Lib Dems call for cap on SEND school profits
House of Commons Library analysis commissioned by the Lib Dems found several leading providers of SEND education, some backed by offshore private equity firms, have seen their profits surge in recent years.One provider reportedly made over £44m in profit on annual turnover of £208m, and saw a 60% jump in profits in just two years.Another made £20.9m in profit from £194.2m in turnover - a profit margin of 10.8%.Wilson argued profits are made "off the backs of disabled children" and at a time local councils face financial strain.She described the situation as "an absolute scandal" and accused private equity-backed firms of exploiting the shortage of SEND education provision"Children with special educational needs deserve the best possible support, and should not be viewed as cash cows for vulture firms," she said.If implemented, firms exceeding the 8% margin could face sanctions, including returning excess profits to local authorities, the Lib Dems said.The proposed cap would mirror "similar measures" floated by Education Secretary Bridget Philipson in November to cap profits for companies that run children's homes in England.The Lid Dems insist the cap would not reduce competition or worsen access to special school places. Instead, it would be accompanied by efforts to expand state-run specialist provision, according to the party - including support for councils to build their own schools and the rapid rollout of 66 new special free schools currently in development.
Ministers are considering a major shake-up of the SEND system, with details due to be set out in a Schools White Paper later this year.A Department for Education spokesperson said: "The system we've inherited has been failing families of children with SEND for far too long, and it's appalling that some companies are capitalising on this crisis."The government is setting out plans to "requires all schools to be firmly focused on improving children's outcomes - not excessive profit-making," the spokesperson added.In December, the government announced £740m in new funding to support SEND pupils and those needing alternative education, which the spokesperson said encourages "councils to create more specialist places in mainstream schools."
Sign up for our Politics Essential newsletter to keep up with the inner workings of Westminster and beyond.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
BBC News
17 minutes ago
- BBC News
Staffordshire Reform has to prove it's competent
The leader of a Reform UK-led council says the party needs to prove it's competent enough to run local Cooper, leader of Staffordshire County Council, said the first 100 days of Reform's control over the authority had seen it begin "changing perceptions" and getting on with the party won power from the Conservatives during the local elections on 1 May, winning 49 out of 62 seats with 41% of the Phillip White, leader of the Conservative opposition on the authority, said Reform had wasted its first 100 days. Decisions made since Reform's victory included stopping non-essential roadworks in parts of Stafford and not spending £4.5m of government money on electric vehicle charging council also said it was spending almost £14,000 on a new role to improve special needs education in the county."We have to prove to people we are competent," Cooper told BBC Radio said many people told the party after they came into power that they "did not know how to run things" and had no history in local government."We're changing that perception," he added. "We have great projects we are in the process of delivering and finding the money for."He said they had "lots of great things" in the pipeline but would not confirm what they were. 'A 'do-nothing' council' White told BBC Radio Stoke "very little had happened" in the first 100 days of Reform's administration."Some people have been calling Staffordshire County Council a 'do-nothing council' over the last few months," he added."It's really worrying, without another council meeting until October, that it's actually true. First 100 days - there's actually not a lot to write home about."Reform UK leader Nigel Farage previously said it would send an Elon Musk-style Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) team into local authorities it controls to assess "wasteful spending".It was said in response to him being questioned about the county council having to pay an estimated £27,000 for a by-election after Councillor Wayne Titley stepped down from his Gnosall and Eccleshall seat, just two weeks after he was contest, held on 17 July, was won by Conservative candidate Jeremy Pert, with Reform coming in third place behind the Green previously defended the cost and said he would not "take any lectures from other parties". Follow BBC Stoke & Staffordshire on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.
Daily Mail
17 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Starmer has lost 10 ministers after rent hike row departure
Keir Starmer has recorded another unwanted distinction after a tenth minister quit the government. Rushanara Ali resigned as homelessness minister last night saying she did not want to be a 'distraction'. She had faced claims she ejected tenants from one of her properties, before putting it back on the market for an extra £700 a month rent. In a letter to the PM, Ms Ali insisted that she had followed 'all relevant legal requirements' and took her 'responsibilities and duties seriously'. The departure heaps more woe on Sir Keir, who has seen a significantly faster rate of attrition than his predecessors. Since Labour won the general election in July 2024, the premier has lost 10 ministers. They include former Transport Secretary Louise Haigh and international development minister Annelise Dodds - previously a close ally of Sir Keir. In contrast, Rishi Sunak lost nine Government members in the first 13 months - two of whom were ministerial aides. The equivalent figure for Boris Johnson was six and Theresa May three, not including reshuffles. Liz Truss's premiership lasted only a month and a half, during which there were three departures. Ms Ali's resignation came after it emerged that she had hiked rent on a property she owns by hundreds of pounds just weeks after the previous tenants' contract ended. The MP has repeatedly cast herself as a voice for hard-up tenants, and spoke out against private renters 'being exploited and discriminated against'. And she championed the Renters' Rights Bill, currently going through Parliament, which will ban landlords who evict tenants from re-listing a property for a higher rent until at least six months after the occupants have left. Her actions would have been illegal under this law. In a round of broadcast interviews this morning, energy minister Miatta Fahnbulleh said Ms Ali had 'not broken any rules or any laws' when asked by Sky News if the allegations about her colleague were a 'good look'. Ms Fahnbulleh added: 'She's chosen to resign, and that is a personal decision for her. What we care about as a Government is that we are levelling the playing field for renters. 'So we absolutely recognise that across the country. I hear stories all the time of people who are not getting a fair deal as a tenant. 'In the end, if you're a renter, you want security in the thing that is your home and so that is what the Renters' Rights Bill is trying to do. I think that is absolutely right.' Tory leader Kemi Badenoch had led the calls for Ms Ali to be sacked, telling the Daily Mail: 'I warned that Labour's Renters' Rights Bill was a mess. Now we find out the minister responsible is doing the opposite of the what the Bill proposed – the homelessness minister is making people homeless. 'Rushanara Ali's hypocrisy is shameful.' Conservative Party chairman Kevin Hollinrake added: 'I think it shows staggering hypocrisy. Rushanara Ali has been somebody who's obviously a government minister in charge of homelessness. She's spoken out about exploiting tenants, about providing more protections to tenants. 'You can't say those things, then do the opposite in practice, as a landlord.' He said the conduct appeared to be 'unethical, not illegal' but 'we can't just say one thing and do another'. Ms Ali is the third Labour minister to have resigned over a personal matter. Tulip Siddiq resigned as City minister in mid-January, 26 days after the Mail revealed she was facing a major corruption probe in Bangladesh, which she denies. Louise Haigh stepped down as Transport Secretary in November last year following media revelations that she had pleaded guilty to a fraud charge a decade ago. Ms Ali is alleged to have told four tenants to move out of the £900,000 four-bedroom home in east London, only to relist the property at a rent of £4,000 a month – a £700 increase – amid suggestions she failed to find a buyer for the property. Laura Jackson, a 33-year-old self-employed restaurant owner, was one of those who rented out the house – roughly a mile from the Olympic Park – in March 2024 at £3,300 a month. She then received an email in November telling her the lease would not be renewed this year, and that she and her housemates would need to move out, giving them four months notice, taking them to March. The current occupants are said to have moved in 'four to five months' ago on the increased terms.
Spectator
19 minutes ago
- Spectator
To be a success, Starmer's migrant deal must pass tough tests
First came the Starmer-Macron handshake, sealing the UK-France migrant treaty. Following that was a series of Home Office stories about crackdowns on illegal working and smuggler gang adverts, filling the sleepy summer news pages. Then, the 21-page treaty itself was unveiled. And, finally, on Thursday morning Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, sombrely declared that the first migrants had been detained pending their return to France, with pixelated video footage of them supplied to broadcasters just in time for the evening TV bulletins. In terms of media handling, press coverage and communications, the one-in, one-out migrant deal with France has been impressively choreographed, with a drumbeat of related announcements, statements and policies building up to the launch of the plan. It has demonstrated that the government are taking action, rather than merely talking about taking action. It may also, at least for a few days, have slowed the bandwagon of Reform UK. But far tougher tests lie ahead. The main problem is that the scheme is unproven; indeed, it is a pilot, which means that things are likely to go wrong or not work as intended, as tends to happen when ideas are trialled. One obvious risk is that the French authorities refuse to accept a significant number of the migrants selected by the British for removal or delay making decisions about taking them. There are strict timescales laid out in the treaty, which says both countries have agreed to work towards an 'end-to-end process' of three months. It is also unclear how the one-in, one-out balance between returns to France of migrants on small boats and arrivals in the UK of asylum seekers will be achieved. There is a danger, for the government, that the process of requesting transfer to Britain from France is seen to be smooth and swift, acting as a magnet for refugees to apply, while the reciprocal returns arrangements become gummed up. Capacity in immigration detention centres, where there are currently only 400 spare beds, may limit the number of migrants who can be identified for return to France under the pact, particularly as the government continues to ramp up detentions and removals under other immigration powers. As constitutional experts have pointed out, the treaty was laid before parliament on Tuesday when neither the Commons nor the Lords was sitting and ratified by the government 24 hours later. That meant that the standard procedure for the scrutiny of international treaties by MPs and Peers, under which ratification can take place only after 21 days, was not followed. Ministers are permitted to bypass these rules in 'exceptional' cases, but whether it was lawful to do so for the one-in, one-out treaty is expected to form one of the main grounds of legal challenges against it that will inevitably be brought on behalf of at least some of the migrants chosen for removal to France. Their cases are also likely to revolve around the way officials selected them for deportation, ahead of others, and whether an individual's personal circumstances were sufficiently taken into account. The legal hazard for the Home Office is that some migrants will reveal background details about their treatment in their homeland, during their journey to British shores or at the hands of smuggler gangs that make the courts uncomfortable about their detention and imminent removal, potentially undermining the entire scheme. But there are a number of key factors that will work in the government's favour – and help them clear many of the hurdles. On the legal front, France is regarded as a 'safe' country, so human rights claims that migrants will not be treated properly or fairly are destined to fail. In contrast, the Rwanda scheme, introduced by the Conservatives, was blocked because the UK Supreme Court ruled that the east African state was not a safe place for migrants. Operationally, the Rwanda experiment provided Home Office civil servants with valuable experience in devising a large-scale removals programme. Dan Hobbs, director general of the migration and borders group, who led the planning, is now helping to steer through the accord with France. And the principle behind the new treaty – returning people who've arrived in the UK without permission to a safe country they've just travelled from – is likely to command broad public and political support which the government will try to capitalise on during its forthcoming court battles against migrants and campaigners. The biggest question, however, is whether the one-in, one-out deal will work in stopping, or at least substantially reducing, small boat crossings. It's been widely reported that only around 50 migrants will be returned to France each week, compared with an average of more than 800 who make the journey to Britain. At that tiny level of returns – one in 16, migrants who have risked their lives to get to camps in northern France will willingly take the chance that they might be sent back, while smugglers could even use the low return rate to promote their services. It could be that suggestions that returns will be in such low numbers are part of a subtle campaign of expectation management by the Home Office – a common practice among seasoned politicians and advisers. If returns were to exceed 50 per week, it would be viewed by some as a great success. A more likely scenario is that 50 is a figure which is considered to be achievable on practical grounds and acceptable to the French, who have their own major issues around immigration. The government deserves credit for putting the treaty in place 12 months after taking office. But unless the number of returns ramps up significantly, it is virtually impossible to see the one-in, one-out scheme acting as a deterrent, certainly on any meaningful scale. That means ministers must accelerate their work on other fronts to stem the crossings, bring order to the asylum system and move migrants out of hotels. A deal with countries in the Balkans for 'return hubs' to house asylum seekers whose claims have been rejected must be next on the agenda.
