Farnham’s former MP has accused the Labour government of carrying out “vindictive class warfare” with its “insidious” plan to tax VAT on private schools. Jeremy Hunt MP made the bold statement last Friday as he joined his Farnham & Bordon and East Hampshire counterparts, Gregory Stafford and Damian Hinds, for a VAT & Independent Schools meeting in St Andrew’s. The meeting chaired by Mr Stafford was called to discuss the government’s policies on independent schools and SEND education.
The triumvirate outlined why the policy is a “bad idea” at the panel-style event before holding a Q&A with parents and figures from affected schools.“It’s a fundamental principle that education is a benefit to society as a whole and should not be taxed for any reason,” said shadow education secretary, Mr Hinds. Mr Hunt called the move “a massive concern” as Surrey has a higher proportion of children at independent schools.
There are fears the financial impact levied on less-wealthy parents will lead to a drop in pupil numbers, school closures, and an influx of students into state schools with few spaces, with the demise of Alton School being cited Jonathan Hetherington, headteacher of More House School, which has a large proportion of students with SEND needs, claimed many parents chose to send their children to schools like his because of their specialised teaching, and would be dissuaded because of fees.
Some parents also spoke of making sacrifices and scrapping holidays to allow their children to attend independent schools and get a top-class education. But hands may be tied because of the government’s huge majority so the message was: pester Labour where you can. Mr Stafford said: “We can go back to Parliament and ask some probing questions and put ministers on the back foot and show them the policy is the wrong one.”
The triumvirate outlined why the policy is a “bad idea” at the panel-style event before holding a Q&A with parents and figures from affected schools.“It’s a fundamental principle that education is a benefit to society as a whole and should not be taxed for any reason,” said shadow education secretary, Mr Hinds. Mr Hunt called the move “a massive concern” as Surrey has a higher proportion of children at independent schools.
There are fears the financial impact levied on less-wealthy parents will lead to a drop in pupil numbers, school closures, and an influx of students into state schools with few spaces, with the demise of Alton School being cited Jonathan Hetherington, headteacher of More House School, which has a large proportion of students with SEND needs, claimed many parents chose to send their children to schools like his because of their specialised teaching, and would be dissuaded because of fees.
Some parents also spoke of making sacrifices and scrapping holidays to allow their children to attend independent schools and get a top-class education. But hands may be tied because of the government’s huge majority so the message was: pester Labour where you can. Mr Stafford said: “We can go back to Parliament and ask some probing questions and put ministers on the back foot and show them the policy is the wrong one.”
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NewsTranscript
00:00I was knocking on doors during the election campaign. I met someone on the 3rd Grove Hill
00:20who told me that their children had just lost their school place, they were going to Alton
00:26Conference School, which had closed. They couldn't get into Weymouth because they'd
00:32missed the opportunity. But the reality is that even if there was space at Weymouth,
00:37because they hadn't gone to a state primary school, they wouldn't have got into Weymouth
00:42anyway. So the government really hasn't picked up on that.
00:47Both Damien and Jeremy and indeed Claire have talked about special educational needs, so
00:54I'm going to ask Jonathan Huffington, who is the headteacher at Morehouse, most of you
01:00will hopefully know, it's an independent specialist boys' school in Frensham, to give us his
01:05thoughts.
01:06It's really important that we recognise the diversity of the independent sector. And
01:10this is the problem, isn't it? It's always reported in the press, it's something to
01:15do with private schools, so therefore it seems to me that it's harrowing, possibly Jon's
01:20but it's one of the famous ones. And actually the independent sector offers an absolutely
01:26vital component to our education system. When we have the greatest attendance crisis and
01:35mental health crisis amongst young people in this country, and at the same time we're
01:41trying to say, well it's fine because we've got state secondary schools with 2,000 pupils,
01:46we have to recognise that that system doesn't work for so many children. And if we carve
01:53out the independent sector, then we really have an enormous problem and at the moment
01:58there is no solution to that at all. So there are so many parents who use the independent
02:04sector not through choice, but through necessity. And I don't mean necessarily in specialist
02:09schools, I mean so many schools. Alton School, Alton Commons School as it had to be. You
02:15look at the size of that, the type of environment, the volume of children who are recognising
02:21special educational needs on their pupil roll, and you realise that that's providing an
02:26absolutely vital service for the local area. And that was rescuing families whose children
02:32otherwise perhaps would have been either incapable of attending school or admittedly would have
02:37been a grim experience with very poor outcomes. And surely in this country we are about trying
02:43to provide the opportunity to allow all of our children to achieve the very best that
02:49they possibly can. And the independent sector I think is vital in providing that. But parents
02:55who have no choice about using the independent sector are often, in many cases, absolutely
03:02right on the fine line of whether or not they can make it work. And lots of parents,
03:09I know lots of our parents, some of our pupils are funded by local authorities, quite a large
03:14number, but there is a very large number who fund privately. We have some parents who are
03:19financially perhaps quite comfortable, but we have an enormous number who have perhaps
03:24taken on really quite a lot of personal responsibility.
03:26I don't think when they came up with this plan, I don't think they had thought about
03:30all of these factors. In the first place, the top line making itself is uncertain. So
03:37if you look at the, there's this famous IFS award that everybody is looking to, it's the
03:43whole time. For example, it makes an assumption that only the average pupil ISP is getting
03:49aided schools. It therefore made the assumption that all other public schools have the same
03:54entry as ISP schools, which is nonsense. So there's a lot of uncertainty, even in the
03:59headline of things, let alone the point about netting off 10 years' worth of capital maths.
04:06And most importantly, because we don't know the elasticity of demand and how many children
04:11will be displaced, the biggest offset in fact, of course, is on the cost of the state sector.
04:17And it doesn't look like all of this has really been thought through at all. The other thing
04:22I just want to mention while I've got the conch, I mean, you were right when you mentioned
04:26state primary schools, and Jeremy's absolutely right to talk about the immense progress that
04:32we've made as a country with our schooling overall, the vast majority of which is state
04:37schooling. I mean, to the extent that, you know, education has come from around the world
04:42to hear what the story has been in this country. You very rarely read about it in the British
04:48press, but he's absolutely right. And we do need to keep investing, but this doesn't
04:52do this, right? This is not a provocative tax. I know in the kind of propaganda it says,
05:00give us this and we will give you 6,500 teachers and free breakfast clubs and so on. We've
05:06got about 6,500 teachers anyway. By the way, in the last five years, we recruited 15,000
05:12extra teachers over that period. And already we're rolling out breakfast clubs and mental
05:18health support and all the things it's said to cover. Do they really mean that the revenue
05:24came in at that level?
05:25And I think it's totally wrong. It reminds me exactly of the way Tony Blair abolished
05:32the assisted places scheme, which created enormous opportunities for thousands and thousands
05:39of children who wouldn't otherwise have had them. But I think the broader issue is that
05:43everyone here knows that the most important thing we can do to make our country strong
05:49and successful in the future is to have a first class education system. A first class
05:54education system for everyone. Not just the 7% who go to independent schools, but all
05:59of us. And the opportunity cost you have, if your only two big policies are an addictive
06:06policy or a battle on independent school fees and weakening OFSTED standards by awarding
06:12them down the inspection system, is that you are not then focusing on the really big issues,
06:18which is that whilst we have some of the best university education in the world, there is
06:22still a long way to go for the 50% of school leavers who don't go to university, which
06:27is why the aim of the reforms, for example, on T-levels was so important. That's the area
06:32where we really need to be focusing on. Is the A-level curriculum broad enough? What
06:37can we do to make sure that everyone leaves school with exactly the qualifications they
06:42need in the age of artificial intelligence? And that's why I think it's so disappointing
06:47that they've chosen to make this the focus of their education priorities.
06:52What physically happens if there are no spaces left in any sort of safe school across Surrey?
07:07Any more easy questions for Claire to answer? I'm glad you came down here.
07:15As I said, the council has a statutory obligation to make an offer of a school place to any
07:23parent who applies for one. In a situation like that, there would be a conversation,
07:31I'll phrase it like that, a conversation with the school to take a child. Of course, parents
07:39also have the right of appeal against a refusal of a school place, and that's a statutory
07:48right, and to have your name added to waiting lists because there is natural movement during
07:54the year when pupils do leave. But at the end of the day, no, the local authority has
08:01a statutory obligation to find a place for your child at a school, and to make sure that
08:08if it's at a certain distance, that there is transport to that school place.
08:12So essentially what you're saying, Claire, is that if there's no Surrey place, your child
08:16will be sent outside Surrey? No, we will find a place at a school in Surrey.
08:27Good evening. My name is Patrick Stephens. I am a former student of Moorhouse School
08:34that is now at the University of Winchester. I served as deputy head boy. Moorhouse has
08:42done so much for me over the last nine years. That when I heard of this policy, I knew my
08:50hat to speak now. My question is mainly to Mr Jeremy Hunt. How damaged do you think the
09:00wider economy would be if students rushed into the state schools, they don't learn
09:08very well, they don't end up getting the qualifications that they need, and how much
09:15would be spent on welfare, as well as if students need to be homeschooled, how would
09:21that affect if parents are taken out of their money as well?
09:37Thank you very much. My name is Tanya and I got a daughter at Price Hill School. Our
09:45daughter was in the state sector until second grade school and we were very, very pleased
09:53with the state sector. Unfortunately, when we applied for the secondary school place
09:59to the school where the majority of the class went to, and historically the kids from our
10:03village went to, we didn't get our first choice and the second choice in no way was suitable
10:11for our child for personal reasons. So we decided to go to the private sector, not because
10:19it was 20 grand a year, we don't know what to do with. I'm driving a car which is 14
10:27years old, my husband drives a similar type of car, and we determined to do whatever we
10:34can for our child to educate her in a way which suits her personal needs. And I echo
10:43this lady who asked what would be the prospect of challenging this policy legally? When conservatives
10:51introduced the Rwanda scheme, very quickly there was court order to stop the scheme.
10:59Why this policy is not being challenged legally?