There’s been a huge amount of coverage in the press over recent weeks and months about Labour’s plans to add VAT to private school fees if they were to win the next general election. With parents grappling with a great deal of uncertainty around what’s really going on, we asked Julie Robinson – the Chief Executive of the and the person right at the very frontline of the issue – to give us her thoughts on the ever-changing situation. With the overarching message being ‘don’t panic’, read her brilliantly reassuring piece below...
Unless you have paid no attention to the news at all over the past 12 months, you will have not been able to avoid the constant and occasionally intense interest in independent schools shown by the media, spurred by the plan to introduce VAT on parents’ fees and remove some tax reliefs from those schools run by a charitable foundation.
The proposed policy, which is being put forward by Labour, is not a new one. It was first introduced in 2019 – before Sir Keir Starmer was even leader. And it had been announced as Labour policy back in 2021, and rarely referenced since then.
This changed in November 2022, when the chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, mentioned the policy at the despatch box. During his autumn statement, he said: “Some have suggested putting VAT on independent school fees as a way of increasing core funding for schools, which would raise about £1.7 billion. But according to certain estimates, that would result in up to 90,000 children from the independent sector switching to state schools, giving with one hand only to take away with another. So instead of being ideological, I am going to be practical.”
This launched a debate that has been fiercely fought on both sides of the aisle. It seems both parties see the policy as a way of making a wider point about themselves and their opposition. While politicians speak about independent schools, however, the Independent Schools Council is speaking for independent schools: making the case for our schools and the public benefit they provide accurately and loudly.
We have been able to bust stereotypes: the average ISC school is most likely to be a local, community co-ed prep school with fewer than 300 pupils; far removed from the large, wealthy boarding schools that loom large in the public imagination.
We have been able to show that while fees have risen above inflation over the past decade, bursaries have risen at a faster rate – with more students being helped by greater amounts of money (in fact, over a third of students at ISC schools receive some form of fee remission). And, in fact, fee rises have been lower than wage inflation over the past five years.
We have been able to talk about the specialist provision our schools provide. Around a fifth of students at ISC schools receive some sort of support for a special educational need or disability. We have a range of faith schools, providing choice for families who value a religious ethos, and also single-sex schools, allowing parents to choose boys’ or girls’ only education for their child. Within the independent sector, there are also world-leading arts, music, drama and dance schools, contributing to the UK’s soft power on the global stage.
A study from provided information showing the value of the sector to the economy: the fact that our schools support £5.1 billion in tax every year, while saving the taxpayer a further £4.4 billion by educating students who would otherwise take up space in the state sector.
We have also highlighted that this policy is one that affects choice: the right of parents to choose how they spend their money and to choose the right school for their child. It would be a tax on education – breaking the principle that education is not taxed, and making England an international outlier. And it creates a two-tier charity system, creating a worrying precedent that any charitable organisation seen as not reflecting the ideology of the government of the day could be subject to punitive tax measures.
It’s important that we take this policy seriously; it is more acute than any threat the sector has faced before, and different to any Labour policy that has been mooted for our sector previously. Here’s why.
Labour
can do this: this isn’t the same party that threatened to abolish our schools. This is a political force that has thought through their ideals and matched them to what is legally and politically possible.
Labour
want to do this: it might not seem it sometimes, but people, by and large, don’t hate our schools. They don’t wish us ill, but nor do they particularly care. So this isn’t a vote winner, this is part of Labour’s vision for their next government – and that’s a problem, because there’s only so far statistics can challenge that.
Labour
will be able to do this: short of an unprecedented series of events – which, given the past few years, we shouldn’t rule out – Keir Starmer will be prime minister and Labour will form the next government. This isn’t opposition politics. They are planning for what they will do once they have the keys to Number 10.
Put simply:
schools are taking this seriously. They are planning for the possibility that it could happen anyway. The absolute best part of there being more of a focus on our sector is that we can get people talking about all the great things our schools are doing to improve education for every young person.