Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the potential use of disused school buildings to increase SEND specialist school capacity in (a) Surrey and (b) Hampshire.

The statutory duty to provide sufficient school places for pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) or who require alternative provision sits with local authorities.

The department provides local authorities with capital funding to support them to meet this duty and has published allocations for £740 million in High Needs Provision Capital Allocations for the 2025/26 financial year.

Of this £740 million, Surrey has been allocated £16.1 million. Hampshire has been allocated £22.8 million.

This funding can be used to adapt schools to be more accessible, to create specialist facilities within mainstream schools that can deliver more intensive support adapted to suit the pupils’ needs and to create special school places for pupils with the most complex needs. This includes utilising spare capacity in mainstream schools where appropriate.

When considering options for the reutilisation of space, local factors should be carefully weighed up, along with considerations of quality, diversity, and accessibility of local provision and the forecast demand for places, to determine the most appropriate approach in each area.