Private schools should be praised not punished

Rather than allowing tribal hostility to dominate policy, the Government should be thinking about what is best for Britain

Proposed plans to use private hospital capacity to relieve the pressure on the NHS are clearly to be welcomed.  
As we have seen in recent years, the health service appears increasingly incapable of turning resources into results. Since 2019, the number of full-time equivalent doctors working in the NHS has risen 16 per cent, the number of nurses and health visitors 11 per cent, and the NHS England budget 26 per cent. The result is a health service that treats fewer patients, leading to long waiting lists and no doubt contributing to the numbers out of work on sickness benefits.
Under these circumstances, partnering with the private sector is a proposal that makes sense, with independent hospitals investing in expanding facilities, and patients receiving treatment sooner.
It is promising that the Government has not rejected the proposals out of hand, and Health Secretary Wes Streeting is to be commended for his work in winning his party around to the idea of greater private sector involvement. It is an attitude which stands in stark contrast to that displayed by his colleague, Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson. 
While Ms Phillipson is perfectly willing to make use of the facilities of private schools when it comes to her hockey team, she has made it quite clear that she has little sympathy for institutions forced into cost-cutting measures as a result of the Government’s VAT raid. 
Indeed, she has also shown little concern for the estimated 20,000 to 40,000 pupils who could be forced back into the state system, or the ability of our schools to absorb them. 
Reports that these figures may be a substantial underestimate should surely make those around her aware of the risk posed by these plans. The author of the IFS study which produced these estimates has noted that the true number leaving could be as high as 100,000.  
Such an exodus would risk putting a considerable degree of pressure on state schools as it would be geographically concentrated. It would also, needless to say, put at risk the jobs of the teachers educating these pupils, with education unions warning that many could be made redundant.  
It is curious that the Government appears settled on pursuing this policy despite the mounting concerns about its practicality, and it is hard not to draw unfavourable comparisons with the approach proposed for the NHS.
Rather than allowing tribal hostility to the idea of private education to dominate policy, the Government should be thinking about what is best for Britain. Parents paying for private sector education, while relieving pressure on state schools, is a clear positive for the country as a whole. It is disappointing that Labour appears unable to grasp this.