Labour VAT raid on private schools could harm vulnerable children, warns former Ofsted chief

Labour’s planned tax raid on private schools could force “vulnerable children” to leave their current schools, a former Ofsted chief has warned.

In Amanda Spielman’s first comments on Labour’s proposed plans, she voiced concern about the potential effects on children with special educational needs and disabilities (Send) who may be priced out of the sector.

“It is a lot of uncertainty for some quite vulnerable children and it’s really important that thought goes into what needs to be provided and how it is going to be provided to make sure we don’t end up with children with nowhere to go,” she told The Telegraph.

“It’s creating uncertainty for a lot of children who really need certainty and need a lot of high quality provision.”

Ms Spielman reformed and ran school inspections in England for seven years until stepping down at the end of last year.

She warned against stereotyping private schools when the sector supports more than 100,000 children with complex needs.

“The independent school sector is more than a handful of big name schools,” she said. “It includes lots of small schools and lots of special schools and lots of schools that aren’t formally special schools but are serving children with really complicated needs that aren’t necessarily well met in big schools.”

Labour has pledged to exempt children with Education Health and Care Plans (EHCP) from its proposals to introduce a 20 per cent levy on private schools.

Pupils with EHCPs tend to have the most severe or complex needs, and can often have private school fees paid for by the local council if their requirements cannot be met in the state sector.

However, Ms Spielman warned that the narrow exemption may miss the large number of pupils in private schools without receipt of EHCPs but that still have complex needs.

Just 7,600 children at private schools receiving Send support currently have EHCPs, while a further 103,000 do not, according to the Independent Schools Council (ISC), an industry body for private schools.

“I would like to see how certainty is created for the children and parents who need it because this goes beyond just children with EHCPs. There are a lot more children in the system with significant needs than just a small slice with EHCPs,” said Ms Spielman.

Michelle Catterson, a head teacher and chairman of the British Dyslexia Association, said that many parents flock to private schools because of the difficulties in obtaining an EHCP in the first place.

“Many families find local authorities difficult and frustrating to deal with. And often families feel that the only way to try and get things sorted with the local authority is to use a solicitor. And the solicitors fees can be very expensive. So it kind of means then that those families that don’t have affordability are punished yet again,” she told The Telegraph.

Ms Catterson said it applied to many parents at Moon Hall School, her private school in Reigate that caters for 200 pupils with dyslexia and complex needs.

“Thirty per cent of my families do not have an EHCP, but that doesn’t suggest that they’re not able to get one,” she said.

“Some of my students have had another experience of education before they come to us, and for a very high percentage of those children it’s been a very negative experience, which is why parents have felt compelled to reach out to the specialist sector for support.”

It comes as figures published earlier this week by the Department for Education showed the number of children with EHCPs in England has rocketed over the past year.

Local authorities issued 84,400 EHCPs last year, marking a 26 per cent jump compared to 2022. It means a record 576,000 children across England are currently entitled by law to specialist education  as a result of complex needs.

It suggests state schools may struggle to cope with additional children with complex needs moving to the sector if parents can no longer pay private school fees.

A report published by the Institute for Fiscal Studies last week found that special needs provision is one of the biggest cost pressures facing state schools. It said that while the high-needs budget accounts for just 15 per cent of total school spending in England, a £3.5 billion budget uplift since 2015 has taken up almost half the total increase in school spending over that period.

Ofsted inspects around half of all independent schools in England, which Ms Spielman said had lent her unique insight into the provision offered by both the state and private sectors.

“Through my experience at Ofsted, I have seen the kinds of children and the kinds of support and help that they need so I am very acutely aware that it’s not just about the big name schools,” she told The Telegraph.

It comes after Julie Robinson, the chief executive of the ISC, warned last month that Labour’s VAT plans could have unintended consequences for Send children, and “pour fuel on a fire that is already very much ablaze”.

She called for Labour to undertake a full impact assessment on how its VAT plans could affect Send services and local councils.

Labour hopes its plans to start charging VAT “as soon as possible” if it wins the election will raise £1.7 billion.

The party has pledged to spend it on recruiting 6,500 new state school teachers, rolling out a national “oracy” programme and ensuring all state schools in England have access to mental health counselling.

Sir Keir Starmer unveiled further plans on Monday to create 3,300 new nurseries, saying they would also be funded by Labour’s VAT raid on private schools.

A Labour Party spokesman said: “The next Labour government will break down the barriers to opportunity by investing in all of our state schools and recruiting over 6,500 new teachers through ending the tax breaks for private schools.”

He added: “Places that are funded by Education Health and Care Plans for children with special educational needs will not have a higher cost as a result of VAT.”