Have your school shared VAT update?

[nearlylovemyusername]

Just heard from ours, total increase will be 15%. This is on the top of annual increase of 4%.
Significant number of kids moving to grammar

Early on Labour’s statements made it sound like an EHCP on its own would be sufficient for a VAT exception. Ultimately they will only refund VAT if the LA is paying the fees, so the VAT exemption is for LA budgets and has no benefit for parents funding on their own. This is true even if the school is a special school, so some children with profound send will be affected.

our local authority has spent the summer rewriting ehcp’s and seem to be blanket revoking any placements in independent schools. Not because of VAT (which they wouldn’t be on the hook for) but because budgets are in dire straits and they are happy to push as many as they can out of the life raft. This is the same LA that routinely rejects any application and exhausts all legal (and non legal) routes to discourage and delay any send application.

is it any wonder that parents of some of those children moved to self fund private on less than robust financial footing? If your child is in crisis you reach for whatever lifeline you can find, and that might include really toeing the line of affordability, which subsequently gets torpedoed by vat.

personally I wish I had the confidence that the system would ultimately do right by my dc, but my wider network of Sen parents repeatedly show me that I can only expect support after years of trauma for my child, and even then it will be precarious and probably inadequate to their needs. I am not 100% sure we can afford private all the way through, especially with vat, but we will hang on as long as we can - I have to think that every year where dc is supported gives them a slightly better chance at ultimately navigating through to adulthood.

And @PocketSand it is great that you have managed to navigate the system and get a placement that suits your child, but the possibility of success is not the same as a probable positive outcome. I know MANY parents of children with profound need who cannot access a suitable placement even when assessed as requiring specific support. if your child is on the cusp of mainstream, forget about any sort of meaningful support.

Our prep school fee increase last year was 15% and this year 7% and in Jan VAT is coming..

We are jumping ship to the grammar school. Sat the exam last September.

In 3 years the prep school fees have increased from £18k to £22k and just aren't value for money any more. Two others are leaving our year to go to cheaper private school so more kids leaving than entering. The year below several kids are leaving for state primaries.

@sheep73 welcome to the state system!

curlewkate it's more of a welcome back but thankyou.

I've been told the school is good academically but the sports is disappointing so I'm not sure how that will go down with my sporty scholar who is used to daily sport..

Well done accessing a good state school. I saw a post the other day on IG article for top schools in the UK and nearly all were grammar schools

They will likely attract more ex private now the policy is happening

Join a local club - but I agree it's miserable not having daily sport with your mates.

zanyfox easier said than done as he will be a boarder..

Also Eton owns loads of real estate in London (in Hampstead) so has considerable additional income from rents. Many boys schools have this but girls’ schools don’t.

A boarder at a state grammar?? Why? I can't imagine that will be at all decent.

I have a huge amount of sympathy for people that send their SEN children to private school as they haven't been able to have their needs met in mainstream school. Actually, I think it's appalling that SEN provision isn't better in state schools, but accept that won't happen overnight. I think SEN schools should be exempt from the VAT.

However, my niece has a (not insignificant) bursary to a private secondary school. Her parents have a six figure household income and paid (outright) for her to go to private prep school. I am afraid that this has left me sceptical about how many really genuinely underpriviliged children are in receipt of private school bursaries. I don't think that bursaries are the great force for good that seems to be often touted on here.

Thanks for your confidence zanyfox that really puts my mind at rest!

Oh ignore me, I know absolutely nothing about state boarding.

That's fine for your 1 experience out of 1000s of kids but not all of us live in areas where 6 figure incomes are the norm for every parent. Over 20% of kids are in receipt of some form of fee support, that's over 100,000 kids. 110,000 kids with SEN and of those only around 20,000 have an EHCP in place and most of those EHCPs don't name the Indy school. This WILL hit the less wealthy families as the really wealthy have already been able to pay up front before 29th July.

The other thing to note is some areas have much better state schools than others. London and even the burbs where I grew up the schools have improved massively since I was a kid. They are now largely well oiled machines with lots of pushy / tiger parents.
In other areas, including where we live, state schools are dire and choices are few. We cannot get to any school on public transport for example and many schools involved a 45min + journey each way (state or private).

Trust me you aren't allowed to say that your local state schools are dire (even though there are 100s of threads which categorically explain how some are). That isn't a good enough reason to choose independent for your child.

From another point of view, I am waiting to see our school increase. Fees already going up 8% in September. I am a teacher. I have lost my teacher pension and had 5 years of a pay freeze. I will be cross if the school subsidises parents further at my expense. I’m afraid if that is the case I will be a complete jobsworth next year. I’ve already stopped volunteering to go to the matches which are back late etc.
To put this in context, my school is in no danger of closing, lots of financial reserves. The governors look after their friends sending their children to the school, not the staff there.
Lots of us are looking for jobs back in the state sector, especially after the state school pay award. Easier said than done unless you are a maths or science teacher though! Our experience is out of date.

Yes, the hundreds of threads about how awful it is being a state school teacher don't really tally with the amount of threads saying how posters kids became amazing academic superstars at their local state school they they just happened to live next to.

I'm sorry, @nearlylovemyusername. I would love to leave your thread exclusively for sharing practical information about private school VAT issues. But while there is so much misinformation being posted, I can't.

@ZanyFox of course there are bad state schools. But threads from teachers saying they are having a shit time does not suggest that their schools are awful for the kids. They are often having a shit time because they are busting a gut to protect the kids and themselves from years of budget cuts and neglect. Yes, some schools are bad. So are some teachers. But most aren't. Most state schools can't provide the extra curriculars private schools can. Because private school parents pay for them as part of the fees. State school parents pay for them too-just not as part of the school day.

And it never ceases to amaze me that so many private school parents live in the catchments of the worst state schools. Considering that said worst schools are almost invariably in areas of significant social deprivation and disadvantage. Which is not the natural habitat of people who are in a position to send their children to private school.

The idea that you can just go State and pay for the extras like sport and clubs doesn't work as a model for most SEN kids. They are so exhausted from just being in school there's little chance of them going to anything after school. Not to mention if you work it's impossible to get them there unless you hire a nanny. The amount of transitions required to get to one club is unmanageable for a lot of kids whereas when it's baked into the school day they are able to participate in it all.

My state school is fine. My kids could probably have gone there and come out OK. But dh and I wanted them to get the best education we could possibly afford, and that was at the private school. It wasn't a hard decision.

It doesn't work if you work full time and live rurally either.

6% fee increase and a further 9% in January at my school. Staff on a pay freeze so salaries will be below state sector.

4% fee increase at DS's school with 8% in January.

Although if you don't have to pay private school fees you have more options around parents working reduced hours or paying for someone do to the running around for you.

My disabled daughter could not have coped with "extras" within a school day, so private school would have been worse for her in this respect.

I suspect we will see some “extra/plus” afterschool clubs with buses springing up in the near future. Minibus picking up kids and taking them to a place which combine homework supervision, tutoring and an extra-curric.

Also, holiday clubs providing the above. Might even be an area for private schools with falling numbers to move into.