To wonder where these kids are meant to go?!

[Wonderberry]

Unfortunately, my child's school is closing due to the VAT imposition on private school fees. She has special needs, and her fees are paid for by her EHCP, as it is a cheaper alternative to a special school. I am not rich. She cannot attend a state mainstream due to her special needs, and the council agrees with this.

I now have no school placement for her. The special schools are hugely oversubscribed (over 10 applications per place). Even if she could go to a state mainstream, there is no space in any of them, due to lots of schools closing locally. I have called dozens of them in desperation, as I need for her to go somewhere.

I have been frantically contacting the council to get her a new school place. They won't even respond. I'm faced with her being without any school place shortly. I cannot home school as I need to work.

My DD is far from alone in this. Unfortunately, the government has paid no thought into the wellbeing of SEND children, when imposing the VAT.

There are two different issues here:

One is your DD's need for an education - this is her legal right.

The second is your need for her to be cared for elsewhere while you work - this unfortunately is not a right. If you are unable to work, default on your mortgage, and have to go into a council emergency B&B accommodation pending going into social housing, that is nothing to do with the education system.

Sadly, society at large is set up with the expectation that both parents work, or that single parents work, whereas the education system (and doubly so the SEND education system) is set up with the expectation that school is not childcare and so you should pay for childcare, and if you can't pay for childcare you can't work.
It is not a coherent and logical system.

Could she attend a unit in a MS school? Even if they are "full" once it's on the ehcp they have to make space.

Roughly where are you based? Is there a nearby PS that would be suitable?

I would start by finding the school that you think will suit her regardless of space available, then you can work on the ehcp review process

Also i would post on the SN forum here as you will be able to speak to people who have had similar quandries x

Why are your local state schools closing?

There are two different issues here:

The issues are somewhat intertwined when you consider education otherwise than in school. LAs often tell parents they need to be present for (at least some of) the provision &/or are responsible for transporting between providers (which can be during the day so isn’t the same as just dropping at school) &/or that provision has to take place at home. However, LAs cannot legally compel parents to facilitate provision in this way or insist provision takes place at home.

In London, schools are closing because there are no children left who need them. (Brexit, low birth rate, housing issues etc)
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/greenwich-school-plumstead-closure-gallions-reach-b1194862.html
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cly559jnd2zo

The problem here isn’t VAT on private schools, the council are except from paying it on EHCPs where they’re paying the fees. Private fees have been increasing beyond inflation for years now, the VAT may have been the straw that broke, but it’s been getting harder to pay fees for years.

It’s a lack of quality state provision's for kids with SEN, that’s the issue, made worse by a mainstream school system that isn’t as inclusive as it could be. The whole system needs root and branch reform. If your dd school was state run they’d have considered what happens to the poor kids before closing, a private institution doesn’t need to consider this.

Both are an issue. The VAT is applicable to other parents, and therefore they are avoiding private. This has resulted in closure.

I absolutely agree that lack of SEN provision is a huge issue. Private schools have been closing the gap left by the state sector. Closures are resulting in the problem being exacerbated.

Yes, falling birth rate, families moving out of London. It's not been well planned though, as there are now no school places, and many schools have had to increase there class sizes to over 30 to accommodate place less children.

If there is a huge shortage of SEN places locally, surely the solution that makes most sense is for the local authority to take over the school and transform it into a publicly funded institution. I believe that private schools have been subsumed into the state sector in the past although I imagine the squeeze on budgets would make it difficult to do this nowadays.

Hard to see how the fees for private school are cheaper than a state special school.
If it is cheaper then it really is unlikely to be that specialist. Do you mean that it has much smaller classes?

OP is saying that the private mainstream independent school is cheaper than special school (State or private - a private special school likely to be in excess of £50k per year).

Yes, this.

State special school is also in excess of £50k per year locally for a place.

This would make so much sense. Unfortunately the council doesn't work this way.

I am sorry that you are facing uprooting your dd. If you think your dd needs a special school place then you should look at both state and independent special schools. The LA have a duty to find her a placement.

State special schools are not 50 000 per place.

More like 10 000 plus any top up for very high needs.

State SS can sometimes cost £50k. It depends on things like what SEP is in F.

Sorry to hear this. The council have to place you- or if they don’t you can actually take them to court.

So they have to offer a suitable place for your child’s needs- and over 3 miles they have to pay transport. I would go down this route first , it might be that they place your daughter in an independent school and then they will not only cover your fees but also transport to as they’ve had to sort it for you.

Ridiculous policy - so sorry this has happened to you. It’s tipped lots of schools
over- figures have been released now since the high school deadlines and private schools in our area, have had a 23% less application rate in entry years into private schools- so all that money that are making from VAT they are paying double to educate those children who would have previously gone into private education.

In London they do. You might be confusing the cost with mainstream plus additional support. That is a lot cheaper. Nowhere does special school only cost £10k per child. Mainstream cost is not far off that.

cost with mainstream plus additional support. That is a lot cheaper.

Not always. It can sometimes be more expensive, especially if DC need higher staffing requirements.

They absolutely can be depending on the needs and staffing ratios.

Plus some children just cannot manage in mainstream even with support.

My son can cope with the academics without issue but the environment is unsafe for him emotionally.

He was always needing movement breaks, needing to be taken out, found the noise unbearable.

He had a 1-2-1 and breakout areas but it was extremely stressful for him and damaged his mental health significantly.

The actual placement has to be right - not just the funding.

I’ve just costed a place at my special school at £72,000. And we are one of the cheaper providers that the LA likes to place pupils at.

it doesn’t take much in the way of additional learning support to push a place above 50k

@Merryoldgoat oh yes, definitely. I was just replying to the comment about MS being a lot cheaper.