More than 260 new specialist school places created for Surrey’s children with additional needs and disabilities

Surrey County Council is pleased to have opened around 260 new specialist school places for September 2024 for Surrey’s children with additional needs and disabilities. 

The creation of additional school places has been achieved through the successful completion of construction projects across the county, delivered by Surrey’s Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) Capital Programme. 

These additional places are part of the Council’s committed remaining investment of £189m between 2024/25 – 2027/28 to increase the availability of mainstream school Special Educational Needs (SEN) Units and Resourced Provision (‘Centres’), and to create additional places in specialist school provision and Alternative Provision (AP) schools within Surrey. To provide local children with the most complex needs the best opportunities for improved outcomes. 

Surrey’s state-maintained specialist education estate has been increased by 35% from around 3,320 places in 2019 – when the capital programmes started – to around 4,500 places now. 

The following five construction projects were completed this summer: The Abbey School in Farnham, Stepgates Community School in Chertsey, St Matthews Church of England Primary School in Redhill, Epsom and Ewell High School in Epsom, and Freemantles School satellite site in Ripley. 

These projects are a part of Surrey County Council’s overall investment of £260m between 2019/20 and 2027/28 in the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and Alternative Provision (AP) Capital Programmes. The programmes are part of wider transformation plans across Surrey’s Inclusion and Additional Needs Partnership to improve inclusivity, expertise and capacity locally to enable Surrey children to feel more included, to transition successfully to adulthood, and to access high-quality maintained education closer to home. 

Clare Curran, Cabinet Member for Children, Families and Lifelong Learning said: “Having these additional places for the 2024/25 academic year means that high quality specialist school places are available for more Surrey young people closer to home. This helps children and young people with additional needs and disabilities to be able to achieve healthy, independent and fulfilling lives. 

“We are committed to continuing to increase sufficiency of specialist school provision in Surrey. The capital programmes remain on track with ten further construction projects already in contract, of which five are due to complete before Christmas 2024.” 

Along with the phasing in of additional places from projects delivered in previous years, and planned delivery in 2024/25, the programme will create more than 250 further additional specialist school places for September 2025. 

ENDS   

NOTES TO EDITORS / ADDITIONAL INFORMATION    

• The creation of additional school places has been achieved through the successful completion of construction projects delivered between 2021/22 and August 2024. Once construction projects have been completed and new provision is handed over, schools and Trusts need to build their staffing and resource capacity against planned pupil place growth and funding models agreed with the Commissioning Authority and Department for Education.  

• On 25 June 2024, Surrey County Council’s Cabinet authorised changes to the scope of the SEND and AP programmes which are affordable within the remaining £189m approved capital budget allocations for financial years 2024/25 to 2027/28. This enables the Council and partners to continue plans to increase the capacity of maintained specialist provision locally by 74% overall to a total of 5,761 places by 2031/32.  

• A map showing the geographical location of all of Surrey’s state-maintained specialist schools, SEN Units in mainstream schools and alternative provision schools in Surrey’s state-maintained specialist education estate from September 2024 to July 2025 (c4,500 places).    

More than 260 new places in mainstream schools and settings, and specialist schools as of September 2024    

School	Type	Need Type	District/ Borough	Surrey Quadrant
Chandlers Field Primary School	Mainstream School SEN Unit	Autism/ Communication and interaction needs	Elmbridge	North East
Epsom Primary and Nursery School	Mainstream School SEN Unit	Autism/ Communication and interaction needs	Epsom & Ewell	North East
Meadhurst Primary School	Mainstream School SEN Unit	Autism/ Communication and interaction needs	Spelthorne	North East
Stepgates Community School	Mainstream School SEN Unit	Autism/ Communication and interaction needs	Runnymede	North West
Dovers Green School	Mainstream School SEN Unit	Autism/ Communication and interaction needs	Runnymede	North West
St Matthews CofE Primary School	Mainstream School SEN Unit	Autism/ Communication and interaction needs	Reigate & Banstead	South East
Woking High School	Mainstream School SEN Unit	Visual Impairment needs	Woking	North West
Epsom Downs Primary School	Mainstream School SEN Unit	Autism/ Communication and interaction needs	Reigate & Banstead	South East
Brooklands College	Mainstream College SEN Unit	Autism/ Communication and interaction needs	Elmbridge	North East
Hythe Primary School	Mainstream College SEN Unit	Autism/ Communication and interaction needs	Runnymede	North West
Three Rivers Academy	Mainstream College SEN Unit	Autism/ Communication and interaction needs	Elmbridge	North East
Fox Grove School	Specialist School	Complex Autism and co-occurring needs	Mole Valley	South East
Philip Southcote School	Specialist School and Satellite Sites	Moderate Learning Difficulties and co-occurring needs	Runnymede, Surr-ey Heath, Epsom & Ewell	North West   North East
Freemantles School	Specialist School Satellite Site	Complex Autism and co-occurring needs	Woking, Guildford	North West   South West
The Abbey School	Specialist School	Moderate Learning Difficulties and co-occurring	Waverley	South West
Woodfield School	Specialist School and satellite site	Moderate Learning Difficulties and co-occurring	Reigate & Banstead	South East
Hopescourt School	Specialist School	Autism/ Communication and interaction needs	Elmbridge	North East
Pond Meadow School	Specialist School	Severe Learning Difficulties/ Autism	Guildford	South West
Portesbery School	Specialist School	Severe Learning Difficulties	Surrey Heath	North West
Manor Mead School	Specialist School satellite site	Severe Learning Difficulties/ Autism	Runnymede	North West