EXCLUSIVE Boy, 8, turned away by NHS because he is a private school pupil, amid claims by MPs that Labour's raid on fee-paying schools has triggered 'class war' and 'discrimination' in our public services

Daily Mail​

07-06-2025

An outraged mother has accused the NHS of 'shocking discrimination' after her eight-year-old son was denied vital treatment – just because he goes to private school.
Tory MPs described the move as 'morally indefensible' and a symptom of Labour's 'vile class war', while the parent attacked the unfair 'two-tier' decision as a blatant breach of the health service ethos of offering equal treatment for all.
Yet her case is just one example of private pupils being refused access to NHS services unearthed by The Mail on Sunday. The mother of the eight-year-old blamed Labour's war on private schools for emboldening NHS managers to deny her child help with his crippling joint condition. 'If you discriminate against children because of the school they went to, where does it end?,' she asked. Her son was referred to a paediatrician at Kingston Hospital in south-west London after she noticed he was 'struggling to hold the pen well enough to write properly', along with other mobility issues.
At the hospital appointment she was asked to fill in a form which asked: 'Where does your child go to school?' And days later, she received a text message saying the child had been 'declined' the crucial next appointment with occupational health therapists.
She then discovered that the specialist unit had written a letter to her GP saying: 'We are unable to see this child as we do not provide a service to school age children who attend an independent schools [sic]. We are only commissioned to provide a service to the mainstream schools.'
The boy's older brother – who has the same condition, hypermobility syndrome – had been treated without issue several years earlier.
Their mother, who wishes to remain anonymous while her son's case is 'in limbo', said: 'I have never been refused treatment for my children – until now. There is clearly a two-tier system at play.
'I have complained bitterly and asked who created these eligibility criteria and where it says in the NHS constitution that it's OK to discriminate against independent schoolchildren.'
The mother of an autistic girl in Somerset told this newspaper her daughter was denied access to NHS mental health services, and was told: 'If you can afford the school fees, you should pay privately. If you had kept your child at the local authority primary school, she would have been supported.'
It is understood that in Norfolk a child was refused a much-needed standing frame by the NHS because he went to private school.
And last month we revealed how young cancer patients from private schools had to pay £115 an hour for tutoring in an Edinburgh hospital's wards, while it is provided free to state school pupils by the city council.
Shadow schools minister Neil O'Brien said last night that the cases 'seem like incredibly unfair discrimination'.
Citing Chancellor Rachel Reeves' decision to slap VAT on school fees, he said: 'Labour are already piling extra taxes on independent school parents. For their children to then be denied vital NHS services, which parents already paid for through their taxes, seems completely unfair. How can it be right that children with disabilities are denied services by the NHS because they attend a certain school?'
Shadow equalities minister Saqib Bhatti said: 'This is shocking. No child should be penalised based on what school they go to.
'Ultimately, Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson's vindictive attack on independent schools has legitimised this kind of pernicious discrimination and triggered a class war against our children.
'Now it falls to the Health Secretary to urgently review NHS policies to ensure nobody is denied access to healthcare, no matter what their background.
'We must not allow this quasi-Marxist class war to take root in our public institutions and certainly not in our NHS.'
Shadow paymaster general Richard Holden added: 'The effect of front-rank Labour politicians targeting their vile class war on children who attend independent schools is brought into sharp relief by actions like this – where kids who need help are denied local NHS services.
'This culture of hate that Labour stoke out of perverse class envy has profound consequences for those in both state and independent schools but it'll always be the most vulnerable who suffer the most.'
And Tory MP Greg Stafford, a member of the Commons' health and social care committee, said: 'Denying NHS treatment to a child because of the school they attend is morally indefensible and completely at odds with the founding principles of the health service. Care should be based on clinical need, not a postcode or a parent's school choice. This decision must be reversed – and fast!'
The Mail on Sunday understands that other NHS trusts have also refused occupational therapy treatment to children because they attend independent schools.
The eight-year-old, who attends a prep school in Kew, was denied an appointment with Richmond children's occupational therapy service that would have been the 'most important stage' of his assessment.
It would have pinpointed the severity of symptoms – which include painful and easily dislocated joints and even problems with internal organs – and determined his future care.
At its most debilitating, hypermobility syndrome can be classed as a disability, and experts say a specialist assessment is vital for children with the condition to prevent more serious issues.
Physiotherapist Deepa Subramaniyan, a specialist in hypermobility at Adelaide Children's Physio clinic in London said long-term effects 'can include such severe mobility issues that a child can end up in a wheelchair.
'It's precisely for this reason that they need specialist assessment to determine how they should be treated. The earlier therapy starts, the better it will be in the long run.'
When the mother received the notice that her son would not be seen by therapists at the unit – based at Ham Clinic and part of Kingston and Richmond NHS Foundation Trust – she said: 'I knew straight away something wasn't right because we have used this service before.
'At the hospital I was asked "Where does your child go to school?" I've never been asked that before. It was never relevant so why is it relevant now? The only thing that has changed is a new government. It is Orwellian.'
The woman, who runs a small business with her husband, says the denial of an appointment was part of an 'anti-private school zeitgeist'. Branding her son's treatment as 'shocking and blatant discrimination', she added: 'Labour's dislike of independent schools is filtering down into the NHS and that is very damaging.
'The NHS has always been such a beacon of treatment for all. If you discriminate against children because of the school they went to, where does it end?
'In cases like my son's, they are effectively discriminating against children who are disabled and against some of the most vulnerable members of society. This is going to affect a lot of children if it is a new NHS protocol. Many people will not want to send their children to independent schools if it means foregoing NHS treatment.'
Such an exodus would follow the record 11,000 pupils who have left the sector since Labour introduced VAT on fees in January.
The woman added: 'I genuinely despair at what is happening. It's the demolition of the British private school system It feels like an ideological battle is going on.'
The website of her local NHS Trust says children's occupational therapy services are offered to 'all school aged children who are residents in the Richmond or Kingston boroughs and attend a state-maintained Richmond school.' A spokesman declined to address specific claims that private pupils had been discriminated against but 'apologised if the wording in our correspondence caused upset. We are in the process of revising it to ensure greater clarity.'
He added: 'Occupational therapy services are available to all school-age children who have an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) either through the NHS or the local authority. For children without an EHCP, advice may be available through existing NHS services provided in state school.'