Isles of Scilly parents of children unfairly penalised

They feel the Council of the Isles of Scilly should do more to provide financial support for parents in the unusual position of having to send their children “overseas” to be educated.

Since the Government passed the Education and Skills Act 2008, stating that from September 2014 children would be required to remain in education/training until they are 18, students living on the Isles of Scilly have to move to the mainland as there is no sixth form provision on the islands.

Parents receive an annual payment of £6,365 from the Government’s Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) towards their children’s travel and board. However, many parents are having to find thousands of extra pounds to ensure their children are living in safe, registered digs.

Sam Mallon says the situation for parents on the Isles of Scilly is scandalous' (Image: Pic courtesy of Sam Mallon)

They believe that as the Council of the Isles of Scilly is a unitary authority and therefore the islands’ provider of post-16 education/training, it should be providing more financial support for parents.

They argue that as there are relatively small numbers of young people involved – between 30 and 40 Year 12 and 13 students each academic year – they aren’t asking for huge sums of money.

Sam Mallon, who runs Toots Taxi service on the main island of St Mary’s, has become the spokesperson for the aggrieved parents. She says many of them work for the Council of the Isles of Scilly – the islands’ largest employer – and, as a result, are unable to speak out.

She told us: “The Council of the Isles of Scilly has not provided one single penny from its budget and parents on the Isles of Scilly are being left out of pocket. It is not reasonable parents are having to fund their children to be in legally required education/training. It is not reasonable to expect children to live in a stranger’s house in an unregulated setting.”

Sam, who calls it a “scandalous situation”, added: “What I, and the other parents/carers of the children of the Isles of Scilly, are demanding is our islands’ children have equal parity with their mainland counterparts. In short, full funding for our children to be as safeguarded as possible in Ofsted-registered accommodation and full travel costs. Our islands children should not be put at risk in unregulated digs.

“I hate to say this, but what happens if one of our children was raped or murdered? The council is responsible for them, so actually they would be being sued for a lot more than it’s costing now. This is what we’re trying to prevent happening.”

A number of parents are quoted anonymously in a document called Isles of Scilly Post-16 Research, which was put together in January after a form was shared with parents on Facebook groups, the Isles of Scilly Residents Noticeboard and a Post-16 Parents Group.

Among the comments are: “It’s a very worrying time for parents. I found my son a host family and due to an injury to the host mother, I had to find him alternate accommodation in his first term away. Which was stressful for us both and very unsettling for him.”

“My child became very ill while living in host family accommodation, but nobody was aware because there was no pastoral oversight. He struggled to attend college, and we were unable to help him in the way we would have done had he been living at home. He changed courses and completed only one A Level, having started off doing five with top grade predictions.”

“The experience of living with house parents was an awful experience. We were paying for full boarding (accommodation with meals), however meals were quite often missed resulting in having to pay extra on top of the agreed amount for food. Often my child was left alone in the property for long periods of time (weeks). We ultimately decided to move to the mainland and remove him from the accommodation.”

Sam has had to start a second business, Scilly Chocolate, in order to fund her son Jacob’s travel and accommodation. He attends Peter Symonds College in Winchester, one of the few specialist sixth form colleges which is also a boarding school, where fees are about £16,000 a year.

She said: “There’s no boarding in Cornwall. You would then be looking at unregulated digs, so the only option is Truro School which is private. We do have some children there and those parents don’t expect that private education to be paid for.

“What we do expect – in fact, demand – is their safeguarded Ofsted-registered boarding should be fully funded, as should their travel. It’s a lot of money for me to find. I’m £11,500 out of pocket for my son’s first year away.”

Her son’s school serves as a sixth form for residents of the Falkland Islands, who are not only fully funded but receive a monthly allowance, so Isles of Scilly families are asking why they are being penalised.

“There are a lot of people taking up extra jobs,” added Sam. “There’s a family who have taken out a loan, there’s another family who are using life savings. People say, ‘well you choose to live there’. Actually I was born here so I didn’t choose to live here.

“I’m upset that many people on the islands are more concerned about the council budget than they are the safeguarding of our islands’ children. Some of the councillors I’ve spoken to have said, ‘well, it’s really tricky because of our budget’ and ‘the thing is we have a lot of statutory duties and if we find the funding for sixth form you might not be able to have your bins emptied’. While that was said kind of in jest, it’s actually a bit of a threat. The situation is legally and morally wrong.”

A motion made by the former MP for West Cornwall and Isles of Scilly, Derek Thomas, regarding post-16 education and the Isles of Scilly was debated in Parliament in April when the Minister for Skills, Apprenticeships and Higher Education acknowledged the powerful case that had been made for increased funding and would therefore “consider carefully any request from the council to provide additional funding for the scheme as part of the spending review”.

Pending progress on accessing additional funding from central government, the Council of the Isles of Scilly was due to discuss a report about post-16 provision at its meeting on July 30. It included the offer of a one-off uplift by the council to the current funding, from £6,365 to £8,000, based on the average spend for a family choosing the host family option being £6,329.56 (based on the average of 18 families who have returned all their receipts). However, some parents believe this is a sop and won’t improve their financial situation in the long term, particularly those who don’t want their children living with a host family.

The local authority was also due to discuss pursuing a formal partnership agreement with Truro and Penwith College to become the council’s nominated post-16 provider as their closest college. However, the item was deferred on the day of the meeting.

A statement from the council said: “Since the report on post-16 education was published, it is understood that some councillors have called into question the legal advice on which the report is based. Whilst the legal advice the council has received might not accord with legal advice that others have received, that does not mean that the council’s advice is incorrect.

“However, as there now appears to be a public perception that the council’s legal advice is being called into question by members of the council, we are seeking counsel’s (legal) opinion. Officers have no legitimate reason to question the legal advice but given the public perception there now appears to be, it is considered appropriate to do this.”

The matter will now be discussed at a future meeting of the full council.