Will IR35 rules kill the dream of flexible working and learning? No, but sadly parents will pay the price for now.

I took 2 weeks off this Christmas. I didn’t want to (it hasn't historically been my favourite time of year). Also, I love my work and the distraction it affords from a silent house when my children spend time with my ex husband. But it forced a period of contemplation, planning and courage building for the year ahead.

Opening my laptop tonight to send January invoices and the fear I had about the significant increases we’ve had to pass on to parents and schools due to changes in IR35 rules has turned into a melancholy but stoic acceptance that this is short term pain for long term gain. I was frustrated and worried at first by a backdoor policy to make it harder for small businesses to contract workers flexibly.

Thankfully we’re a proud corporate member of the Tutors Association who have helped us navigate the new legal minefield of contracts and we’ve managed to get everything in place just in time.?It's disappointing the government haven't done more (anything) to help small businesses prepare for this.

We pay our team well - 3 sessions earns a teacher more than working in a school on supply for a full day - and there’s no commute, no fuel costs to eat into wages, no planning or marking because our FlexiSchool platform automates a lot of those admin elements of the job that aren’t always the most rewarding.?Parents and digital nomads themselves, our team want flexible work around their other passions and jobs: they are our secret sauce.

The most wonderfully future proof thing about online schooling and hybrid learning is personalised education on par with (dare I say better than) some of the most expensive private schools in the world. Our overheads don’t include lawns you can’t walk on or textbooks that are out of date or corridors and halls to heat.

Our most valuable assets are our people: passionate teachers, learning designers, mentors and academic coaches skilled at inspiring young people from every kind of family, with every kind of ability and challenge.

Because personalised, flexible, hybrid learning IS the future and it’s a combination of all these with the help of technology, AI and machine learning that will facilitate sustainably scalable education within the next 5 years. So these price rises will soon level back out and then decrease dramatically.?

My co-founder, Kate Longworth and I have boot strapped and self funded our businesses (but that will change this year) because we believe education is a fundamental human right - a need not a want or a privilege and so rightfully worthy of investment not just from parents and edupreneurs but from angels! At Gaia Learning and Hybrid School Ltd we need to chose our projects and partners wisely in Q1 to ensure we don’t cut our runway short or lose our best talent: the most enthusiastic subject matter experts, passionate about innovation in their fields, empathic SEN educators who know how to scaffold learning and present it in a myriad of ways to find a hook, a spark to (re)capture a young mind.

Right now our small business supports children of billionaires who access class from their own islands and children who can’t live with their parents who have been excluded from every physical school in their local council area and don’t have access to their own bedroom.

And powered by IBM and Village Capital Hyper Protect Accelerator and a growing team of advisors in the high profile edtech space, we’re not going to let a shortsighted government throttle a small business just yet. Because we’ve got big plans for 2023. Watch us grow! :)

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