Around 260 new specialist school places have been created for Surrey’s children.
The creation of additional school places has been achieved through the completion of construction projects across the county.
The additional places are part of the council’s remaining investment of £189 million between 2024/25 – 2027/28 to increase the availability of mainstream school Special Educational Needs (SEN) Units and Resourced Provision (‘Centres’).
It will also create additional places in specialist school provision and Alternative Provision (AP) schools within Surrey. The county’s state-maintained specialist education estate has been increased by 35 per cent from around 3,320 places in 2019 to around 4,500.
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
- Freemantles School satellite site in Ripley
These projects are a part of Surrey County Council’s overall investment of £260 million between 2019/20 and 2027/28 in the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and Alternative Provision Capital Programmes.
Cllr Clare Curran 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.
“The capital programmes remain on track with ten further construction projects already in contract, of which five are due to complete before Christmas 2024.”