Agenda item

By 2030-2031, the local area’s Specialist Education Estate is projected to require more than 800 additional places on top of the planned growth delivered by the first three phases of the SEND Capital Programme. A further expansion of the Specialist Education Estate is necessary to achieve our long-term ambition to ensure that Surrey resident pupils receive a full time high quality specialist education closer to home, more connected to local communities and local support services. This report seeks support for this further expansion and delegated authority to manage the Capital pipeline.

(The decisions on this item can be called-in by the Children’s, Families, Lifelong Learning & Culture Select Committee)

RESOLVED:

1.    That Cabinet approves in principle the use of SEND Capital funding against the programme of adaptation and refurbishment of Surrey County Council (SCC) owned assets and state maintained schools for Phase 4 of the programme. This is in order to deliver up to 872 additional Specialist School Places in Surrey from September 2023 onwards.

2.    That Cabinet delegates the decision to transfer the £60m SEND Capital funding from pipeline to budget to the Capital Programme Panel, based on approval of individual business cases once schemes, locations and costs are confirmed.

3.    That Cabinet approves the delegation of authority to allocate resources from the approved £60m budget required for individual projects to the Cabinet Members for Education & Learning, Resources and Land & Property, following Capital Programme Panel approval.

Reasons for Decisions:

Following national legislative changes brought about by the 2014 Children & Families Act and revised Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) Code of Practice, 2015, Surrey has seen the number of Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs) as a percentage of the 4-19 general school age population increase from 3.4% to 4.1% between 2018-2021. This figure is projected to increase to over 5% of the 4-19 general population by 2024, resulting in the projected demand for up to 6,000 maintained specialist school places. (Annex 3)

The sustained increase in demand for specialist provision has resulted in over-reliance on the independent school sector and out of county placements, which frequently also involves excessive home to school travel distances for EHCP pupils outside of resident districts and boroughs.

The Department for Education expects Local Authorities (LA) to manage their specialist estates efficiently to avoid detriment to schools’ educational offers, creating disadvantage to children and young people who have SEND or to the LA’s financial position. This means ensuring the availability of maintained specialist school places that are appropriately matched to SEN need-type, phases of education and geographic location so that all of Surrey’s statutory school age children with an EHCP that require a full-time specialist setting in either a mainstream SEN Unit or Special School have a named placement, ready for the beginning of each academic year.

The recommended Phase 4 SEND Capital investment completes the planning for sufficiency of specialist school places from September 2023 to 2031.

(The decisions on this item can be called-in by the Children, Families, Lifelong Learning and Culture Select Committee)

The Cabinet Member for Education and Learning introduced the report and highlighted that between 2019 and 2021 the Cabinet approved a strategy for three phases of the SEND Capital Programme with a combined capital investment of £79.6 million to expand local specialist provision at pace. That 500 places had been delivered to be followed by 1,100 places and there was a further £60 million earmarked in capital budget with the projected need for a further 800 to 900 places. That a potential 872 places had been identified and extensions to new units cost£74 million. She noted that business cases would be subject to approval to ensure value for money and spend would be distributed over time.

The Cabinet Member for Transport and Infrastructure welcomed the provision and would continue to coordinate the programme alongside the Cabinet Member for Property and Waste.

The Leader noted that the provision was an example of how the Council was using its Council Tax funding, to get a further 900 places would be tremendous.

RESOLVED:

1.    That Cabinet approves in principle the use of SEND Capital funding against the programme of adaptation and refurbishment of Surrey County Council (SCC) owned assets and state maintained schools for Phase 4 of the programme. This is in order to deliver up to 872 additional Specialist School Places in Surrey from September 2023 onwards.

2.    That Cabinet delegates the decision to transfer the £60m SEND Capital funding from pipeline to budget to the Capital Programme Panel, based on approval of individual business cases once schemes, locations and costs are confirmed.

3.    That Cabinet approves the delegation of authority to allocate resources from the approved £60m budget required for individual projects to the Cabinet Members for Education & Learning, Resources and Land & Property, following Capital Programme Panel approval.

Reasons for Decisions:

Following national legislative changes brought about by the 2014 Children & Families Act and revised Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) Code of Practice, 2015, Surrey has seen the number of Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs) as a percentage of the 4-19 general school age population increase from 3.4% to 4.1% between 2018-2021. This figure is projected to increase to over 5% of the 4-19 general population by 2024, resulting in the projected demand for up to 6,000 maintained specialist school places. (Annex 3)

The sustained increase in demand for specialist provision has resulted in over-reliance on the independent school sector and out of county placements, which frequently also involves excessive home to school travel distances for EHCP pupils outside of resident districts and boroughs.

The Department for Education expects Local Authorities (LA) to manage their specialist estates efficiently to avoid detriment to schools’ educational offers, creating disadvantage to children and young people who have SEND or to the LA’s financial position. This means ensuring the availability of maintained specialist school places that are appropriately matched to SEN need-type, phases of education and geographic location so that all of Surrey’s statutory school age children with an EHCP that require a full-time specialist setting in either a mainstream SEN Unit or Special School have a named placement, ready for the beginning of each academic year.

The recommended Phase 4 SEND Capital investment completes the planning for sufficiency of specialist school places from September 2023 to 2031.

(The decisions on this item can be called-in by the Children, Families, Lifelong Learning and Culture Select Committee)