Children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities

Lord Lexden Excerpts

Monday 9th December 2024 Lords Chamber

[Lord Lexden (Con)]

My Lords, I declare my interests as a former general secretary of the Independent Schools Council and the current president of the Independent Schools Association, one of the council’s constituent bodies, whose 690 members include many schools, most of them small, which excel in teaching and caring for children with special needs: schools which are loved and cherished by hard-working families of limited means up and down our land. They are far, far removed from the world of the large, expensive, independent schools, once known as public schools—a term that has now largely fallen into abeyance thanks to the current fashion for representing the independent sector as consisting of private schools.

A recent article on special needs provision stated that

“private schools have become part of the safety net for children”,

adding that the

“government should have recognised how the independent sector has become the backstop for a broken system”.

These words were written by a senior Labour Member of Parliament—long regarded as being on the left of the party—who has come to recognise the value of the wide and diverse provision for children with SEND in the independent sector, which has such a long tradition of excellence in this sphere. Almost 30% of independent schools are special needs schools.

Others too recognise the great importance of the independent sector in supplementing and reinforcing the state sector in this crucial area in a spirit of partnership: a principle fostered by the last Labour Government. A special needs co-ordinator who has worked at a state school for 40 years has written to tell me that “many private schools have been formed specifically to cater for special needs. They provide centres of excellence, often where there is a deficit regionally. Why risk losing them?”. It is a risk no Government should take but, sadly, this Government are taking it.

The Government say they will grant exemption from their education tax only to children with education, health and care plans. As my noble friend Lord Shinkwin has pointed out, nearly 100,000 children in independent schools do not have these hard-to-come-by plans, which parents often have to fight hard to acquire. Last year, over 13,000 SEND tribunal cases cost councils over £45 million. Even as this debate progresses today, families will be wondering how they are going to afford Labour’s education tax; many will decide that they cannot.

Labour says that schools themselves can cover much of their tax. That is wrong. The small schools, of which the sector largely consists, have to raise each year the means by which to meet their costs. Demand for EHC plans will rise. Demand for places in state schools will rise. State schools will struggle to provide them at the same level of care and support as in the independent sector. Good independent special needs schools will shut.

The right course—in the interests of education—is obvious: some clear guiding principles should be laid down. First, all pupils with diagnosed SEND and all those eligible for disability living allowance should be exempt from the education tax. Secondly, a tax threshold should be set—based on the number of pupils—to protect smaller special schools from closure. Thirdly, an independent review should be conducted after six months to provide proper factual evidence of how the education tax—launched hurriedly without full consultation—is affecting the most vulnerable children who look to our education system to meet their special needs. That is what a responsible Government would do.