Prove you can’t afford private school fees, council asks parents
Parents have been asked to provide evidence they can no longer afford private school fees to secure a place at a state school.
An email sent out by Buckinghamshire council, seen by The Telegraph, showed a mother being told her daughter had been rejected by two local secondary schools because “they are full”.
She was then asked to prove her financial situation in order for her daughter to be considered for another school in the area.
The mother, who asked not to be named, had applied for a place at two schools via the council’s online portal amid fears she could be priced out of her daughter’s private school by the Government’s VAT raid.
The email from Buckinghamshire council said: “Unfortunately we cannot offer any places at your preferred school/s as they are full”.
The email continued: “In this circumstance, we would normally advocate that [the child] should remain at their current school. However, if you can provide evidence that you can no longer finance the independent school fees, please advise and we can make a local authority non-preference allocation.”
Councils must not ask for parents’ financial status
All children in England between the ages of five and 16 are legally entitled to a free place at a state school.
The Government’s school admissions code also states that in some cases, local authorities may seek supplementary information from parents if schools are oversubscribed.
However, the code states that councils must not ask for information relating to a family’s financial status, criminal convictions, language ability, disabilities or medical conditions.
Buckinghamshire council’s website claims it has received a “large number of applications” for schools in Aylesbury and High Wycombe, and that schools are currently oversubscribed.
Data from the council show that just five state secondary schools out of a total 38 in Buckinghamshire had places available for Year 7 students at the latest count in July, while only four had spaces for pupils in Year 8 and three in Year 9.
It comes amid concerns that some local councils could become swamped with applications for state school places if parents are priced out by fee increases as a result of the decision to add VAT at the standard rate of 20 per cent to private school fees from Jan 1 2025.
The Government has leant on estimates drawn up by the Institute for Fiscal Studies predicting that up to 40,000 private school children could be forced out under the plans.
However, education figures have warned that there will likely be stark regional variations, and that councils with a range of top grammar schools will likely see the sharpest rise in inquiries for places.
Schools absorb some of cost
A raft of prominent private schools announced last week that they would raise fees from January when the tax rise comes into force.
Eton College became the first to announce it would pass on the 20 per cent VAT in full to parents, meaning fees will rise to £63,000 in January.
Others have decided to absorb at least some of the cost. St Paul’s School, in central London, announced a 9 per cent fee rise from January “as a result of ongoing efforts to keep costs down”.
The parent who received the email from Buckinghamshire Council told The Telegraph that her daughter’s private school had also chosen to soak up some of the VAT.
The school announced it would increase fees for senior school pupils by £1,200 from January, although the mother said she feared it could choose to raise them again at a later date – which would price the family out.
Council apologises for ‘choice of language’
A spokesman for Buckinghamshire council said they wanted to “apologise for the choice of language” and insisted it did not reflect any formal policy.
Anita Cranmer, the council’s cabinet member for education and children’s services, said: “We believe this wording was taken from an individual correspondence rather than being a formal policy and we apologise for the choice of language; we are happy to confirm this direct with the family and will not be seeking personal financial information from them or any other Buckinghamshire family.
“The intention was to seek confirmation in this case as to whether the family was relinquishing the child’s current school place and would definitely be seeking an ‘in year’ school place even though their preferred school is full, or whether they would be staying at their current school which is often the case when families aren’t able to get a place at a preferred school.”
She added that Buckinghamshire council had “seen higher numbers of ‘in year’ applications from families with children in the independent sector in recent months”.
“We have been able to offer a number of children from independent schools a place in their preferred school where they have applied ‘in year’, but this is not always possible, such as in this case. If a family still wishes to move from their current school provision in spite of not being able to get a place at their preferred school, we would explore a non-preference offer in a school with space,” she said.
“We have capacity in our schools across the county but this does vary in some areas; as a result we can offer some, but not all families their preferred place if they request an ‘in year’ move.”
‘Education tax will be a disaster’
Greg Smith, the Conservative MP for Mid Buckinghamshire, told The Telegraph: “The financial attack on parents sending their children to independent schools from the Labour Government is going to force thousands of children out of the private sector and overcrowd the state system.
“It is the Government who need to come up with the funds to ensure the state sector is able to cope with this influx of pupils.”
Damian Hinds, the shadow education secretary, told The Telegraph: “Labour’s education tax, brought in right in the middle of a school year, will be a disaster.
“Thousands of pupils will be priced out of independent schools and with the state sector not having the capacity to absorb them, and no plan from the Labour Government to mitigate this, it will be parents, teachers and pupils that will ultimately pay the price.
“We will hold this new Labour Government to account on their behalf.”
A government spokesman said: “We want to ensure all children have the best chance in life to succeed. Ending tax breaks on private schools will help to raise the revenue needed to fund our education priorities for next year, such as recruiting 6,500 new teachers.
“There has been an approximately 75 per cent increase in private sector fees since 2000 and the number of children in independent schools has remained steady, so we do not expect ending tax breaks for private schools to have a significant impact on the state sector.”