The al-Nahyan dynasty has ruled Abu Dhabi since the 18th century and is almost certainly the richest family in the world. It is headed by Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, whose nine children and two adopted daughters have been raised in a gilded world of astonishing opulence with glittering palaces and a fleet of private jets.
The family fortune is estimated to be in excess of £300bn, based on ownership of 6 per cent of the globe’s oil reserves, which has been invested in a diverse range of industries including Elon Musk’s Space X adventures, Rihanna’s beauty brand, Waymo self-driving taxis and Manchester City football club.
One cousin of the President is nicknamed the Rainbow Sheikh. Sadly, this is not due to his support for LGBT rights in a feudal society that criminalises same-sex relationships but results from his request to Mercedes to make him cars painted in every colour of the rainbow as a wedding present.
This billionaire has built up a massive collection of cars, split across several museums and including some of the strangest vehicles on Earth such as a giant replica of a Second World War jeep. These also include the world’s biggest truck, which sounds like a palace on wheels with its four air-conditioned bedrooms, a living room, bathrooms and even a patio.
Such extravagant vanity projects offer a potent emblem of global inequality when a spendthrift member of a monarch’s family builds a truck as a plaything that is more luxurious than the homes of many people on our planet.
Yet this dynastic regime is not just investing in glitzy realms such as space rockets and overpaid footballers. For Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund, scanning the world for the most lucrative places to put its immense energy wealth, has alighted also on our children’s homes and special needs schools. So now it is raking in millions from two of the most cash-starved, crisis-ridden and neglected parts of Britain’s public sector.
So consider how that ludicrous truck might appear to pupils attending Pontville, a special school in Lancashire that charges at least 13 councils up to £116,611 per pupil aged between five and 19. This is almost double the fees for Eton.
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Despite such costs, however, an Ofsted report six months ago found many “do not have a positive learning experience” with a “significant minority” left feeling unsafe since “bullying, prejudiced behaviour, threats of violence and physical aggression are commonplace” and excessive use of restraint meant some were “held by staff in restrictive physical interventions multi-times per day”. The inspectors concluded that inadequate management left both pupils and staff at risk of harm.
The lives of children attending a special school in Ormskirk is a world away from the luxury lifestyle of a Gulf potentate. Yet they are linked since Pontville is run by Witherslack, a company owned by Mubadala Investments, Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund. It is one of the biggest firms benefiting from the surge in demand for special needs education that has left English councils – struggling to find places in state schools – using private alternatives that cost more than twice as much per place on average, according to the Audit Commission.
This newspaper reported earlier this year how three Ofsted reports in quick succession criticised the firm for overuse of physical restraint, leaving the Children’s Commissioner “really concerned” and eight families preparing to sue over “traumatised” children.
Witherslack responded by saying it took immediate action to rectify the issues and that it was committed to ensure that all its schools “deliver the highest standards of welfare, health and safety for our pupils”. We must hope fervently this is true and that they succeed. For the firm’s newly published accounts show turnover soared from £172.8m in 2023 to £208m last year, aided by three new sites and “increased occupancy” of its children’s homes and special schools.
Although it reported hefty losses, the indefatigable campaigner Martin Barrow spotted £26m going to banks in debt payments and another £51.5m to preference shareholders – who are mainly Mubadala and a pair of private equity firms listed as minority investors.
This is far from a unique situation. Some local authorities face bankruptcy, social care suffers from perpetual crisis due to shocking state neglect and the National Health Service teeters on brink of collapse. But the alchemists of global finance and voracious sharks of private equity are pocketing huge sums by exploiting the crisis afflicting vast chunks of our public sector. They have moved in stealthily on children’s homes, special schools, social care, residential homes for the elderly and even mental health services, ending up in charge of some of the weakest and poorest members of society with often disastrous and long-lasting consequences.
Bear in mind that more than one in four of the people in prison spent time in care as children, compared with one in 50 of the wider population. And it should be stated that some private providers are good while some state provision is awful.
The core problems are pathetic regulation, the persistent failure to act on evidence of bad practice – even when raised by coroners after fatalities – and shameful political failure on all sides. Yet now Labour wants to cut back on disability benefits and is contemplating the slashing of rights for vulnerable children – that were established by Margaret Thatcher – through reducing use of education, health and care plans.
It is profoundly depressing to witness the repeated myopia of Westminster as it focuses on short-term sticking-plaster solutions to fiscal struggles rather than daring to tackle the cancer of profiteering in public services – let alone to confront the most blatant iniquities of unfettered capitalism exemplified by the private equity barons loading up debt on companies while milking vast profits.
If anything symbolises the glaring gulf between politicians and voters, it is surely the negligence that allows the world’s wealthiest dynasty to grow even richer from a floundering system of special needs education that is failing so many British families.
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