Labour ‘won’t engage’ with schools over VAT raid threat

AN INDEPENDENT schools leader has warned that the Labour Party has failed to engage with them over warnings that thousands of vulnerable children could have their education “thrown up in the air” by a planned VAT raid.

Julie Robinson, the chief executive of the Independent Schools Council, says more than 95,000 children with special educational needs would be affected if Labour imposes its the tax penalty.

“A fifth of independent school children in our schools – more than 103,000 – need some form of Special Education Need or Disability [SEND] support,” she said. “But, currently, only children with the most severe or complex needs, who are covered by an Education Health and Care Plan [EHCP] – 6.9 per cent of them, just over 7,000 pupils – will be exempt from the planned 20 per cent levy.

“This leaves a very large cohort of children in the independent system – 95,000 plus – who have additional needs but who don’t have an EHCP. We all know this is true and yet the fees of these children are not exempt from Labour’s planned new tax.”

Ms Robinson says she fears many of the children could be left “without specialist support” in the state sector and specialist schools could face closure if pupils are forced to move.

A Labour Party spokesman said: “Labour will invest in delivering a brilliant state education for all our children including enhancing targeted support to help every child thrive, funded by ending tax breaks for private schools.

“Independent schools do not have to pass this cost on to parents, and a high-profile independent school has already said they will not be doing so.”