VAT and Bursary impact

[tam255]

For some parents in London on a reasonable income who can’t afford to buy in the catchment of a good/ outstanding school, sending to a private school with partial fee assistance/ bursary is the next best option.

Often these big private schools in London in fact often support the state sector, local schools in their area with use of facilities, pools, drama studios etc and are very generous indeed even with teaching staff, Saturday schools etc supporting local schools. This important fact just seems to be forgotten.

As for the student intake, in fact in London most of the private schools have more diversity than the superselective Grammar schools!! Getting a place into a superselective Grammar school for a child in London requires deep pockets. A bright child who cannot afford all the numerous tutors and mock classes etc has no chance of getting through a superselective grammar school and if you can’t afford to live in the catchment area of a good comprehensive will miss out there too.

The reality is that, if a child on a part bursary is in primary school yes, you could have an option to move to a state school at some point. However if a child on a part bursary say is in private secondary school yr 9 onwards ( where subject choices etc have been made) it’s going to be impossible to just change them to the state sector till sixth form.

Yes, there will always be millionaires and billionaires in the private schools but also a lot of parents who are covered partially with bursary’s. With all the vat added it will impact the bursaries which is sad and more importantly the support the private schools offer to the local state schools around in their catchment.

We live in The Vale of Glamorgan, South Wales.

I don’t want to derail the thread but the school is absolutely firm about no mitigation as the bursary is external. They haven’t been unpleasant about it but they haven’t offered false reassurances or promises.

I suspect we are quite a small group of parents (external bursaries are hard to come by and hard to get - ours was anyway).

It’s just another unthought of consequence of this petty, reductive policy. It’s just one child to everyone who supports VAT but to us it’s our whole world and has impacted every financial decision we have made (and so much sacrifice) since 2015.

again, apols for derail

It is one reason those who owned massive country estates used boarding schools really as there would not be a decent local school in some of those gorgeous rural areas so sending the child to board was the compromise I suppose.

I hope Labour rethinks and does not proceed or the litigation succeeds in stopping this in its tracks.

There's a consultation period ending tomorrow!
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/vat-on-private-school-fees-removing-the-charitable-rates-relief-for-private-schools
Comments can be sent to the email address at the end of the third document.
The impact on bursaries and SEN was ignored in this policy, and @AgathaMystery your situation seems quite unique, so might be worth flagging.

Consultation period? Wow. I really thought it was a done deal. Esp with many private schools having announced fee rises from January.

I do wish they would, at the very least, implement the change from September 2025 instead of January. That is a really savage thing to do, mid-year

@Newskool thanks I have emailed. I’m not sure I am unique. I cannot be the only parents with a child on a bursary that doesn’t include VAT?

@AgathaMystery I think the issue might be that VAT is a consumer tax. You are consuming education. The supplier (the school or charity) isn’t. Therefore I’m not sure they can pay VAT for you but they could increase the bursary to cover the vat but it’s not their tax to pay. It’s a tax a school will now collect. (Or not!!!)

@AgathaMystery I meant having an external bursary, so not a cost the school can just absorb.

My SEN DC gets a substantial bursary from the school, who have said nothing concrete about the VAT so far. Leaving would be catastrophic for DC, educationally and emotionally.

Where is that?

@PeachSalad where is what?

Outer London is the bit of London that is not inner London.

The West Mids is aorund Birmingham but stretches for miles. The East Mids encompasses parts of Derbyshire, Notts, Derby, etc.

Obviously I am asking if it is South, West, East or North London.

I’m in North West London and I’d say that’s true round here. So many excellent secondaries and sixth forms.

West London, Ealing area has many great school and then South West, Richmond