Chris calls on the government to stop delaying Betchwood Vale Academy

More than 1,800 children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) in Surrey missed at least one-third of their schooling in 2023–24 because their needs were not properly met. 

Last year, Surrey County Council spent more than £50 million on home-to-school transport for children with SEND.  In Mole Valley, 90% of autistic children currently travel over six miles to get to school and over 100 attend schools outside the district entirely.  It’s reported that, across Surrey, the council spends an extra £26.5m to pay for private sector specialist schools because there aren’t enough free-school places to meet local demand.

One of the most effective ways to support these children and their families is to create more specialist free-school places locally.  Building these schools is the right thing to do - for their education, their families, and in the long-run it’s cost effective for the local authorities too.

Betchwood Vale Academy, part of The Howard Partnership Trust, is a long-delayed specialist school planned for Dorking. It would create 180 much-needed places for children aged 7–19 with special education needs, including autism. 

The project cannot move forward until the Department for Education completes and submits a revised planning application to the District Council, stalled since summer last year and releases ‘safety valve’ funding previously agreed with Surrey County Council to support 500 additional Free School places across Surrey.

We are calling on the government to cut through the red tape in the Department and:

• submit the planning documents immediately, and allow the local planning process to resume. 
• release the funding promised to Surrey County Council, promised in the Safety Valve Agreement between the council and the Department for Education.

The education and life chances of hundreds of local children depend on this school being opened and the promised government funding.