£30m green-lit for SEN school in Surrey
It will look after up to 200 autistic pupils and pupils with communication and interaction needs, aged 4-19 years
New Special Educational Needs places could be created as a whopping £29.49m has been green-lit for a SEN school. Hopescourt School’s new permanent site in Walton will look after up to 200 autistic pupils and pupils with communication and interaction needs, aged 4-19 years when the school reaches capacity in 2029.
While the new building on Waterside Drive is being built, Hopescourt School will continue to use the West Molesey site temporarily until their new school is ready in late March 2026.
“Investing in this capital project for Hopescourt School is going to generate a really positive impact for the children who attend that school who have complex and additional needs and disabilities,” said Councillor Clare Curran, Cabinet Member for Children, Families and Lifelong Learning. “It will also be very positive for the sustainability of this council in financial terms.”
Over a quarter of Surrey County Council’s funding for SEND building projects was approved for a school in Walton-on-Thames on April 22, 2025. Almost £110m has been set aside for SEND capital funding 2025/26-2028/29 and the Hopescourt school scheme is just one of the projects.
Initially earmarked at £26.25m in June 2024, the project has demanded a £3.2m boost driven by the elongation of the scheme and inflationary increases, according to the council. Documents state an eight-month delay from the Environment Agency also increased costs for the project as the council had to extend the temporary arrangements for Hopescourt School’s site in West Molesey.
Over the Easter holidays, the West Molesey’s site was extended to accommodate for 22 new secondary aged pupils who will start attending the school at the start of the new academic year in 2025, council documents state. “This will provide enough space until the permanent school building in Walton-on-Thames completes in Spring 2026,” council officers said.
The added costs can be managed through finding alternative affordable solutions in the SEND building budget, without impacting the programme’s scope to increase capacity in the state maintained specialist education, council documents read.
Council officers noted it is significantly cheaper to invest and build state-maintained SEN school places in the long-term, rather than pay for independent or private school places in the short-term. The project’s investment indicates a payback period of around five years.