Zoomchat with Bridget Phillipson - Thursday 28th September 11-12

[NicolaDMumsnet]

Hi all,

We’re pleased to announce a Zoomchat with Shadow Secretary of State for Education Bridget Phillipson this Thursday from 11am-12pm. You can book your place now by registering for free here.

Bridget has been the Labour MP for Houghton and Sunderland South since 2010. In April 2020 she joined the Shadow Cabinet under Keir Starmer as Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury, before being appointed Shadow Education Secretary in November 2021.

Please post your questions below ahead of the chat. Please note that we will be closing the thread on Thursday morning so please ensure you have posted your questions before then. If there is time, there may also be an opportunity to ask additional questions live.

If you join the Zoomchat, your camera will be turned off by default. Your screen name might be visible, so consider whether you’re happy to use your RL name or want to use your MN posting name or something else entirely. The Zoomchat will be recorded so you can catch up if you’re unable to attend on the day.

Please stick to the usual guidelines - one question per user, keep it civil, and if one topic is dominating, please don't continue to post what's effectively the same question or point (we'll be deleting questions that are repeated multiple times). We'll be limited for time so do keep questions as short as possible so that we’re able to ask more of them - as always, we'll try to make sure we cover the topics that we know are important to Mumsnet users.

Thanks,
MNHQ.

If you price most children out of private schools, where do you envision they will attend school? Are you planning to build more schools to accommodate these children? Are you going to increase LEA funding once these children become the state's problem?

Additionally, what do you expect will happen to the private school teachers when their schools are forced to close? They're unlikely to return to the state sector for worse pay and conditions. Are you planning to fund Universal Credit for thousands of private school teachers while they retrain and find new work once you've closed their mines?

What’s the one single thing that labour plans to do that would make the most difference to our children’s education?

What plans have labour got for structuring SEN funding to school outside of the EHCP process. The current system of non ring fenced funds and notional budgets is not very good and lets down pupils with lower levels of SEN needs.

My step son is at St Leonard’s school in Durham City, a constituency very close to your own. He has not yet returned to school due to virtually the whole site being condemned due to RAAC and the school being long overdue a rebuild. So far this term he has had 4 days of face to face lessons, and he has just started in year 10. Please can you, as shadow education secretary, press the Education Secretary to make a commitment in the house as to how they will support the reopening St Leonard’s in a timely manner? We are very concerned that statements made behind closed doors may be retracted in the future.

In addition, I also think that issues such as this have not been kept sufficiently in the media spotlight, and we need to keep making sure that the public are aware that these problems are not being fixed.

Has consideration been given to how VAT on school fees will affect Scotland?

With huge catchment areas (500 square km for my relatively central local high school), private schools are often the only way a parent can have any choice in their child’s education. This can disproportionately affect family life where a child has a commute of several hours, or in extreme cases where attending a state school means a child having to live alone in lodgings away from the family home.

There are also no grammar schools in Scotland, no academies, no “free schools”, and very few faith schools. There is little to no academic choice outside the private sector.

This contrasts with England where there is very often a choice of several state-funded schools for a variety of education styles and abilities, available in relatively close proximity to a child’s home.

Would you agree that Labour’s policy is Anglo-centric at best, and looks to be highly London-centric?

Additionally, will VAT also be added to “online” private schools, which is also a choice used proportionally more often in Scotland.

Will Labour provide funding for schools affected by RAAC and additional funding to support children who have had their education severely disrupted due to it?

My son is at a school in Yorkshire with RAAC. He is back to a poor offer of online (but not live) learning with no idea how long it will last or any clarity on whether the funds have been secured for temporary classrooms or a rebuild of the school.

This is on top of covid and chronic underfunding, particularly in Yorkshire where spending is £672 per pupil less than in London.

My son tells me it feels like he doesn’t matter. Will he matter to you if Labour are in power?

Hi Bridget

Can you confirm what Labour’s position is regarding VAT on independent fees and disabled children?

My understanding is you will remove VAT if the LA is funding the place under an EHCP, but for any other disabled child (with an EHCP or not) there will be VAT levied on school fees. Is that correct?

My neurodiverse son is educated in a mainstream private primary, because he could not cope in a class of 30 (as confirmed by the educational psychologist), but can imagine in a class of 10. We pay the fees and an EHCP provides further funding (2K) for things like OT. The school covers the first 6k. We have not sort to challenge this.

We can’t afford a further 20% on fees. I am also worried the school will have to make cuts and sen provision is likely to be hit (and we would ask to fund more). Our only option will be to seek the LA fund the place under an EHCP, and appeal if this is not awarded. I imagine many parents of neurodiverse children will do the same. Or will seek alternative places in sen schools. This will mean not only do you not collect VAT on the fees, but there is a greater drain on public funds.

This could be avoided if disabled children were given vat relief on fees. Why won’t Labour commit to this?

Does Labour intend to fund schools better so that there are enough staff to go round and that neurotypical and/or well behaved children do not have their education continually disrupted by the outbursts of the neurodiverse and/or behaviourally challenged? This should include trained mental health support for the children who need it and also for the staff that have to manage those children’s needs. In the class I currently support there are 12 children with SEMH needs and, if they all have an issue at the same time, then there just isn’t enough staff to go round nor safe places for them to be. We are one class but most other classes in our school have at least 4 or 5 children with SEMH needs, the percentage is too big to be manageable on skeleton staff.

Bumping :
-transport costs for post 16 compulsory ed (free bus or reduced by needs basis please
-Senco support for teachers and LSA who are overwhelmed by sheer number of neurodivergent needs
-parental support for Senco/ neurodivergent children (I will be part time worker and contributor to society for the foreseeable because my child doesn’t get support he needs at school)

Hi Bridget, has Labour thought about how removing the charity allowance from private schools will affect the many families who are not super wealthy but who choose to use private schools and just work incredibly hard to pay the fees? It seems to me that this will just enhance the gap between the super-rich and those who are simply working very hard for a better chance for their kids. Will Labour decide which other charities are “acceptable” to keep the benefit, and what about the many privately run drama, music, arts and special needs schools?

State schools in our area, especially the decent ones, are hugely oversubscribed any way. This policy will only drive those numbers even more and increase the wedge between the super-rich, who can afford to use private schools still, and everyone else.

Thank you Bridget,
will you review the Personal, social, health and economic (PSHE) education curriculum to include neurodiversity and sendco? So important that our children who are the next generation of coworkers, managers and ministerial leads are educated in this area.

Do you think the state education system is ready for the influx of 90,000 students from the private sector who can't afford the 20% fee increase proposed by labour?

Thanks for coming back to MN, Bridget.

There are several serious crises in schools at the moment:

A serious teacher shortage: particularly at secondary, with only around half of secondary trainee places filled for the this year and last.

Attendance: post-covid, children's attendance at school has plummeted, particularly among children with SEN and disadvantaged children.

SEN: the number of children with SEN is skyrocketing, and the number of places in special schools is completely inadequate to meet need.

Mental health: CAMHS has essentially collapsed as a service, with extremely long waiting lists, and children with serious needs being rejected.

The school estate: this will cost billions to bring up to a safe standard and schools are literally falling apart.

A tax on private school fees isn't going to touch the sides - how are you even going to begin to tackle the huge scale of the issues here? What are your main priorities when you first get in (and please don't say curriculum reform, that would be ludicrous right now!)

My brother and his wife both trained as English teachers. Neither of them currently work as teachers as they couldn’t cope with the bad behaviour of the children and they both agreed that the constraints of the National curriculum did not allow them to actually teach English and encourage a love of literature. Please campaign for better discipline in school, and a curriculum that allows teachers to teach a English based on age appropriate literature.

Could you please explain whether or not Labour still intends to charge VAT on private school fees?

The BBC seems to think that Keir Starmer has already u-turned on removing their charitable status. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-66942985

Are other Labour manifesto commitments also likely to be announced and dropped in such quick succession? How can we be confident that you have a credible plan to improve our schools (and to govern our country)? This is causing such disruption and anxiety for private school parents and teachers for the sake of political point-scoring and news headlines.

What steps will Labour take to protect gender confused children and young people from being exploited by those in private practice who commercialise a medical model of “care” including puberty blockers, cross sex hormones and surgery. And what steps will you take to ensure that lobbying groups with gender related materials in schools will follow the Cass Review recommendations and not glamourise, promote and encourage this medical model in schools?

What are your plans to reform student finance? In England those students receiving the minimum maintenance loan must rely upon huge parental top ups or working during term time, which is a massive barrier to some young people young people accessing higher education. How do you propose to make the current system fair?

On a more general note, 51% of the population are women, but I’ve heard an awful lot of us say we cannot vote for Labour while you ride roughshod over women’s rights and the safeguarding of children. You don’t have long before the next general election to persuade/convince women that you will protect our single sex spaces and sports. What can you say to reassure us that our lives are safe in your hands?

If Labour won the next election, would they still follow the new childcare reforms to offer 15hrs free childcare a week for children aged 9 months to 2 years old with parents who work full time. I don't understand why parents who work full time and earn an average salary aren't entitled to free childcare, but those on benefits and don't work/work very few hours are entitled to free childcare under 3 years old. It's working parents that need it.

Also, how will you address teacher workload to improve teacher retention? Teachers have to work well into the night and at weekends. They are leaving in droves due to breakdowns in their mental health. You shouldn't throw vast bursaries at some trainee teachers. Many science trainees earn more than an ECT/NQT!

Why is the government pushing the lgbt+ agenda into our schools and pse in classrooms where your teaching 6 and 7 year olds self touching and telling 12 year old girls that it's ok for a man to insert their penis in to her vagina.... it's sick and wrong!! Children need to be as innocent for as long as possible, this is going to cause future emotional harm. The government needs to be abolished in my opinion they're no longer fit for purpose!

There are many awesome teachers in schools up and down the country (I am not one of them), but they are driven to despair with all the bureaucracy and being micro managed by the Government. There are no school spaces available for children that need extra help and support and are totally disruptive in the classroom. Why?
School Business Managers have so many forms to fill out for the Government and the red tape is ridiculous. It is driving people away from the schools and making people ill.
What can your party do to stop all of this from happening (honestly, not the usual spiel please). Thank you .

Hi Bridget,

Lots of children are currently still learning, either in PHSE or within individual subjects, that everyone has a gender identity and that it's possible to choose which "gender" you'd like to be when you grow up.
There are many people who don't have a gender identity belief, who believe instead that sex is immutable and that sexism and limitations on what boys/men and girls/women can do, or how they should dress and behave, come from sex-based expectations that start from birth.
At the moment, our schools only teach the belief in gender identity. Children are encouraged to think of growing up as a rite of passage in to the "gender" that fits them best. Where schools enable social transition to experiment with these feelings (e.g. changing pronouns or to an opposite sex name), this forces the other children to accept a belief that they may not hold and risks locking the "transitioned" child on to a pathway of medicalisation for life and irreversible changes to their bodies (including sterilisation if someone takes puberty blockers as well as cross-sex hormones). This psychological lock-in is covered in the NHS-commissioned Cass Review.

What would a Labour government do to balance the teaching of the two different beliefs of gender identity and sex immutability and limit the risk of children putting themselves on a pathway to sterilisation and castration/mastectomy in the belief that they are trapped in the wrong body?

Now that all children are in some sort of education until 18, will Labour consider scrapping GCSEs, which have become nothing more than a pointless waste of learning time?

Hi Bridget, you've previously said that “charitable status for most private schools is something that should come to an end." Do you still believe that? Im fully behind the plans to end VAT relief and I'm also in favour of ending charitable status but on the news this morning its suggested that Labour are u-turning on this aspect?

Will the next Labour government be adding VAT to special schools. Most, if not all, of the pupils who attend them are placed there and have their fees paid by LEAs. Increasing these fees by 20% therefore both adds an unnecessary financial burden to already struggling LEAs and is likely to threaten the funding of education for pupils with highly complex needs