The Labour Party’s plans to abolish private schools ignore the impact on special needs students.
That’s the view of Claire Dorer, chief executive of the National Association of Independent Schools & Non-Maintained Special Schools (NASS).
Claire Dorer, head of the independent special schools group the NASS, says Labour’s plans to abolish private schools have caused a lot of anxiety for parents
Dorer says the plans laid out at the party’s conference last month have “caused anxiety to a lot of parents”.
No more charitable status for private schools
Labour has said it would abolish private schools by removing their charitable status. It would hand over their endowments, investments and properties to the state.
Angela Rayner, Shadow Education Secretary, has said a Labour government would use its first budget to end “tax loopholes” that benefit private schools.
Dorer said she hoped the schools would remain open under a Labour government, with their ownership transferred to the state.
But she admitted much of the cash for independent special schools comes from the government by funding places for students.
“The act of ownership in some ways is relatively neutral. It’s what does that then enable you to go out and deliver. That’s largely a funding question,” she said.
State control ‘would matter less to charities’
State control would matter less to independent schools run as charities than for those run for profit, Dorer added.
Rayner has said she wants to stop the state subsidising parents who “buy privilege” for their children.
But Dorer argues: “That’s not why independent special schools are there. This is the state funding children with particularly complex needs.”
In a statement, a Labour Party spokesperson said they would make the education system fairer by the “integration of private schools”.
But the statement insisted the party has no intention of closing “any specialist schools or colleges”.
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Published: 9 October 2019
