Whitehall “braced for private schools collapse” 6

[ICouldBeVioletSky]

Continuation of previous threads to discuss VAT on independent school fees.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c23mdz2728zo

Bridget Philipson keeps saying families are crying out for reform. No we’re not. We’re crying out for councils to have the funding to fulfil their normal legal obligations to provide our kids with an education.

Funding to local authorities who pay for EHCPs was cut by a third by Cameron and Osborne in austerity and has never been restored to normal levels.

Now the recognition of girls with autism in particular has grown, plus demand post-Covid when kids were not moving through the system has grown, and the government can find money for all kinds of things, but not disabled children’s education. None of this is rocket science.

I’m ‘crying out for’ a government policy that responds to children’s well known educational needs better than ‘keep them in mainstream’ and I’d like to see the statistics which tell us how many families are being held in the EHCP system due to the complete underfunding of local government.My local authority seems to be running with internal resource related delays of about 15 months.

I’m horrified by the damage this is causing kids who need help whether they are in state or private schools. And their peers and teachers struggling to deal with unmet need. I suppose I should feel lucky that we’re not being denigrated as ‘sharp elbowed parents’ like the last government did.

But it’s patronising for ministers as fuck to say we’re crying out for change, when all the change we want is funding- as the SEND charities are saying consistently. We don’t want a new and unworkable government policy of mainstreaming kids who need specialist support. This just means more women forced to give up their jobs so they be at home to facilitate education for their children who can’t cope in mainstream or ‘specialist provision in mainstream’ whatever that will look like. As mothers this takes away from our tax contribution through work and puts us as whole families into completely avoidable financial difficulties now, and then into pension poverty later.

Agree with every word, @EHCPerhaps .

But don’t worry, the country’s going to benefit from affordable housing and a bowl of cornflakes while BP polishes her halo for shoving more disabled or SEN children into mainstream without appropriate provisions.

One in five children do not have meaningful special needs, otherwise it renders the term meaningless and denies specialist support to those who really need it.

As a classroom subject teacher, even at private school, you will probably be teaching well over 100 pupils. Teachers can’t remember what specific support 20 pupils or more (can be a lot more) need.

Most of it is mild dyslexia, dyspraxia and ADHD.

Sorry, struggling to see how your views are relevant here. We’re talking about the government undermining EHCPs, the majority of which include autism. And successive governments neglecting and undermining education provision for SEND kids so severely on such a widespread scale that it is affecting the education of all kids and their teachers, whether state or private, not to mention the private grief and struggle of families who are trying to support and advocate for their kids with unmet SEND need.

Absolutely yes @EHCPerhaps . And the thought of BP popping my child back into a mainstream state classroom certainly wouldn’t have helped anyone.

If parents decide to use strained disposable income to gain more accessible education with smaller class sizes etc it’d be mad for a gov to drive them out. As Labour are doing.

@EHCPerhaps ,

Well the linked to article stated 1/5 have special needs , so struggling to see how my views on whether that is correct wouldn’t be relevant!

If the government had fewer pupils to support, the support might be better.

Your last line is why pushing more students to state via a 20% tax is a bad idea.

I agree with this. I never believed the money from VAT on private school fees would go to education, it was just a tax grab that the Government thought it could push through, unlike changes to IHT, or ISAs, for example. If, as compensation for pushing more people out of the private sector, new impositions on the state sector had been fully funded, that would have made it more palatable, rather than giving schools 60p per child to babysit and feed them inadequately for 30 minutes, giving teachers pay rises that are not fully funded, and pushing more children into the mainstream who clearly shouldn’t be there and are not being adequately supported. Successive governments have gone for the easy pickings, which is to tax work and consumption. Our children, who are the future of our society, have been given the sharp end of the stick time and again. And now it looks like we’re all headed for years of conflict and instability, so again the focus is not on children (until they are needed as cannon fodder).

‘If the government had fewer pupils to support, the support might be better.’

Good point, maybe a system where parents pay for their children’s education support and take the weight off the Government? Totally crazy idea I know

If the government had fewer pupils to support, the support might be better.

Well, yes.

We have some of the largest class sizes compared to other developed countries. Which is unacceptable. Maybe if class sizes were not so big, then the needs of all children could be better accommodated.

None of us should have to pay though. The needs of every child should be accommodated by the State. The fact they are failing to do so in many cases is ridiculous. The fact they have not boosted Education substantially post the biggest crisis affecting children in 100 years aka Covid, is abominable.

The fact they are quasi forcing some kids with SEND into home education/online schooling is Victorian! Absolutely disgraceful.

From the anti VAT Facebook group:

Update on the VAT legal challenge — the High Court has dismissed the case.
^^
The judge accepted that the policy interferes with the right to education and disproportionately affects some groups, especially SEN pupils and families with religious needs. But the Government was found to be acting within its legal powers, with the court saying it had a “broad margin of discretion” to design tax policy.
^^
The policy is therefore lawful — but the wider issues remain. This still hits the most vulnerable hardest.
^^
Huge thanks to the families who put themselves forward in the case. Their efforts made sure these concerns were heard at the highest level.
^^
The legal route is closed, but the conversation about fairness and impact is far from over.

It's not hard too see what the immediate consequences will be.
Over the weekend, hundreds or perhaps thousands more parents will be breaking the news to their children that they're going to have to leave a school they've been happy at. They'll be writing letters to their schools giving notice to withdraw their children. And they'll be applying to their local authorities for state school places and investigating home and online schooling options.
Over the next couple of weeks, heads and bursars of schools which have been teetering on the brink of viability, but desperately hoping for a last minute reprieve or turn in their fortunes, will receive more notices of withdrawal, as well as cancellations from incoming pupils who were expected to start in September. Some of these schools will have no choice but to announce their closure, triggering a further wave of applications for state school places.
Real, human consequences.
All because a few government ministers think these children and their parents are "snobs" and "Etonian scum" and fair game for populist scapegoating.

We are in a position to be able to continue for a bit for our dc but this probably means my youngest dc will go to the local good state school (selective based on church attendance and we are in a position to get a place) rather than the private school we would have chosen pre VAT. Thus costing the state money and probably denying another kid a place at the better local school...
When do Labour plan to stop monitoring the impact and how can we force them to continue monitoring?

Labour aren’t monitoring the impact at all, I’m sorry to say!

Why might that be, do we think….? 🤔

Very sad, but it was a long shot.

It’s really an absolutely appalling set of policies motivated by malice towards children, Labour are quite simply shameful but I understand the ruling. It doesn’t affect us personally as we are leaving the U.K. in the summer, but I feel for families affected.

I’d suggest looking for state schools now so your children can be considered ‘ours’ by Labour or moving to larger schools that can survive the next 4 years.

I’m grateful to those who tried. It took effort and time. Labour look bad out of this and hopefully a GE will see their bad policy out.

The full impact will be felt in the next few years. Some people with children in their final years of education will carry on and see it through but there will be a lot that now won’t even start. Bursaries and Scholarships will be reduced significantly. Will be interesting to see what happens with staff discounts for as they are currently 50% at GDST schools. They need as many pupils as they can get paying full fees to survive what’s ahead. Also the full 20% of VAT isn’t being charged at lots of schools but I’m sure it will be eventually. The only losers here are the children.

ECHR not fit for purpose.

I'm not sure very surprised they lost.

I am expecting overall pupil numbers in private schools to drop a lot - class my youngest is in has lost more than 10% of pupils (as in they are leaving after this term) and the school are reducing the number of classes overall per year. We'll find out soon what new class sizes are (so how many have left from their year)

If it's at least 10% across the board leaving private (55,000) then adding that to the 13,000 who have already left puts us very close to the point where no extra revenue is generated from VAT.

Labour are nasty aren’t they. Imagine applauding this.

Worth a read

The fight against Labour’s school VAT raid continues
Rachel Reeves and Bridget Phillipson are no doubt delighted with the High Court ruling, but they haven’t won just yet

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/0c367c41208516ba