Council spends £8000pa on a taxi due to VAT on private schools

[Iwishicouldflyhigh]

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14403627/Labours-VAT-raid-teenage-girl-private-school-council-fund-8-000-taxi-bill.html

So now a place is being taken up in an overscribed school, a 15 year old has had her eduction severely disrupted and the local council has 8k less in the pot.

Well done Labour!!! One of many stories, i'm sure and so predictable.

Even in not so rural areas, the nearest Secondary can be more than 5 miles away. Even at Primary school.

(The catchment where we used to live was over 40 miles for the Secondary)

Surely the fact the the council HAD to pay for transport suggests there are no places nearer?

They'd need to build shit loads of secondary schools to do that. It is normal for secondary school DC to travel 10ish miles for school. The difference is they catch the school bus, rather than a private taxi.

Sounds good. My DN secondary has 100 pupils. If they were all able to walk to school there would need to be another 50 schools - mostly with a single pupil,

Surely she was earning more than the VAT increase when she was in work?

Her fees rose by 3.2k - so they were initially paying 16k a year, rising to 19.2k (if my maths is correct and the full 20 percent was passed on to parents). They were unable to afford the extra 3.2k.

But in order to facilitate NOT attending and paying the 19.2k, the mother has stopped working. Isn't it likely that she was earning more than 19k, or had the capacity to do so? So aren't they disrupting their daughter's education and taking on a long commute AND leaving themselves worse off overall?

AFAIK it’s just the one child, she seems to be known as both Ava and Ava Nicole.

Ok it would potentially differ for rural areas. My point being if 2 children live next to each other they should have the right to attend the same local school. If one child has a 10 minute walking commute and another child has an hour in a taxi then the first child has almost an extra hour to do extra curriculars and homework. That is breeding inequality and it is isn’t right. It is for the government to expand the schools to fit demand rather than shuffling children off to schools miles away.

Wrap around care for a 15 year old doesn’t exist. My children went to a SEN school there was no breakfast clubs after school clubs or holiday clubs. They really don’t make it easy for parent carers to work.

I don’t think transport obligation extends until 18 just to gcse. It can cause issues in rural areas as teens supposed to be in education until 18 but not requirement to give them a place on school bus.

Lol. What's that got to do with in year admissions due? Obviously it's the parents in the article...

There are no schools within 5 miles of my village. Nearest one is 11 miles away.

@Iwishicouldflyhigh

you read the daily mail?
that says it all.

I’m referring to children in the same area. You can’t compare a city school with a rural one. I’m just saying all children in the same area should have the same choice and commute. One child should not be disadvantaged vs their neighbour. If the local school can’t cope with the demand, it has to be expanded or another local school built. This girl in the paper should not have a 25 mile commute if children her age near her get to have a 1 mile commute to the nearest school.

Why are they idiots? They put their child into private school but couldn’t afford it due to a new government’s policy, which was rushed through to make a point. They are claiming the same as any other child in the country but have saved the state approximately nine years of the cost of an education? And again, I wouldn’t look at VAT as a way to make money/provide breakfast clubs/half a teacher for every other school. It is ideological and the closure of lots of private schools will be the measure of its success in Labour’s eyes. We were spun a lovely tale.

But where does it end? There's always going to be a 'disadvantaged' child somewhere. Why should city school DC have 30 in a class when one of your schools has 2 pupils?

Everyone is entitled to appeal for any school they want. You can re-appeal every school year if you'd like. Mum in the article says she asked schools if they had places, they said no, then she put her daughter onto the waiting list for a school 25 miles away. She could've appealed for every school closer than 25 miles away but didn't bother, and as someone who works in school appeals, my mind would be boggled if an appeal panel thought a 50 mile round trip posed a "reasonable alternative".

It was suggested earlier the £1090 represented a 15% increase so that would make fees £21800 before increase and £25,070 after. Her lost income was £2000 per month of £24,000 p.a. The fees would also increase after the summer.

So you are saying that Labour imposed a tax on parents they knew would result in some children needing state school places but didn’t care if there were any for them?

This is a short term issue for a tiny minority of kids. Will be irrelevant in a year or two. It's really not the national travesty some are making out. So yeah, probably Labour don't really care. In year admissions have always been tricky, this is just privileged people being shocked they aren't getting special treatment.

OP, the DM are being transparently silly with their usual Labour-bashing and you are just echoing them. If the parents sorted out transport themselves, they would still be much better off than they were when paying for the private school. They have just chosen to do this. I’m not saying they’re not entitled to, but it’s their choice.

I haven’t actually made any comment on the taxi costs, so you’re jumping the gun a wee bit there.

Of course they are entitled to utilise the Council’s policies to have transport funded.

But the previous articles I linked don’t show the parents in a great light: My parents sat me down and gave me the option — either move schools or move house. We live in a three-bedroom cottage but we could have moved to a smaller house to pay for the fees. I cried. Who puts that kind of pressure on a child?

If it were me, desperate to keep a child in PS, then I would be looking at other assets to sell / savings to make, and (very) expensive hobbies would be an obvious starting point.

Wraparound care for a 15 year old?

So they might as well have paid the fees, they haven't really saved themselves any money, but mum is I assume now losing NI stamps, pension contributions and so on.

But she has made her political point so it was all worth it....

Majority of secondary schools have after school clubs and the library open early and late in my area ?

Stupid council really. I'm sure they could have found a place closer. Unless they live in a very rural area with hardly any schools. Round here there are about 20 secondary schools in a 10 mile radius - surely she could be squeezed in somewhere - there are no class size caps on secondary schools