By MMP’s Director of Home Education

With the frenzy around Labour’s incoming tax changes for private schools, home-educators have an opportunity to make their voices heard…

With the recent and decisive election of Keir Starmer’s Labour Party, the prospect of a dramatic rise in private school fees dangles before independent schools across the UK. The government’s Finance and Local Government Finance Bills are expected to remove private schools’ longstanding VAT exemption across the UK, adding 20% to fees in tandem with charging them business rates in England. For families who have decided to privately educate their children, these changes and the consequent rise in tuition costs will prompt major reconsiderations. Many of these families, however, will continue to privately educate, unfazed by the escalation of costs. All the same, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), of the roughly 600,000 children who attend private schools, between three and seven per cent will leave the independent education sector in the wake of these policies. Sidestepping temporarily the question of whether or not these policies are justified, on a practical level, this change comes at the same time as a recent uptake in home education in the UK. For parents up and down the country, as private schools have become an increasingly unaffordable option, educational alternatives have grown more appealing. For the home-educating community, there is an opportunity here to capitalise on media attention surrounding these legislative changes.

The connection between the hike in taxation of the independent educational sector and growth of home education remains overlooked. Already, there is a trend of more and more British students pursuing elective home education. As of autumn 2023, the Department for Education (DfE) estimated that roughly 92,000 children were in elective home education across the UK, an increase of fifty per cent from levels in 2018-19. Just as thousands of parents have chosen to home educate their children under the pressures of family circumstances, disabilities, and mental health, the government’s impending policy changes could perhaps add another factor to the decision. As the independent sector is wrung for funds, the majority of students squeezed from their schools will be forced to adopt the norm of the education system, following the 94 per cent of British students towards state education. Nonetheless, some of these pupils will flow towards the expanding pool of those educating themselves from home.

Vitally, home education is not a remedy or loophole in the face of changes to the private school sector. Many families will have little trouble relocating their children to the state sector, adopting the norm of 94 per cent of UK pupils, and many wealthy families will remain unaffected by the increase in costs. Indeed, this is a matter expected to impact approximately 0.005 per cent of students. Yet, the challenges facing this tiny portion of students represent broader issues. For their parents, there is the challenge of finding a good state school to take their children, or insurmountable commutes to educate elsewhere. Equally, many parents are concerned their children’s special educational needs or access to disability resources will not be as well supported in their local school. Whether these concerns are valid or not, for these parents, teaching students from home is one of many options, be it temporarily while examining state options, or long-term.

The decision to home educate is not one that should be taken lightly. Students do not magically obtain high level results nor do they automatically adjust to learning around the kitchen table. For this reason, home education can and has often devolved into a form of truancy. Though many home- schooled students achieve great success, a large portion of families struggle with the adjustment and the lack of structure that characterises learning from home. For this reason, and amid a trend of rising numbers following home education, the DfE has already been pledging shifts in its approach. The Education Secretary, Bridget Phillipson, has raised the introduction of a national register of children of school age to limit truancy. Though truancy is a risk, home education should not be characterised negatively. Without regulation, students can indeed flounder. But just as importantly: without support, students who could otherwise flourish in a home environment may have their wings clipped.

Through a confluence of a rise in home education, thousands of children vacating private institutions and the growth in regulation of schooling from home, the potential product will be a further increase in the number of students pursuing some form of regulated elective home education. Though still a minority, for local authorities and the DfE at a higher level, the post- pandemic direction of home schooling is something that requires addressing and nurturing. For the fruits of this development to be best achieved, families choosing home education must be supported just as much as they are regulated. For the issues that affect home-educated students, from finding affordable learning materials to organising examination entries, authorities can play a greater role in supporting them. As thousands of parents toy with the idea of home education, the incoming fiscal changes and their resultant bulging of the home-educating community are an opportunity for the issues facing home-schoolers to be publicised.

While much of the discussion about Labour’s planned policies for private schools has centred around the social and ethical impacts on students and schools, the potential spike in home education has been strikingly absent. Once again, the national proportion of students likely to be pushed out of private schools by upcoming legislation is miniscule. Nonetheless, the issues they face offer a window into the media for home-educating families. In turn, there is a window for the government to provide greater support to the students following this growing lifestyle choice. This is not an advocation for home education as a middle-ground solution to the government’s new fiscal policies. However, while home-educating numbers are swelling, the departure of students from private to domestic education will only catalyse this growth. For those in power, a growing home-educated community is a practical development they need to come to terms with, coupling an effective regulatory approach with financial and didactic support. For those at home, this is an opportunity to inject calls for greater support for home-schooling children into media debates about private schooling and taxation.