ISC CEO: 'We're defending the rights of families'

In light of the government's decision to impose VAT on independent school fees from January, the Independent Schools Council (ISC) Board has expressed its intention to pursue legal action. During an interview with Martin Stanford on LBC, Ms Robinson explained the Board's reasoning. saying: “Now we’ve seen the detail of this week’s Budget and the lack of concessions on either the timing or the mitigations around this policy, the ISC Board feels there’s little choice left now but to take the legal route. It’s a human rights challenge on educational choice and discrimination, and we’re going to be defending the rights of families who have chosen independent education but may no longer be able to do so as a result of VAT on their fees.”

Ms Robinson further outlined the unintended consequences the VAT policy is expected to have, which she argues will disproportionately affect schools with specific specialisms: “We’re already seeing pupil numbers falling and we will see more schools close, unfortunately. And that’s what’s so disappointing, because we feel that independent schools throughout this debate have been treated as a homogenous group, like a stereotype, when in reality we know that our schools are very, very diverse and that reality has not been taken into account. As a result, special needs provision, specialist education, small faith and small girls’ schools have been put at unnecessary risk – so we’re trying to get the government to at least mitigate that risk.”

Ms Robinson reiterated concerns over children with SEND, particularly those without education, health and care plans (EHCPs): “The 7,000 pupils in independent schools in ISC membership who have got EHCPs, they’re protected from the VAT. But the over 100,000 who are in independent schools, most likely because the families they come from don’t want to have to go through the laborious process of applying and perhaps going to tribunal for an EHCP – those children, they will have VAT added onto their fees. And if just a few of those children are displaced into the state system, it will put enormous pressure on an already stretched state system and special needs provision, which even the secretary of state is describing as a broken system of EHCPs.”

During the interview, Ms Robinson also warned that the timing of the VAT implementation could lead to further disruption for pupils, particularly those at critical stages in their education: “The children who are going to be displaced by the rushing in of this VAT policy mid-year, they could be at any stage of their schooling; they could be halfway through their GCSEs, they might have to move schools.”