Asked by: Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what additional SEN provision will be provided in state schools in Huntingdon constituency following the introduction of VAT on independent school fees.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
State education is accessible to all children, regardless of their financial status. All children of compulsory school age are entitled to a state-funded school place. The department works to support local authorities to ensure that every local area has sufficient places for every child that needs one. This includes those pupils who have special educational needs.
Where pupils’ places in private schools are being funded by local authorities because their needs can only be met in private school, for example in England, where attendance at a named private school is required by a child’s education, health and care plan, local authorities will be able to reclaim the VAT.
Asked by: Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will support the independent sector to maintain places for (a) vulnerable and (b) disadvantaged children who have difficulties settling in large state schools.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
State education is accessible to all children, regardless of their financial status. All children of compulsory school age are entitled to a state-funded school place. The department works to support local authorities to ensure that every local area has sufficient places for every child that needs one. This includes those pupils who have special educational needs.
Where pupils’ places in private schools are being funded by local authorities because their needs can only be met in private school, for example in England, where attendance at a named private school is required by a child’s education, health and care plan, local authorities will be able to reclaim the VAT.
Asked by: Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has had discussions with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on the potential impact of the introduction of VAT on independent school fees on funding for state schools.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
This government is committed to ending the VAT exemption that private schools enjoy and will confirm the introduction of these changes at the Budget on 30 October. The Office for Budget Responsibility will also certify the government’s costings for these measures at that time. The right time to discuss any funding for state-funded schools is at the Spending Review.
To note, analysis by the Institute for Fiscal Studies assumes a net gain to the public finances of £1.3 to 1.5 billion per year in the medium to long run as a result of removing tax exemptions from private schools. This would allow for about a 2% increase in state school spending in England. This analysis can be found here: https://ifs.org.uk/publications/tax-private-school-fees-and-state-school-spending.
Asked by: Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many children with an education, health and care plan in Huntingdon constituency have a place in (a) primary and (b) secondary school; and how many such children in that constituency do not have a school place.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
The special educational needs (SEN) publication publishes data on pupils in schools in England with Education, Health and Care (EHC) plans: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/special-educational-needs-in-england. The data file titled “School level underlying data 2024 (csv, 10 Mb)” under the section “Additional supporting files” includes the figures at school level, including the school‘s parliamentary constituency. As these figures are taken from the January 2024 school census, the parliamentary constituencies are based on pre-election boundaries. Where statistics were published prior to the changes in parliamentary constituency boundaries, they will be updated to reflect the new boundaries in the next publication of statistics. This is expected to be in June 2025 for statistics on schools and pupils, including SEN.
It may be useful to note that as the data requested is published at school level, it can be combined with information from ‘Get Information About Schools’ (GIAS) to identify parliamentary constituency. GIAS currently reflects the changes made following the general election parliamentary constituency changes and is accessible here: https://get-information-schools.service.gov.uk/. Updates to geographical data are made on a quarterly basis using data published by the Office for National Statistics.
Information on the number of children in Huntingdon who do not have a school place is not readily available. Information is however available on the placements of children and young people with EHC plans, for the Cambridge local authority in the publication: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/education-health-and-care-plans.
An extract showing the number with placements other than in school or further education establishments, is given at this link: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/75145e5f-3b4f-4e79-4100-08dce44cbd16.
Asked by: Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what data her Department holds on (a) the number of schoolchildren in Huntingdon constituency who receive local authority-provided school transport and (b) the annual cost of such transport in that constituency.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
Local authorities are responsible for assessing children’s eligibility for free home to school travel and for arranging free travel for eligible children. The department does not currently collect data on the number of children who receive free home to school travel from local authorities.
The annual cost of home to school travel is not collected at constituency level. Section 251 of the Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Act 2009 requires local authorities to submit information about their education expenditure, including expenditure on home to school travel to the department. The information collected from local authorities is published on GOV.UK. Further details are available at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/la-and-school-expenditure.
Asked by: Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to ensure that children leaving the independent sector are able to access state education within commutable distance.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
This government is committed to ending the VAT exemption that private schools enjoy. Projections by the Institute for Fiscal Studies indicate that the number of pupils who may switch schools as a result of these changes is likely to represent a very small proportion of overall pupil numbers in the state sector, with any displacement expected to take place over several years. This research can be found here: https://ifs.org.uk/publications/tax-private-school-fees-and-state-school-spending.
On the matter of home to school travel in the state sector, the department’s policy aims to make sure that no child is prevented from accessing education by a lack of transport. Local authorities must arrange free home to school travel for children of compulsory school age, 5 to 16, who attend their nearest school and would not be able to walk there because of the distance, their special educational needs, disability or mobility problem, or because the nature of the route means it would be unsafe for them to do so. Local authorities have the discretion to arrange travel for other children, but are not required to do so.
Where a child is not eligible for free home to school travel from the local authority, it is the parent’s responsibility to make the necessary travel arrangements.
Asked by: Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to ensure that children leaving the independent sector in areas with no state school availability are safeguarded.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
This government is committed to ending the VAT exemption that private schools enjoy. Research by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) indicates that the number of pupils who may switch schools as a result of this change is likely to represent a very small proportion of overall pupil numbers in the state sector and any displacement would be expected to take place over several years. This research can be found here: https://ifs.org.uk/publications/tax-private-school-fees-and-state-school-spending.
The department cannot be certain of the precise level, if any, of transfer from private to state sectors additional to the movements between schools, and between the private and state sectors, which happen each year in all parts of the country. However, there is significant spare capacity in existing state schools. The department collects pupil forecasts and school capacity data from local authorities annually through the School Capacity survey and this data shows that in May 2023, 11.7% of primary capacity and 11.5% of secondary capacity was unfilled nationally, meaning school places are available in many parts of the country. The department will monitor demand and capacity using our normal processes and continue to work with local authorities to meet any pressures.
Asked by: Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many and what proportion of proposed primary school breakfast clubs will be introduced in Huntingdon constituency.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The government is clear on the impact that breakfast clubs can have to support children to arrive at school ready to learn, which is why it committed in its manifesto to introducing free breakfast clubs in every primary school. The new breakfast club offer, once rolled out nationally, will be available to every state funded school with primary aged children.
Asked by: Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has made an assessment of the potential impact of the introduction of VAT on independent school fees on the number of staff in support roles in such schools.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
This government is committed to ending the VAT exemption that private schools enjoy and this tax policy change will be introduced at the Budget on 30 October. Following scrutiny of the government’s costing by the Independent Office for Budget Responsibility, details of the government’s assessment of the expected impacts of these policy changes will be published at the Budget in the usual way.
Asked by: Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much funding per pupil she plans to allocate to implement free breakfast clubs in primary schools.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The government has already taken decisive action by announcing in the King’s Speech that, under the Children’s Wellbeing Bill, every primary school with primary aged children will offer a free breakfast club. Legislating for breakfast club provision will give schools the certainty they need to plan for the future.
Future spending commitments will be set out as part of the Spending Review process.