Phillipson clearly has no idea what the impact of VAT on Education will be. Nor does she really care as long as she’s seen to be punishing those horrible rich people. Or even better (it seems) the not really rich ones just trying to improve the education of their children as the available state schools were not suitable.

https://apple.news/AO7fcmrzuRaik4stLaPQxwA

(sorry paywall but there’s not much more in the article)

PS. I’ve removed the poll tally, no one needs to see real data. Do they?

They’re used to money getting them what they want, this one’s taking a little while to get used to.

The policy only works financially IF private school parents, as a group, are just going to pay up. If they are not happy and do not pay and move their kids/some even overseas, the policy fails. Catch 22, hey!

And the minimising of SEND in the private sector and the huge impact on SEND schools, is a hard fact! Unless they widen the exemption, it is going to be quite catastrophic.

Yeah, I think it'll be fine.

Some families will be affected, but very few. Everyone else will carry on as they are and barely notice.

But those families who are affected will feel it disproportionately and at the end of the day is it children who will suffer most

It is really not worth the political risk given that some of these children have mental health issues! Enough said.

The general public got tricked because most believe children with SEND are completely excluded from the VAT. It was not clear to Joe Bloggs how narrow the exemption really is (only EHCPs funded for particular private schools by the council).

It follows, that those still supporting this policy in its current form, without adequate exemptions for vulnerable children are either:

• bad actors stoking division
• raving lunatic socialists who do not care about financial and political consequences and harming vulnerable children
• Tories waiting on the sideline for this to blow up in Starmer’s face.

Does anyone know how many children with SEN are at private school (not by choice)? I still remain unconvinced that the numbers affected will be at all significant so it does seem like a red herring.

The ISC says it is over 100,000 children.

Considering this was put forward as levelling the playing field against the wealthy, the fact non-doms are getting a lot of extra TLC certainly makes a mockery of any actual impact Labour claimed this might have. Their manifesto appears to have been a shoal of red herring.

Over 100 000. More like 110 000.

Over one hundred thousand children are left with no choice but to attend private school because there is no state provision?

Unlikely since these figures would represent almost a fifth of all privately educated children in the UK. Note I said those with no choice rather than those who chose not to take up state education.

That’s a rather simplistic and misleading interpretation.

It was a rather simplistic and misleading choice to tax education and pretend parents don't already pay tax. The minimal amount they get is never going to make any difference.

While letting the billionaires deliberately offshoring accounts to keep on. That would have made a real difference.

Remember the figure includes all those at specialist SEN schools solely because mainstream can't meet their needs. DfE doesn't collect data on indy schools, and no-one collects data on parents reasons.

@ChallahPlaiter - can you define by what you mean as “no choice”? There were people in our state primary school with children with SEND who moved their kids to private schools because they started school refusing, mental health suffered immensely, school tried their best, it was not working. Does that count or not?
Or do you expect the child to get to the point where they have tried to commit suicide first? Where is the trigger point? Seriously, some people need to start taking a long hard look in the mirror. Trust parents to know what is best for their children.

There are a ton of autistic children now who are not low achieving but need tremendous adjustments - some have been placed in private schools, at the cost of their parents, who have chosen to just pay and work, rather than destroy their own mental health further by battling the council for years. There are so many stories like this. Do these families really not matter to the Labour Party?

It is shocking, quite frankly. We know there is a SEND crisis. All most people have been asking for is an exemption for all of these children. It really is not unreasonable at all!

I dont think adding VAT to private education was either simplistic or misleading. Actually I struggle to understand what you would mean by that? It was a policy designed to (a) raise revenue and (b) to coin a phrase, level the playing field, by highlighting the inequality perpetuated through a two tier education system. It seems the kind of thing that any government describing itself as centre left would do so maybe it’s just that you disagree with centre left ethos?

Yes it includes those but not exclusively. So my point that it’s unhelpful and misleading to claim that children with ALN are predominantly disadvantaged by VAT on private education stands.

I’m not sure why you’re being histrionic? I’m autistic so I find it very hard to respond to melodramatic language. Maybe you could reframe your questions in a way that I’d be more easily able to answer. That would include not ascribing frankly odd views to me as if I’d stated them as my own.

Oh like the "tax break" rhetoric spouted by Labour? This whole policy is simplistic, misleading bit of populist crap. "Tax the wealthy" followed by "oops we didn't realise that indy schools weren't full of rich parents so we will have to exempt; military families, kids at specialist arts schools, kids with a named EHCP, state boarding schools etc".

Are you aware you are being misogynistic by calling a fellow mother "histronic"? If you had a child being impacted by this would not be fighting?

It isn't misleading at all

There is no two tier education system. There are multiple tiers in the state sector alone, with different choices suiting different types of children. Whether a parent gets their child’s SEND funded by their council is not consistent across the country either. It is a complex interplay of different types of schools in each area, with whether it being parent or state funded, only being part of the picture. The effect on children with SEND is a massive oversight and quite negligent really. Children are not insulated from SEND by their parents’ wallet status. The whole SEND question needs addressing rather urgently, as advised by various reports. The parents self funding SEND do not operate in some sort of vacuum.

No, I checked. Hysterical would be misogynistic. Histrionic means melodramatic. That isn’t inherently misogynistic so I’m fine to use it.

Ah so you are just passive aggressive then?
I go back to my point of: if this was your child being impacted would you not fight?