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.

After school club is normally primary. Never heard of a secondary offering this. They might have sports clubs but that wouldn't be more than an hour or so. She'd need to be there from 7 till 5 to facilitate mum's job 8-4. Bit much to expect the poor child to hang around for 3.5 hours at school each day!

In one of the articles (the FT one I think) the mum states that they'd actually paid the private fees up until April. It seems a little irrational that they pulled her out of school in December - when she still had several months left already paid for at the private school - rather than go the route of appealing or being waitlisted.

It feels the family are pushing this to make a point, especially considering they've gone to the papers several times about it.

(To add, I don't resent the council for paying for the transportation to the school.)

Mum didn't give up - she changed to night shifts

And how are those 6500 teachers coming along?

In one of the articles she mentioned that the change of role meant she was worse off around £2,000 a month

Yes - if it was "one of many" then it would not be single family on the news being outraged.

I have no issue with transport being provided.

I am confused (as stated above) that the fees went up by £1k a term and the mother had to stop working and earning £2k a month....

On that basis why not make state schools means tested as the majority of wealthy families use them.

Maybe a £1k per term per child contribution would be a fair sum for higher earners to pay.

Someone mentioned Lincolnshire? That is a pretty rural county.

I really don't believe this is "one of many stories" as you suggest. The Mail must have dug long and hard to find this one. It is very difficult to believe that this family couldn't have found a place in a closer school if they had appealed and put their child's name on waiting lists.

To be fair if you had the choice of paying 8k a year for a taxi or getting it free, which would you choose?

No wonder you can never get a taxi at certain times of the day. I dont drive and when i had to go with my elderly mother to her surgery last month we had to tell the surgery we couldnt do appointments during school run times because there are no cabs

And how did the Government get the 10% expected increase figure? It’s total bollocks. They have just picked that figure out of thin air. Private schools not only have to deal with the VAT increase, they also have the loss of business rates exemption, the employers NI increases, and the increased contribution to the TPS (for those that are still in it).

There is a, poorly performing, school in Stamford that had a huge surplus of places in the current year 9 cohort, I wonder if this family really do live closer to Oakham than that?

My DS gets a taxi to his specialist school which is funded by the LA, as do most pupils of the 100-odd pupils there. The costs must be astronomical. Ironically I could easily get him there myself, as it’s only in the next town for us, but the LA were such utter twunts to deal with over DS’ SEN and EHCP (weaponised incompetence, unlawful exclusions, denial, obfuscation, etc), that I laughingly rinse the arseholes for every penny. I know that’s not great (and you probably had to be there to appreciate how utterly mendacious they were), but I kind of get where the girl’s mum has ended up. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Most secondaries are academies and deal with their own admissions, but if they're full she's free to appeal for a place anyway, which she didn't do.

Mum wasn’t just having to pay the increase

Yes, true. Which makes it less crazy if it's fairly normal for kids to travelling a long way in that area. Round here it'd be like a kid from Liverpool going to school in Manchester

Not if, through no fault of your own, there is no nearby school. Why should, for instance, the parent of a disabled child be forced to spend hours every week taking their child to and from school just because they are disabled and there are not enough suitable specialist schools in the area?

Absolutely, the LEA is obliged to fund transport costs to the closest available school with a place if that school is more than 3 miles from the home address. She fits the criteria for transport, I'm just genuinely shocked that her parents would go to such great lengths to use their daughter to prove a point, completely ignoring the negative impact they're going to have on her social life and education.

Typically you have to give a terms notice to leave a private school. You also can’t apply for an in year transfer to a state school at a specific future date. You have to accept what you are offered immediately otherwise the LA has no requirement to find you an alternative if you reject it. This all means that it is almost inevitable that you end up having to pay an additional terms fees when you move from private to state despite not being able to use the private school for the final term.

I do think the Scottish catchment system works better this way. My kids get minibuses to school. If you were to be removed from private school a space would be found in the catchment school. You may have to wait till next academic year for transport as not guaranteed for in year transfers but in practice if there’s a space on the bus or they can rejig the other kids then you’ll get a spot. 25 miles to Secondary is not unusual commute where I stay although on the longer side. I’m about 8 miles away but the kids at the start of the run are over 30 for example.

No, it isn't like saying that at all.

I hope you have the same positive energy for people claiming the UC/PIP and other state benefits that they are entitled to.

Are you a Guardian reader? Does that make you superior in some way? Can you explain why? Using ‘Daily Mail Reader’ as an insult is strange as all the MSM outlets are biased in one way or the other and all of them spin the news to suit. You need to read/watch a selection (including (shock, horror) the Daily Mail to avoid getting into an echo chamber of hearing opinions which always agree with your own.

I would do the same.

Umm, why should they have to home educate their child?
If the government insists that the child should attend state school, then that's for the state to finance.