VAT on fees: 'We're starting to see more competition for state school places'
Speaking to Nick Abbot on LBC about the impact of Labour's VAT on fees policy, chief executive of the ISC Julie Robinson warned that independent education should not be seen as a "luxury".
Ms Robinson emphasised that many independent schools serve children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) or specific learning requirements, stating: "A fifth of children in independent schools have additional needs and maybe their parents have felt they need to move them there because they can't get what they need in the state system."
Describing the negative consequences of the government's VAT on fees policy, she added: "If you were to get rid of independent schools or as is happening now, make them less affordable, more children then will move out of independent schools. They will move into the better state schools. And that means the children we really all want to reach, the children facing disadvantage, those children will be towards the back of the queue for those very best state schools. So in fact it will exacerbate the problem of unfairness and inequity and make things worse for those children."
Urging the government to reconsider its tax policy, Ms Robinson noted the significant saving of £4.2 billion a year from fee-paying parents not sending their children to state schools. "If independent schools didn't exist there would be more competition for places at the best state schools. And that's what we're starting to see," she warned.