Asked by
To ask His Majesty’s Government whether they have made any
assessment of the contribution of independent schools to the
education sector.
(Con)
My Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question standing in my name on
the Order Paper. In doing so, I declare my interest as chairman
of governors at Brentwood School.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for
Education () (Con)
My Lords, independent schools are a small but incredibly
important part of our school system. The independent sector is
extremely diverse: it includes large, prestigious schools which
are household names, but also many settings that serve dedicated
faith communities and special schools that provide much-needed
support to some of our most vulnerable pupils. The sector also
brings valuable international investment to the UK, with over
25,000 pupils whose parents live abroad and who attend UK
schools.
(Con)
My Lords, I thank my noble friend for that Answer. I agree with
her that independent schools play a vital role, both in our
education and in our economy. More than 600,000 children attend
them, saving hard-pressed UK taxpayers more than £4 billion each
year, because those pupils are not in the state sector. They are
modern, diverse and inclusive, with a quarter of them, including
many faith schools, being small schools educating fewer than 155
pupils, often with special educational needs.
Is my noble friend aware that 75% of independent schools,
including schools such as Brentwood, are engaged in fantastic
partnerships with the state sector and with their local
communities, covering everything from well-being and sports to
teacher training, and that more than 8,700 projects were
delivered in the last academic year? Would she agree that
imposing new tax burdens on independent schools would simply
undermine such partnerships, to the detriment of thousands of
children, and threaten hundreds of small schools delivering
specialist provision to vulnerable pupils?
(Con)
I absolutely agree with my noble friend, and I thank Brentwood
School and other schools involved in the types of partnerships
that he described. We have such an asset in our independent
schools, and this Government are focusing on encouraging more
partnership work and understanding how all our pupils can benefit
from that.
The (CB)
My Lords, following on from the previous question, does the
Minister agree that, in the perceived ideological tussle between
state and private, it is sometimes education itself that is
forgotten? The currently less restricted independent sector can
be an incubator for forward-looking educational ideas; for
instance, those of Rethinking Assessment, which submitted
valuable evidence to the Education for 11-16 Year Olds Committee
that school education as a whole can profit from such
thinking.
(Con)
I agree with the noble Earl. Independent schools have shown
themselves to be areas of great innovation, but we also see
important innovation in our state sector. Particularly where the
two come together, we see some of the best results.
(Lab)
Over nine in 10 students study at state-funded schools. Teacher
recruitment is in crisis, there is poor mental health support for
pupils and school buildings are collapsing. If the Government
will not support Labour’s pledge to end tax breaks for private
schools, can the Minister tell the House how they intend to fund
solving the multitude of problems facing the state school
sector?
(Con)
I remind the noble Baroness that teacher numbers are at an
all-time high. I do not deny that there are recruitment
challenges, but it is important to be fair about the context. I
also remind her that pupil funding next year will be at an
all-time high in per-pupil terms. I refer her to the recent
results of our pupils in the international leagues tables for
both reading and maths, and the dramatic improvement in their
performance over the last 14 years.
The Lord
My Lords, I draw attention to my interest as president of the
Woodard Corporation, one of the largest Christian education
charities in the country. The noble Lord, Lord Black, drew
attention to the partnership between Brentwood School and other
schools in the area. That is built into the very DNA of the
Woodard Corporation, with 12 private schools, six academies, 12
affiliated maintained schools and overseas schools, as schools
work well together. Does the Minister agree that this mixed
model, which values co-operation between different providers, is
a very good one that benefits all children? Does she agree that
it would be good to encourage such a model?
(Con)
I absolutely agree with the right reverend Prelate. I know of a
number of independent schools and their local state schools that
are considering just the sort of arrangement that he
described.
(LD)
My Lords, many independent schools host the Combined Cadet Force,
and 70 independent schools share cadet forces with local state
schools. I declare an interest as a former chair of the cadet
health check team. The cadets is an excellent way of teaching
self-confidence, leadership, resilience and life skills. If the
proposed VAT policy sees schools close and lose resources, we may
lose those vital collaborations. What can be done to ensure that
independent schools can continue to support these excellent cadet
programmes?
(Con)
As my noble friend behind me said, vote for a Conservative
Government—but the noble Baroness might not entirely agree with
that, and she is obviously entitled to her views. I absolutely
agree with her on the importance of schemes such as the cadets. I
was in a school on Friday, where I met a number of cadets, and
was very struck by the value of a programme such as that.
(Con)
My Lords, does my noble friend the Minister agree that, should
Labour enter government and introduce the 20% VAT on private
school fees which was mentioned earlier, it would have a massive
knock-on impact on local government, specifically for local
authorities that have children in care who are supported by local
independent schools?
(Con)
I think my noble friend is referring to children with special
educational needs and disabilities. My understanding of the
Opposition’s proposed policy is that children with an education,
health and care plan would be exempt from the fees. However, my
noble friend is right: there are almost 100,000 children in
independent schools with special educational needs and without an
education, health and care plan. This will push those parents
into seeking an EHCP, with all the knock-on effects on local
authority finances that we can see around the country.
(CB)
My Lords, what are the Government doing to try to close what
seems to be an alarmingly growing gap between independent and
state schools in the teaching of arts and creative subjects?
(Con)
There are a number of ways in which the Government are thinking
about this. A number of your Lordships, including my noble friend
Lord Black, have pointed to the partnerships, and I know that
many independent schools work closely with their state school
neighbours to ensure that facilities can be shared and giant
performances are put on. Our focus on a knowledge-rich
curriculum, with breadth, and on our cultural education plan will
contribute to this.
of Hudnall (Lab)
My Lords, one thing is quite striking in listening to the answers
in this Question. The thing that most independent schools have in
common has barely been mentioned, with the possible exemption of
one of the Minister’s noble friends who touched on it: almost all
of them charge fees. The charging of fees is necessarily
discriminatory. While I entirely applaud the efforts that
independent schools are making to make available to some
maintained schools some of what they have available, would the
Minister agree that, none the less, the vast majority of
maintained schools do not have access, particularly in arts and
music but in other subjects as well, to the range, diversity and
richness that are available to people who are able to pay?
(Con)
Of course independent schools charge fees, which parents pay for
out of income that has already been taxed. The question here is
why pick on independent schools to charge VAT, rather than other
forms of education such as tutoring, for example.
(Con)
My Lords, the noble Baroness made the point that the surpluses
that were going to be created by raising VAT on private schools
would be spent in the state sector. Does my noble friend agree
that if too many independent schools close and pupils are
transferred to the state sector, there will not be any surplus
whatever?
(Con)
That is a real risk. Your Lordships may have seen recent research
published by the Institute that pointed this
out.
Noble Lords
Oh!
(Con)
Noble Lords opposite can heckle from the Front Bench, but there
is a serious question about how many parents will decide that
they can no longer afford the fees. Given how a school’s cost
structure works, it takes only a few parents, particularly in a
smaller school, for that school to have to close for all pupils.
