Labour’s controversial imposition of VAT on private school fees has drawn the ire of the Catholic Church in England and Wales, which has said the policy is disruptive to children whose parents can no longer afford to pay school fees.
Children with special educational needs or disabilities have been particularly affected as they are often sent to small private faith schools due to the lower fees and good pastoral care.
According to The Telegraph, of 50 private schools that have closed down due to the VAT policy, around 20 per cent were Catholic, impacting over 2,000 children.
Speaking to The Telegraph, Paul Barber, director of the Catholic Education Service, said, “Most Catholic independent schools are small, with fewer than 400 pupils. They have historically been run as inclusively as possible, as charities, charging lower fees, and offering a greater quantity of higher value bursaries than elsewhere.
“But the combination of the pandemic, VAT on fees, business tax, rising costs, as well as declining birth rates means the number of these schools in England has reduced by almost a third in the past six years, from 116 in 2019 to just 79 today.”
One of the Catholic schools closed as a result of Labour’s policy was St Joseph’s Preparatory School, in Stoke-on-Trent. The school charged up to £3,415 per term, which is around half the average of a British private school. The school’s former headmistress, Roisin Maguire, said that Labour’s policy had effectively priced the working classes out of the private education market.
In August it was announced that the King Alfred, a Christian, although not Catholic school, would also be closing down as a result of the imposition of VAT. Its headteacher and founder Tom Bowen hopes that the school could reopen in the future under “a less hostile government”.
The government’s policy has been challenged in the courts by a coalition of Christian schools and parents of children with special educational needs. They claimed the policy is discriminatory towards children with disabilities. Although defeated in the High Court, an appeal is underway supported by the Christian Legal Centre.
