Guest Post: "Education is about partnership – and we owe it to all our children to work together in their best interests" - Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson MP's back to school message for parents

[SophiaCMumsnet]

I love back to school week. Sending my children off to school on their first day back, I’m always sad (and maybe a little relieved!) to see them go, but I think forward with such excitement to what the new school year will bring for them. New friends, new experiences, new opportunities.

You all know that familiar mix of feelings as they walk through the school gates once again – nervous, excited, hopeful. If you’re anything like me though, overall, you just want them to do well and be happy.

As parents, we all want the best for our children, both in school and beyond. We want them to grow up happy and healthy, to get a good job, and to be able to buy a nice house.

I understand those aspirations – I share them for my own children and, as Education Secretary, for yours. That’s why this job is the greatest privilege of my life. I want to make sure each and every child gets the best start in life, to ensure that where you’re from doesn’t determine where you end up. By breaking the link between background and future success, we can break down barriers to opportunity and give all children the skills they need to thrive.

Education lies at the heart of this change we all want to see. And education means more than maths or English or science, as important as they are. An excellent, whole-childhood education journey builds a lifelong love of learning, nurtures a sense of belonging, and creates connections that last for years to come. A good education gives our children strong foundations and sets them up for work and for life.

High and rising standards in all of our schools is at the heart of our plan. My offer to you is this: I’ll support your children taking their first steps into learning. I’ll put 6,500 new expert teachers in classrooms across the country. I’ll introduce free breakfast clubs in all primary schools. I’ll improve professional careers advice and work experience. I’ll expand support for families by rolling out funded childcare. I’ll review the curriculum, making it richer and broader, setting all children up to thrive now and in the future. I’ll boost mental health support across our schools and reform provision for children with special educational needs and disabilities.

I’m ambitious for our children and for our country. But government can’t achieve all this in isolation. I want to work in partnership with you to deliver the very best life chances for our children. We all have responsibilities – you as parents, us as government, and schools do too. I want to reset these relationships, rebuild trust and work together for the benefit of all our children.

I need all parents to play their part too. Every child is different and you know your child best. I know that every child has different needs, but one thing that can have the biggest positive impact for children is making sure they go to school. When things are working well and children have the right support, ambition, opportunities, belonging, all come from being in school. However excellent our teachers, they can’t teach children who aren’t there. As I put in place measures to drive high and rising standards in schools, children who are absent won’t feel the benefit of them.

Attendance from day one really matters. Children who miss a day at the beginning of a new term are much more likely to be persistently absent for the rest of the school year. So my ask of you for this back to school week is simple, but crucial. If you make sure your children are where they belong - in school - schools are there by your side to support you in this, and so is government.

Education is about partnership – and we owe it to all our children to work together in their best interests. As a new September rolls round, let’s use this moment to fix our foundations, begin the work of rebuilding Britain. Happy back to school week!

How is filling state schools with additional children from private schools the way to making things better for children?? This policy is horrendous messing with children's lives because of jealousy of the government officials. They have no appreciation of how this is forcing children out of schools where they're settled and happy because their parents were only just able to afford the fees and now couldn't possibly afford the extra tax. No other European country taxes education. This is a ridiculous policy that doesn't even consider how badly it is affecting children's lives. How can they possibly say they're going to get extra teachers into education when they are making the reason why they are leaving even worse. Surely larger class sizes because of the extra children isn't a way of getting more teachers into work. If even one child is forced to leave their school where they are happy because of this policy that's one child too many. No consideration at all for how this adversely this affects all children. They only want rid of private schools out of jealousy. Stupid thing is half the government was private school educated!

I would love to be sending my child back to school this week, but he doesn't have a school place because the Local Authority haven't bothered to amend his EHCP. He is stuck at home, with no educational provision at all, because the Local Authority are not meeting their legal obligations. My son wants to go to school. I want him to go to school. So where is the school place for him? How does he get an education? He won't have any opportunities for friends, or new experiences or opportunities. If you can help him, then I will believe your promises.

Finally a platform where my comments to you will not be censored! I am pleased you have enjoyed sending your own children back to school. Mine have gone back with huge uncertainty and anxiousness as their places in their wonderful independent schools are at risk. I have written to my MP, applied for state school places months ago, to try and prepare, no one has replied to me, the council has ghosted me. VAT we cannot afford is due to be applied in January and I don’t have a place in any state schools to be able to hand in my notice. My daughter had such bad mental health issues for her own safety we moved her to an independent school where she has thrived, a move back will set her back and no doubt end up costing the state a lot more in mental health support than any application on vat would bring you. Also I will give up my higher rate salary to provide wrap around care and provide enrichment for my children that the state schools cannot. Is that loss of income tax revenue factored into your figures, i highly doubt it. Councils are asking to pay for places at private schools because there is no space, only this morning a council is asking a parent to prove they cannot afford their place to be able to get a place at a state school in a massively over subscribed county. The whole thing is a complete maddens and a complete mess.

Along with thousands of parents I have been extremely stressed and upset since you confirmed your hateful and spiteful tax of VAT on private school fees, callously planned for implementation mid an academic year, disrupting many children's schooling and affecting 100's of 1000's of families who are already struggling to keep up with spiralling costs - I have spent days reading countless stories of hardship and heartbreak, children with SEND, Children of Military families and NHS workers and teachers facing having to leave their schools as they simply cant stretch to an additional 20% on top of already large fees.

Now you add insult to injury with this tone deaf patronising post - how dare you make an assumption on parental responsibility to an audience you have made NO ATTEMP to engage over the summer weeks despite countless petitions and requests for dialogue. Mumsnet has always been full of very vocal and very proactive parents seeking advice from peers on all matters concerning the welfare and happiness of their children, to come on here and patronise this community suggesting that is its they that need to cooperate with you in bringing the best to their children is a joke.

I would be very surprised if you found a massive cohort of truants in this group let alone parents that are not already 100% committed to getting their children to school every day every week every month and every term. It's you and you alone that is making that job all the more difficult to uphold as you force parents to trawl for non existent places in the state sector. SHAME ON YOU.

How is forcing thousands of children into state school in their best interest? Uprooting their lives, friendship groups and support system will be detrimental to children's mental health.

The shift from private school to state school will increase state school class sizes, which are already bursting at the seams. How will this impact education? I can't see how it will improve it. If anything, it will make it worse.

If you really cared about improving the state system, you would privately educate your own children. Why am I saying this? Let me explain:

1. All privately educated children save the state 8k/year
2. All privately educated children save the state school places
3. Most people who send their kids to state school are not the super rich.
4. You earn more than most of them. Sir Kier Starmer earns £400k/year yet his children go to a very niche state school... Costing the state thousands each year. You are able to pay private school fees and free up school spaces which would save the state thousands.
5. You want to improve state school? Make the rich send their children to private school. They can afford it. Don't VAT the people who sacrifice everything to send their children to private school, saving the state thousands.

You do not have children's best interests at heart. You don't care about 7% of the population and have been very open about it. It's disgusting. Imagine what will happen to state school when all the SEND children land in the classrooms. It's going to be mayhem.

Why aren't you adding VAT to university instead? That education is a choice. School education, whether it's private or state is not a choice.

Going to add 6500 teachers? That's a drop on the ocean as to the deficit if teachers. 40,000 teachers have left state school each year, for the last 3 years. There won't be many left at this rate. You need to relieve the pressure on state schools to keep teachers, not make it worse by causing even more overcrowding.

Your tax raid will cost the state 1.8 billion, not save it. You're going to tank the economy will this far right wing, nonsensical, unthought out bill.

In conclusion, rich people should have to send their children to private school to free up state school places. Base private school admission on an income assessed basis (which would be fair). Stop the VAT.

If I let my child have as much social media screen time as you seem to have spent lately with all your articles/tweets/instagram posts on feckless parents, I’m sure you’d take a very dim view. It might not be intentional but your comments are really antagonising parents of neurodivergent children who are trying so hard against all the odds. If you won’t actually elaborate on your plans for ‘improved SEND provision’ could you perhaps put your phone down now and get to work on it?

"By breaking the link between background and future success, we can break down barriers to opportunity and give all children the skills they need to thrive."

There, you've actually said it. This policy of taxing education is in order to attack private schools and NOT to raise the standard of education in state schools, which is something that every single parent in this country supports. Pure envy and a callous disregard for the children affected by a mid year application of an ill thought through tax.

Yes. Unfortunately this is all coming across as tone deaf on SEND. Not sure if this is because a) you don't have adults running your social media operation, b) you don't have an awareness and/or care about the appalling experiences of SEND children in our schools, or c) your policies are going to be more of the same, so you are keeping on with the feckless parent lines as cover?

• The proposal is not economically viable, which concerns me as tax payer. The costing assumptions used have very little substantiation and appear to be based on IFS data that the IFS themselves have said is ‘relatively old’ and ‘quite thin’, based on estimated migration (private to state) scenarios that are at the very lower end of likelihood. Recent independent research suggests that at 5% migration, there is a loss to the Exchequer of £150m and at 25%, we see a loss of £1.12bn. This does not take into account that there will also be parents that move their children to state schools and then simply work less hours and pay less income tax, which would likely be at the 40% mark. Although there may be short term gains (largely due to the cynical mid-year implementation), these will quickly fall as children move school or simply do not enrol at all.
• This policy is clearly at odds with the EU, with whom Labour are attempting to rebuild relationships. When Greece imposed a 23% VAT on private schools, the EU Commission warned that it was in breach of the EU VAT directive and local economists reported that “the left wing government aimed a new tax at the rich, it hit the poor instead”.
• Any movement from private to state will place an additional burden on an already overwhelmed state school system. Further, parents that may have previously sent their children to private schools will instead pay for houses in the catchment areas of good schools, making them less accessible to other children.
• I am concerned about the future of private schools and the children that attend them for specific needs that are not appropriately catered for in the state system. There are c.90,000 children with SEN in private schools, a high proportion of which do not have EHCPs. Should they move to state schools, this will further overwhelm the SEN provisions and will incur considerable costs, which are as yet unquantified.
• The promise of ‘6500 extra teachers’ is reminiscent of the Boris Johnson NHS buses, which is a form of politics I had hoped we had seen the back of. Money is not the driving factor in our teacher shortage; as a country we are already failing to hit recruitment targets and teachers are leaving the profession in droves, often down to the already overcrowded classrooms and working conditions that this policy will likely exacerbate.
• The Education Minister is actively removing any contradictory narrative from their social media, which impacts our right to free speech. This has been reported by the national press.
• Above all, I am concerned about future of our country when divisive politics are at the forefront of the political agenda. Private schools are being portrayed as a blanket ‘Eton’, which is not representative of the vast majority of schools or the demographic that attend them. If they will tax education, what else will they tax?

We all want what is best for our children, which is why I’ve send mine to independent schools; the state secondary schools in my area are oversubscribed with 30+ children per class, lack the facilities, green space and teaching staff that our current school provides, our closest secondary will only take children whose parents have attended church for 7 years, which means it is full of children whose parents attended for that time and no longer attend church!

My husband and I work full time and want to show our children that it’s good to aspire to do well, your VAT on fees is a policy of envy, a vote winner, showing people that they don’t have to do well because in a socialist country everyone is equal, so why bother working hard? It also seeks to turn parents against each other with those who can’t pay turning on those that can for daring to put their children’s education as a priority above other things.
I pay tax for 2 school places that I don’t use, if I move to the state sector, not only will you lose the vat but you’ll be paying over £12k per year to teach my children.
Have you even considered the impact on children already in the state schools who will have even bigger classes and no additional teachers? 6,500 teachers is not even 1 per school and that’s if you can convince them to work in an already struggling sector with huge class sizes, a very diverse range of needs per class and now, due to the vat, increased numbers of SEND children!
How will you provide breakfast for every child? Teachers will need to start work earlier and what will they do with their own children in the mornings?
Where will you find wellbeing teachers? Teachers need years of training; you are sacrificing the children currently in schools in the hope that many years down the line this ill thought out policy will suddenly make every school equal.
The policy hasn’t been thoughts through or properly costed; you cannot pay for your huge shopping list with the amount of vat you claim (falsely in my view) you’ll take in.
This will only serve to create a greater financial divide, increase the resentment and increase the size of classes. Please rethink urgently

The worst thought through plan in historyThe state school sector is broken but parents paying for private school are helping by saving the state £7500 per annum and relieving the state system of burden. Make no mistake private school educated kids will need to return to the state sector increasing the pressure. The money won’t be ring fenced and even if it was where are the 6500 teachers being magicked from? Whether you are in state school or private school everyone loses. Eton might be okay but not every private school is Eton. The labour MPs don’t seem to understand this. Grammar schools will be next. Let’s drag everyone down rather than inspire to aspire! It’s levelling down not levelling up!!

This is not ‘a tax break’ it’s a new tax on Education. The negative consequences will far outweigh any positives. SEN children without EHCP’s will be disproportionately affected. This is a spiteful tax on education that will put more pressure on the state.

Any funds raised will be a drop in the ocean. You say the money will go towards 6500 teachers, mental health practitioners, nurseries, breakfast clubs, ofsted reform and even knife crime! Lord Black referenced this a ‘voodoo economics’ the numbers simply don’t add up.

Sadly it’s a case over massively over promising and under delivering. Gambling with children’s education is never a good idea. Your recent language on X “put up or shut up” doesn’t fill me with optimism. It only shows inexperience and lack of leadership.

Surely collaboration and engagement is what’s needed to ensure education is great for all children.

As a parent of a neurodivergent child, I horrified by your proposed policies.

You’re not levelling any playing field, you’re penalising those of us who work hard to give our children a better start in life. Shame on you. I will never vote Labour.

Taxing education is a tax on aspiration. The same aspiration you claim to want to promote. Any education benefits society as a whole, and to make any part of our education system more difficult for a greater number of people to access is the utmost folly.
The Labour Party has failed to make a cost/benefit analysis of this headline-grabbing policy of envy and division, and it is already having a detrimental effect on both the private and state sector.
It will be interesting to see how state school parents feel when their class sizes go up, and the promised increase in teachers does not materialise. These teachers are simply not there - there are record numbers of teachers leaving the profession, not lining up to join.

The reason many are leaving is because of the teach-by-numbers methods forced on them in order to provide favourable statistics for the state schools and government, leaving them unable to do their job properly and compassionately as they would wish to do. I know this because I work in state education.

The problems with the state sector is nothing to do with private schools or private school parents, and the solution should not be found by penalising them, when they are actually relieving the burden on the state sector by not taking up places and paying their taxes.

There are children - real people not statistics, being forced from the schools where they have often been moved because the state sector has failed them.
There are very good independent schools all over the country that are benefitting children and society on a daily basis, being forced to close.
Every person involved in forcing through this spiteful policy should hang their heads in shame. You are blundering into an ill-thought out and vote-grabbing policy with absolutely no consideration for the very foreseeable catastrophe it will create through the whole education system.

All schools should be properly funded – but this should not be done by taxing private schools to fund state schools. There are significant numbers of parents within the so-called 93% who purposefully choose State over Independent education, who have more disposable means than some parents in the Independent school sector. How about means testing for families who send their children to State school as a way to increase funding?

Each child educated independently releases a place in a state school. Independent schools contribute £16.5 billion to the UK economy, support 328,000 jobs and generate £5.1 billion in tax revenues. Parents and guardians choosing to pay for independent education already save the Exchequer £4.4 billion each year.

Independent schools also provide a great deal of charitable support to state schools and to the local community. The proposed changes will make this financially non-viable, leading to less support.

“Tax breaks” for independent schools should not be considered without reference to taxpayer subsidies for state schools.It is inconsistent to levy VAT on independent school fees while exempting other educational services which charge fees (such as private nurseries and universities).

I am concerned that this amounts to age discrimination, as it will only affect children of school age.

The Labour Government does not expect many pupils to be withdrawn from independent schools – but this assumption has not been tested and if 25% of pupils switch from private schools to state schools, the cost to the Exchequer will be £1.5 billion. I personally know of several families who will need to move their children into the state system, and our local schools are already overcrowded. Many local schools are actually already FULL.

So, whilst I strongly agree to finding ways to improve the state school system, and fund it appropriately, the proposed process of VAT charges on independent school fees is not an appropriate way to do this.

This is a brilliant post. I was starting to write one of my own, but you've said it all.

Echoing concerns as a tax payer that the VAT policy is not economically viable. VAT is Phillipsons only source for funding education (laundry list of items it will fund keep growing) - while simultaneously trying to bankrupt that same source, therefore diminishing amounts raised. Or none at all, if enough parents move to state. How on earth does that make any sense?

If you care about education so much, apply proper funding and reforms from progressive taxation, NOT borrowing from part of a sector that acts as a pressure valve on state education.

We are a military family.We have two children.

We have moved on average every two years since we were married 16 years ago. This has been throughout the UK and also abroad. One of the most challenging aspects of moving so frequently is the effect that it has on the children’s education. We often move mid academic year, or at times which are not at a natural end to a period of education. To us the stability of our children, and their education, is of paramount importance. We do not have the luxury of choosing to live somewhere with excellent state schools. We therefore took the difficult decision to settle both of our children in an independent boarding school from year 3 onwards. In order to enable us to do this we have taken advantage of the provision of Continuity of Education Allowance from the MOD. We would not be able to cover the full fees for both of the children without this.

The CEA allowance is capped at a specific level, with at least 10% of the fees being paid by parents, plus any extras. If the fees are higher than this overall, the parents are responsible for covering the excess. This can be a struggle, but we are committed to ensuring that our children receive the best and most stable education possible. Having a parent in the military is challenging and their school is a constant for them.

The government refuses to understand that a very large proportion of children in independent schools are not from very wealthy families. They are very often from incredibly hard working families who want to provide the very best education possible for their children, and therefore sacrifice much to be able to afford it. They are very often from military families like our own. They often have children with SEN who cannot be adequately provided for in the state sector or who simply don’t cope in larger settings.

There had been some rumours that military children would be exempt from the VAT levy, but the draft legislation that has been submitted does not include any such exemption. This is a huge concern for those military families in receipt of CEA, and may have a detrimental effect on retention of serving personnel currently in receipt of it.

Although my personal concerns are based on our experiences as a military family, I do not believe that this policy has been well thought through or costed. My further concerns are as follows:

Why hasn’t the government published its impact analysis on schools and families in both the state and independent sectors? We would like to see actual facts and figures behind this decision.
What impact analysis has there been of the effect on non-EHCP SEN children?

What impact analysis has there been of the effect on military families and the potential retention of senior military personnel who are in receipt of CEA.

The government insists that independent schools can absorb the costs or slash their costs to enable them to shield parents from the VAT. My children’s school has already said that it will need to pass the VAT cost on to parents, likely in full, because they have worked hard to keep fees at a reasonable level up to now. Noting that 71% of an independent school’s cost is payroll, how many jobs does the government expect them to discard? Have they actually asked independent schools how they can deal with this?

There are very few state school places spare in some areas. I already know of many families who have either decided to pull their children out of independent schools, or decided not to embark on an independent education for their children because they can no longer afford it. The government has said that they don’t believe that children will be forced to leave their schools, but what about the children who will never start now because of this? My daughter has just started year 7 . The year 7 intake is usually approximately 60 students, and this year it has dropped to 50. If just under 20% of children who would ordinarily be starting independent schools this September are now going to be looking for places in the state system, how will they be accommodated?

Noting that local authorities consistently advise families against mid-year moves and particularly moves in the middle of exam cycle, how has the government assessed the impact on children forced out of their schools against industry advice.

I believe that the state education of each child costs the government in excess of £7,000 per year. We as tax payers fund the provision of state school places for our children, which we are not taking up. We are essentially paying twice for our children’s education. Has the government considered the additional cost to them of educating the thousands of children who will now need to be accommodated within the state system?

Except when my SEN child was in state school, she was so anxious that she made herself sick and was repeatedly sent home (and couldn't return for 48hrs) - so she missed huge chunks of schooling. We moved her to a private school who immediately identified her SEN issue and she hasn't made herself sick once in the 4 years she has been there. Yet the VAT will now make it impossible for some families like us.

If it is a partnership, why is the EHCP process so adversarial? That isn’t in the child or young person’s interest?

If it is a partnership, why do LAs act unlawfully so often? That isn’t in the child or young person’s interest?

If it is a partnership, why are LAs spending extortionate sums of public money on representation to defend indefensible SENDIST cases against unrepresented parents when the LA knows they are going to lose the vast majority of these cases? That isn’t in the child or young person’s interest?

If it is a partnership, why are there so many refusals to assess and refusals to issues despite the child or young person meeting the threshold set out in legislation? That isn’t in the child or young person’s interest?

If it is a partnership, when LAs do assess, why are so many of the NAs carried out in a way that falls below the legal requirements? That isn’t in the child or young person’s interest?

If it is a partnership, why are so many LAs in breach of the statutory EHCP timescales? That isn’t in the child or young person’s interest?

If it is a partnership, why are so many EHCPs written in an unlawful way with woolly and vague, unenforceable wording? That isn’t in the child or young person’s interest?

If it is a partnership, why do parents so often have to pursue an appeal in order to secure an adequate EHCP? That isn’t in the child or young person’s interest?

If it is a partnership, even when a children and young people have an enforceable EHCP, why do parents so often have to pursue enforcement action to ensure the SEP within F is actually delivered? That isn’t in the child or young person’s interest?

If it is a partnership, why are you not providing adequate funding to schools to ensure all SEP in F is delivered for every child, as is your duty? Why does it take parents enforcing the provision to make you fund it at an appropriate level? That isn’t in the child or young person’s interest?

If it is a partnership, why do some LAs make having a personal budget for a child or young person with EOTAS under section 61 of the Children and Families Act so difficult? Leaving parents thousands, sometimes tens of thousands, out of pocket for weeks or months? That isn’t in the child or young person’s interest?

If it is a partnership, why do LAs, some LA professionals and some school perpetuate myths about who can get EHCPs, what EHCPs can include, the likely success of appealing to SENDIST, the waiting time for SENDIST (which is long but not 2 years as a pp posted), about what placements can named in section I, the legal threshold for EOTAS/EOTIS… That isn’t in the child or young person’s interest?

I could go on and on. There are so many ways LAs (and some schools) do not work in partnership with parents of children and young people with EHCPs.

And separately to EHCPs, if it is a partnership, why are LAs often so slow are meeting their duty under section 19 of the Education Act 1996? Often only doing so when parents pursue enforcement action? That isn’t in the child’s interest?

If it is a partnership, why do some schools refuse to make reasonable adjustments and make the best endeavours to meet a pupil’s SEN? That isn’t in the child or young person’s interest?

If it is a partnership, why are false FII/PP allegations sometimes made when parents complain? That isn’t in the child or young person’s interest?

Education is about partnership – and we owe it to all our children to work together in their best interests. Private schools partner many state schools and provide facilities and specialist teachers to many state pupils - things we wants for our kids in state schools but many will now be at risk of closure or have reduced funds for community support etc. I have a mix of kids in state and independent school (1 with an EHCP but the criteria may not exempt us from the VAT on fees and any appeal process is over 12 months and you want to add VAT in 4 months time). I dont want to pay for education, I want state schools to be suitable for everyone. Improve the schools and people will happily attend, barriers to attendance, SEND support, regional disparity etc need to be sorted first. Other considerations such as transport and access to facilities in rural areas impacts education and young peoples options - people don't choose private to hobnob as you'd like us all to believe. Removing choice can never be whats best for our people and our country and labour need to work smarter to find better solutions.

Yes it’s so important as a mother to watch your child walk back into a school they love, feel a sense of belonging and thrive in. Can you imagine having to tell them they can’t go there with their friends anymore and you’re not sure where they will be going? Imagine trying to explain to them that you had planned your finances and that you could afford it but someone in charge of the country had decided to suddenly put the price up and now you can’t afford it? As a fellow mother can you imagine the impact? The majority of fee paying schools are not Harrow or Eton, they are schools with parents who don’t come from money, who work hard and pay a lot of taxes, with just enough remaining for the things important to them. Why work so hard and pay a lot in income tax if you still can’t afford extras? There are many reasons why adding 20% on school fees will actually have a detrimental impact on the economy. What about the people who are earning just enough to cover the fees, who are nearing retirement? They can’t accommodate the increase so are forced to remove their child/children from fee paying school. Suddenly they are in excess of £15,000 a year. You’d retire , wouldn’t you? No longer paying the hefty income tax you used to. Another hit for the economy. So ill thought out.

Dear Ms. Phillipson,

Thank you for your thoughtful back-to-school message. As a parent who shares your hopes for the future of all children, I believe we can agree on the importance of providing every child with the best possible start in life. However, I must respectfully express my concern about the Labour Party’s proposal to impose a 20% VAT on private school fees.

While you state that you care about all children, your comments about the 7% of children in private schools suggest otherwise. By targeting this group with additional taxes, this policy risks discriminating against families who choose private education for a variety of important reasons. This is particularly troubling when considering the children who have Special Educational Needs and Disabilities without the EHCP, the children of military personnel who benefit from stability during frequent relocations, and those who attend private schools on scholarships due to exceptional talents or financial need. It’s been said on many occasion that private schools are not full of children from wealthy families. They are primarily full of children from ordinary working families who are putting aside every last penny to ensure their children are getting the right education for their individual needs.

With the above in mind, placing a tax on education could lead to an influx of these students moving from private schools to state schools, further stretching class sizes and resources that are already under significant strain. Or those who were considering private education for future intakes will do otherwise. Displacing these children would not solve the challenges faced by the state sector but would rather exacerbate existing issues, to the detriment of all children.

It is also worth considering that education is a right protected under the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), and policies that disproportionately affect a certain group of children may be seen as discriminatory. In most developed countries, educational services are either VAT-exempt or taxed at a reduced or zero rate, as governments tend to recognise the critical role of education in fostering equality and economic growth. Similar policies, such as the one implemented in Greece in 2015, failed to achieve their objectives and were ultimately scrapped after proving detrimental to the education system. Our children should be the very heart of every decision the government is making and yet they appear to being used as a political pawn.

I urge you to reconsider this proposal and instead focus on policies that uplift the entire education system without penalising those who have made different educational choices for their children.

Retention of staff should be your key focus, not new teachers. They’ll just leave like the current lot. There are many experienced, amazing teachers out there that have left the profession, you need to focus on changing the system to get them back and stop even more leaving. You can have my DS back now we can’t afford the VAT on private school fees. He’ll cause mass disruption as with his ASD he is overwhelmed with large class sizes. That will really help teachers to stay. Well done.

I agree.

There is no shortage of teachers in England, there is just a shortage of people willing to teach in state schools under the current system.

There is just one person in the country who actually has any power to change this.

It’s you, Bridget!

Eloquently put and very accurate.

The bile I have seen directed towards children as a result of this policy is both disgusting and completely disillusioning.

And to your point about ‘partnership with parents’, Rachel Reeves has openly mocked parents for being ‘obsessed’ with the 7% at private schools. So many of those parents are trying their darndest to do what they can to support their own children, which is what you are saying you want all parents to do… So why start by going after the ones displaying the behaviours you need?? When kids with complex needs go back into state schools, all children will suffer.

And NO child should suffer.