Applications For 2 New SEMH Special Free Schools

Overview

Please Note: We have arranged a further consultation event to be held at 6pm on Wednesday 28th September 2022. Further details and how to sign up are provided in the sections below.

Surrey County Council has identified the need to provide additional specialist school places for children and young people in the North and South East of the County with Social, Emotional and Mental Health needs (SEMH). To address this, the Council is proposing that two new Special Free Schools should open providing up to 320 places from September 2026. The Department for Education (DfE) is in the process of accepting applications for new Special Free Schools and the Council plans to submit two bids as part of this process. 

The DfE is allowing each local authority in the country the option to submit a maximum of two bids for new Special Free Schools by the application deadline of midday on 21 October 2022. Under existing Government legislation all new schools must be Free Schools (Academies). In this case the schools will be designed and built by the DfE but there is an expectation that SCC will provide suitable sites.

There are many steps to take before the proposed new schools could open including further periods of consultation once a sponsor has been approved by the Secretary of State for Education; The key milestones are as follows:

• September 2022: Initial local authority consultation (this process)
• October 2022: Submission of full special free school applications to the DfE
• December 2022 / January 2023:  Successful applicants announced by the DfE, and School Specifications published 
• February 2023: Academy trusts (prospective sponsors) submit their applications; LA and DfE begins to assess them
• May 2023: Short-list interviews with successful academy trusts, LA and DfE
• May 2023 / June 2023: LAs submit recommendations to the Secretary of State for Education and Regional Schools Commissioner
• Summer 2023: DfE announce successful academy trusts, DfE project delivery and pre-opening activity starts
• 2026/2027: New special free schools open to first intake of pupils

In Surrey, numbers of secondary school-age children with SEMH identified as a primary need increased by 34% between 2018/19 and 2021/22 (from 773 to 1,036).  The forecasts suggest that numbers will continue to grow over the next eight years by a further 74% to a peak of 1,802. The development of the proposed schools is consequently part of a suite of proposals being developed by Surrey County Council in conjunction with the Department for Education (DfE)’s Free Schools programme to deliver a step change in the number of maintained specialist school places for pupils who have complex Special Educational Needs and Disabilities in local Special Schools and SEN Units in mainstream primary and secondary schools.

Please note that this consultation has been extended to end on 7 October 2022 with a further online event added for 28 September 2022. This end date replaces that set out in the documents attached here.

Why your views matter

Do you have a child with SEMH needs? We want to hear your views on our proposals to open two new schools for young people aged 11 to 19 with SEMH needs in Surrey.

Do you work with young people with Social, Emotional and Mental Health (SEMH) needs in Surrey?  We want to hear your views on our proposals to open two new schools for young people with SEMH needs in Surrey.

If you would like to find out more, please register to join our online engagement events planned for:

Wednesday 14 September from 6pm to 7pm (Local residents, parents/carers, other interested parties) or,

Thursday 15 September from 5pm to 6pm (Academies, Trusts, Colleges and other LAs) or,

Wednesday 28 September from 6pm to 7pm (All Interested Parties)

You can do this by emailing schoolorg@surreycc.gov.uk with the subject ‘SEMH Designated Special Free Schools’ and you will be sent a link to the online event. There will be a short presentation followed by questions and answers.

What happens next

At the end of the consultation period, SCC will collate and review all of the responses received and publish them on the Surrey Says website. The responses will be analysed and an assessment made as to whether to proceed with the applications for the new special free schools.

Should the decision be taken to go ahead, full bids for the new schools will be submitted to the DfE by the 21 October 2022 deadline.