At a news conference today Reform UK’s deputy leader Richard Tice claimed private equity backed firms are making 300m to 400m a year in profits from running special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) schools.
There is no question that private equity companies are involved in the SEND sector.
The Liberal Democrats commissioned research from the House of Commons Library this year into five major private SEND education providers: Outcomes First Group, Aspiris, Witherslack Group, Cavendish Education and CareTech.
Most of these are private equity-backed and the research pointed to collective operating profits for these groups alone of more than 100m a year and profit margins in some cases of more than 20%.
An earlier investigation by the specialist publication Schools Week into these same groups in 2023 found similar results.
However, most of these groups also run private children’s homes and it’s difficult to disentangle the profits made specifically from SEND education.
All the firms have denied profiteering.
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