Labour’s VAT raid on private schools is leading to a boom in tutoring as parents are choosing to “throw the kitchen sink” at supplementing their child’s state education, The Telegraph has been told.
Several tutoring firms said they have seen a spike in interest from families who have pulled their child out of a private school in anticipation of a steep rise in fees when the government’s policy comes into force.
There have also been inquiries from parents who were previously planning to send their child to a private school, but have now decided against it due to the policy and want to instead explore a model of private tuition alongside state education.
James Grant, managing director of MyTutor, said that this September his firm saw a 19 per cent year-on-year increase in parents signing their child up to the tutoring service.
“We are seeing a real influx in demand from parents who are saying that they will throw the kitchen sink at tutoring alongside the state school system,” he said.
“At state schools there are generally larger class sizes and there is also a big teacher shortage – meaning you might end up with English teachers teaching maths lessons, for example.
“So parents are looking for more specialist help and want to make sure they have a Plan B if the state school cannot support the personal needs of their child.”
Mr Grant said the core subjects of English, maths and science remain the most popular subjects for one-to-one tuition, and make up around 80 per cent of their work.
But they have also received requests for tuition in more specialist subjects like Italian, German, Philosophy and Latin, which are less likely to be taught at state schools.
“We have seen an increase in demand from parents who are taking their children out of the private school system and value tutoring as a meaningful high-quality alternative,” Mr Grant said.
“There is also a very high proportion of parents who might have previously considered sending their children to private school and are now at an inflection point where they are exploring options and coming to discuss with us what a state education plus tutoring could look like.”
‘Spike’ in tutoring inquiries since tax raid announced
Roland Witherow, director of the private tutoring company Witherow Brooke, said he has also experienced an increase in inquiries from British families since Labour’s announcement of their tax raid on private schools.
“Over the summer we saw a spike,” he said. “Both from families looking for supplementary tuition as well as a few families from independent schools moving into homeschooling routes.”
Will Orr-Ewing, founder of Keystone Tutors, said he has seen heightened interest from families who were thinking about sending their children to private schools but have instead decided to “put some of that budget into tutoring”.
“More middle class professional families – who might previously have been classic independent school families a few years ago – are now realising that they are perfectly happy with a state education and using their disposable income on tutoring,” he said.
It comes after the author of a crucial report admitted that Sir Keir Starmer’s VAT raid on private schools threatens to force twice as many pupils into state education as claimed by official estimates.
The Government has relied on a report by the Institute for Fiscal Studies published last summer to defend its tax raid on private schools. The report estimated that between 3 and 7 per cent of private school pupils could be driven to the state sector by the policy – around 18,000 to 40,000 pupils.
Sir Keir and other ministers have repeatedly cited the report when defending their plan to charge VAT on private school fees, which is due to come into effect from Jan 1 2025.
But Luke Sibieta, its author, has admitted that the proportion of private school pupils forced into the state sector could be as high as 15 per cent.
Meanwhile figures published by the Independent Schools Council last week said 10,000 fewer pupils enrolled at private schools this September compared to last year.
The Government hopes the VAT plans will bring in around £1.5 billion, which it has promised to spend on improving state education, including the recruitment of 6,500 new teachers.
A Treasury spokesman said: “We rely on our own analysis, which is being scrutinised by the OBR. Costings will be published at the Budget.
“We do not expect this policy to have a significant impact on the number of pupils attending private schools overall. The number of pupils in private schools has remained steady since 2000, despite around a 75 per cent real term increase in private school fees since that time.”