Labour say that they will exempt a small number of children at independent schools with special needs and disabilities (SEND) from their iniquitous VAT levy. Some 13,000 will escape it because they have Education Health and Care Plans (EHCPs), issued by local authorities. But the families of the overwhelming majority of such children will have to pay the higher fees arising from Labour policy.
On 28 October, Alistair Lexden responded to a request for comment from The Daily Telegraph. The paper drew on the following statement from him in an article published on 29 October.
I have been desperately worried for months about the impact of the VAT levy on children wiith SEND at independent schools. Some 100,000 are being taught most successfully without EHCPs at independent schools—many of them small, and specialising in SEND provision.
Of course these pupils should not in any circumstances have their education disrupted by being forced to move to state schools. I have lost count of the number of desperately worried parents who have been in touch with me since July, in despair because they will not be able to afford the increased fees that Labour’s VAT will create.
The wellbeing of these children ought to be paramount. But Labour are callously endangering it, regardless of the implications for mental health, at a time when the National Audit Office has revealed that the state sector cannot meet the needs of children with SEND.
In these circumstances the Government should be working in partnership with the independent sector to preserve good SEND provision, not recklessly sacrificing it on the altar of Labour dogma.
Alistair Lexden
Former General Secretary, Independent Schools Council
President, Independent Schools Association( one of the Council’s constituent bodies)
