Independent schools 'grappling with a lot of financial pressures' amid fee rises, warns ISC CEO
Chief executive of the ISC Julie Robinson has warned that further fee rises, resulting from VAT on fees and other financial challenges, could contribute to an exodus of pupils from independent schools to "stretched" state schools.
When asked by iNews about pupil movement between the independent and state sectors, Ms Robinson said: “We know that what we’re seeing at the moment is just the beginning.
“Schools are only just in the early stages of dealing with VAT on school fees so we are seeing an impact already and history tells us that it takes a couple of years for the effect on the sector to be fully realised.”
Warning that independent schools are facing a “quadruple whammy” of VAT on fees, higher national insurance contributions, business rates and the rising cost of the Teachers’ Pension Scheme, she added: “If schools are in the Teachers’ Pension Scheme then the employer contribution is now above 28 per cent which is an enormous outlay given that the main outgoing for any school is staff costs. So it’s adding almost a third more onto the staff salary bill.”