Labour VAT raid to hit special needs schools

Head teachers complain that Starmer and senior party figures refused to discuss tax plan with them

‘Quite often parents have taken on second jobs or remortgaged the house to try and meet the fees’

SIR KEIR STARMER has been accused of snubbing special needs schools amid fears that children with learning difficulties will have “no place to go” after Labour’s VAT raid.

Heads of independent special schools have told The Telegraph that senior figures in the party have refused to meet to discuss plans to impose VAT on school fees, despite fears that it would displace thousands of vulnerable children. Shadow ministers have promised to exempt fees for children with an education, health and care plan (EHCP) from the 20 per cent levy. EHCPS are issued by local authorities for children with the most severe or complex needs.

However, more than 1,600 children in independent special schools do not have an EHCP, which can take years to obtain.

There would also be no exemption for nearly 100,000 pupils across all private schools who are receiving special educational needs support but do not have an EHCP after a rise in demand for support since the Covid lockdowns.

Michelle Catterson, the headmistress of Moon Hall School in Reigate, Surrey, a special needs school for 185 dyslexic children, said she has written to Sir Keir and Bridget Phillipson, the shadow education secretary, about her concerns, but has received no response.

She told The Telegraph: “The fact that the Labour Party are sort of ploughing ahead with this, and being so resolute that this is what they are going to do, without actually talking to people like myself, who are working in schools, and to families who will be impacted, I think is actually quite shocking.”

She said that about 30 per cent of pupils at her school, which charges fees of between £7,380 and £9,377 per year, do not have an EHCP. She added they came to Moon Hall School because the state sector could not meet their needs, and said many have “grandparents and aunts and uncles who are taking on a second job just to pay the fees,” she said.

She fears they will no longer be able to afford to pay if VAT is added to fees.

“People often think of Eton and Harrow and all these really affluent schools, but they forget that there are many small schools like mine,” she said.

“Where do these children go, if 30 per cent of my families can no longer afford fees? The schools in the local area are oversubscribed. There is no place for these children to go.”

Jonathan Hetherington, headmaster of More House School, in Farnham, Surrey, a school for 500 boys with learning and language-based difficulties, also said that Labour has refused to discuss the “unintended consequences” of the VAT plans with him.

Mr Hetherington invited MPS and peers to discuss the proposals last month at an event in Portcullis House, part of the parliamentary estate which houses MPS’ offices.

However, not a single Labour MP showed up, he said.

Mr Hetherington said: “It’s parents who never originally planned to use independent schools who are going to be most affected.”

He added: “Quite often the parents have taken on second jobs, remortgaged the house, or granny, grandpa and uncle and everyone is pitching in just to try and meet the fees because they see our fees as being essential to ensure their child has a reasonable chance to realise that they are clever and to have a good life ahead of them.”

Mr Hetherington said that around a third of children at the school do not have EHCPS. However, the school has seen a huge rise in parents deciding to pay legal fees to try to obtain one amid the VAT threat from Labour. If they succeed, it would mean their place would be funded by the local authority.

However, Mr Hetherington said the system is skewed towards children from the most affluent families, who can afford legal advice to get approval from overwhelmed councils.

Councils are supposed to respond to requests for EHCPS within 20 weeks, but data published in 2023 show that the number of children waiting longer rose by 35 per cent the year after the pandemic.