The councils need to find spaces for all children!!

[HooverIsAlwaysBroken]

https://bmmagazine.co.uk/news/surrey-runs-out-of-state-school-places-for-private-pupils-as-vat-raid-bites/?amp

I am relieved to see that the Surrey is also looking at options to expand class sizes and use transportation to take children to other areas. They really need to get their act together quickly.

all children has a right to state education.

We're out of Europe what did you expect to happen. Starmer can't even build the homes he promised because there's not enough builders. We had free flow before of people working and paying taxes into the economy and free trade. Now we are bickering amongst ourselves what the real reason is for this mess. Brexit

what did you expect to happen

I expected Labour would make our situation worse with decreasing growth and by reducing the private sector

Which is pretty much what we're seeing

Look at ONS and PMI figures

Well the OBR don't think there was one.

https://ifs.org.uk/articles/ps22bn-black-hole-was-obvious-anyone-who-dared-look

Well the OBR don't think there was one.

I don't think the 'black hole' line will help Starmer, I think more are seeing through that each week

I didn’t say that at all. I said GDP had grown overall due to immigration.

Tobacco? You are being a little hyperbolic and irrelevant.

I’m not championing a political party, I didn’t vote for the Labour Party.

@LittleBearPad - I do not think you understood my point on tobacco. To me it illustrates all that is wrong with our current political system. In summary, Sunak was anti tobacco so Labour decided that they were not going to be as anti, despite it causing immense harm both to end users and the NHS. And I suppose they do not want to lose the working class tobacco vote.
It is essentially the same kind of thinking with the VAT on education.
Again, in summary, education has improved a lot in England at least in the last 20 years. There are massive gains made. Some kids, especially working class boys in deprived areas, and SEND is still a failure and the differences in quality of offering in state provision is also an issue (lack of consistency and also because of the way schools are funded per pupil and the focus on results the system itself rewards competition amongst players rather than full collaboration). The private sector is somewhat separate but real opportunities to share knowledge and a broad curriculum is there, for example, especially in the music, arts and sports. They full well know this to be the case but have ignored what is actually best for children. And that is not forgivable. So yes - competition with the Tories and ideology above what is best for the country. And that royally annoys me.

Hardly an ideal situation pre-Brexit either though. Exploitation/modern slavery is rife within the construction industry, plus around 40% of EU construction workers were classed as 'self-employed' so we have no idea if they were paying correct taxes or not:

2022
At least 33 companies ‘unwittingly’ paid an organised criminal gang that placed hundreds of Romanian victims onto construction sites. A report by the Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner revealed that a criminal gang placed up to 500 victims on building sites in London and the South East...

https://www.constructionnews.co.uk/legal/33-firms-unwittingly-paid-for-slave-labour-in-london-and-southeast-03-05-2022/

2018
Slaves working in UK construction and car washes, report finds,

Most intelligence about victims of labour exploitation in the last 12 months has related to Romanian men in their 20s and 30s...

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/may/08/slaves-working-in-uk-construction-and-car-washes-report-finds

They should find a way of producing reliable and green prefabricated houses in factories and then just transport them onto prepared site. That would solve a lot of problems.

The Labour government is bringing in the same law about raising the age for buying tobacco. They are hardly pro tobacco https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx2lwjrdj1lo

Prefabricated or modular housing in various guises has existed for many decades. It is used but it's not simple and is usually more expensive up front than traditional builds so is not favoured by big housebuilders. It's more popular with the self build sector.
It still takes quite a bit of skilled labour once on site and services (shortage) are still an issue.
There have been various studies and white papers on the subject but it's never really taken off on any scale mainly due to economics.
There have been various government design competitions for MMC (modern methods of construction) to try to stimulate interest but so far it's never scaled up to the take off properly. My firm was a finalist in the 2005 £60k housing comp, which seems like a lifetime ago.

@wonkylegs did you say your colleagues chose private schooling?

I haven't scrolled but think it was your post

I would have thought architects would be typical of a sector priced out of private by VAT

@EasternStandard mostly it's my fellow professionals in big practice that use private education (lot of private educated kids turn into architects so it filters down the generations, not so much in small practice because the margins aren't there but there are still some ) but majority of my husbands fellow professionals use it, we seem to be an exception.

Maybe it's due to being in London but we know plenty in the state sector. Depends if you're a partner I guess

Fees with VAT will make the gap bigger though and more professions won't access it but go for good state instead

@EasternStandard ha I am of a certain age so I guess most of my architect friends with kids are associates or directors

For clarity my husband isn't an architect, different profession entirely

I don't understand why councils need to find spaces for all children.If parents opt out of the state system they are relinquishing their school place and surely must know they are running the risk of not getting what they want if they decide to switch back again.

Because by law all children have to be in education. Labour are forcing kids out of indy schools and BP promised that there would be enough state places for them.
You can't have it both ways! You can't destroy indy sector then turn around and say "no room" in state. Indy parents are tax payers so are entitled to state education.

By all means find the place but whether it is one that is close enough or good enough is another matter.

Primarily because all children by law are entitled to an education. If actions by the government as here by imposing taxes on private schools means that some families can no longer afford to pay for private education then they return to what the entitled to.

They are entitled to the same access protocol as any other child. FGS they saved the state over £7.5K per year by taking them out of state sector and now the government is taxing them out of indy schools where they are settled, you want to penalise them further?
Spiteful much.

Of course they should be offered a place in a school. It is most likely not going to be in the best school or location is it? My point was that they are probably going to end up with a worse option than the one they rejected in the first place.

“I don't understand why councils need to find spaces for all children.If parents opt out of the state system they are relinquishing their school place and surely must know they are running the risk of not getting what they want if they decide to switch back again.”

That is not how the social contract works. Every child has a right to a state education.
Besides, every person also has a right to NHS treatment, even if they opted, temporarily, to pay for private healthcare.

Finally, if every private school family left the country tomorrow, the country would probably be bankrupt as there would be an immediate and significant loss of tax income. It is important to remember that.
So the state should simply find state school places for all children, within the time limits set out in our existing laws and pay for transport, if required.

That's why councils are now having to pay £££ for transport for these kids.

The cost of transport could end up being a significant issue for some councils. This was known all along.