Parents of SEND pupils at ‘breaking point’ over private VAT rise

Students with special educational needs or disabilities (SEND) could lose their extra support at private schools once a 20% VAT charge is introduced.

Some parents of Send students say they are already at a “breaking point” financially.

Rebecca, a mother of three from Somerset, says the new fees are “unfair”. “If they can guarantee that my child will go to a state school and get the help they need, I have no problem. But they can’t.”

The government said the VAT increase was necessary to improve education for the 93% of students outside the private system.

The government spokesman added that students with an education, health and care plan (EHCP), which states that their needs cannot be met in the state sector, will have their private school fees paid by the local authority and will be able to reclaim VAT.

However, not all Send pupils have an EHCP, which has led to some parents paying the fees out of their own money to ensure their children’s needs are met.

The VAT increase will apply to private school tuition fees from January 2025.

The BBC spoke to parents who sent their children to Westonbirt School in Tetbury, Gloucestershire, and Wellington School in Somerset.

Rebecca chose Wellington School because of its reputation as a ‘caring and diverse’ school. All of her children have special educational needs but do not benefit from the EHCP.

She is “frightened” by the extra £9,000 a year she estimates she will have to pay on top of her current £60,000.

Without being in private school, Rebecca is concerned that her youngest child, who has a neurodiverse condition, will be placed in a residential care unit due to the loss of “the stability and extra attention that Wellington School offers”.

Her son, who has a hearing problem, had already been bullied at a public school.

She considers herself an “average wage earner” and the family has already used an inheritance from her husband’s deceased parents to pay the costs at their current level.

“This year we went on holiday to Milton Keynes, to visit an audiologist for Ellia and Max. We don’t live a luxurious lifestyle.

“Our shoulders are not broad enough. I cannot enter a (public) school and none of them are able to meet the needs of my children,” she added.

The students sent represent a third of Westonbirt’s school population and leaders said it had already lost around “three or four pupils” as a direct result of the VAT changes.

“There are better ways to ask us for more. It would be great to do more with local authority grants, and to do it with the government rather than working against it,” said director Natasha Dangerfield.

Henny, a mother, said she could “pretty much weather the storm.”

“The additional financial pressures will limit the number of jobs I can create in my marketing agency, where almost all profits have been reinvested into the education of my dyslexic children,” she said.

She had tried to get places at various alternative state schools in Westonbirt, but had failed to get in anywhere.

Recent PollA survey conducted by Ipsos in late August suggests that 55% of Britons support Labour’s plan to impose VAT on private schools, with just 19% opposed.

During the election campaign, Sir Keir Starmer insisted he had “nothing against” them, but that his biggest priority would be to fund the 6,500 new public sector teachers promised.

A government spokesperson said: “We want to ensure that all children have the best possible chance of succeeding in life.

“Ending tax breaks for private schools will help raise the revenue needed to fund our education priorities for next year, such as hiring 6,500 new teachers.”