SEND children face losing tuition in September

The families of dozens of children with special educational needs (SEND) in Surrey say they are at risk of losing their tuition from next week.

With days to go until the new academic year begins, Surrey County Council has yet to formally confirm support packages for a number of families whose children receive alternative teaching because they cannot be taught in school.

Kim from Ewhurst, whose 14-year-old son Harry is educated out of school, said her family has had a "summer of uncertainty."

Helyn Clack, cabinet member for Children, Families and Lifelong Learning, said "additional commissioning resource" had been put in place over the summer to "ensure that support packages are in place."

Harry is one of more than 300 children in Surrey who have special tuition arrangements instead of going to school.

His Education Other Than At School (EOTAS) programme includes attending forest school one day a week and having tuition at home that is tailored to his specific form of autism.

He has had specialist provision for the past seven years, after it became clear that he needed more tailored help than a school setting could offer, his mother, Kim, said.

She says he has transformed from "a very unwell child" who had been "put off education" and struggled to eat or sleep to a teenager who has "absolutely flourished".

Harry's education arrangements were supposed to renew but Kim said she had not had any confirmation until receiving a message from Surrey County Council on Monday, shortly after BBC South East had contacted the council about his case.

However, Kim said she had still not received any legal documents confirming the provision.

She said that documentation had not been in place by the start of September 2025 for the last academic year and the family had ended up taking out a loan to self fund Harry's place at forest school.

"Harry is such a bright, capable child and he needs this for his well-being, for his education," she said.

"If he doesn't have that provision in place, one of us would have to give up work. We'd have to become a full-time carer, his mental health would decline quickly."

She said she had hoped to be in a "better situation" this year after being proactive and trying to work with the council for several months.

"It makes me really cross. It's impacting on our family time now. It's literally next week, and us families are just expected to just roll with it."

BBC South East has spoken to other families, who did not want to be identified, who said they had not yet had their education provision confirmed.

An organisation called Measure What Matters estimates that several dozen families in Surrey who receive EOTAS and a temporary form of education called Alternative Provision (AP) are in a similar position.

Local authorities have a legal duty to provide children with an education.

Chris Coghlan, the Liberal Democrat MP for Dorking and Horley, wrote to Conservative-run Surrey County Council in August to raise concerns.

He accused the authority of being "incompetent" and said he had received "alarming reports from families across Surrey that children who are being home-schooled, the most vulnerable children, are at risk of losing their education provision".

He called on the council to "clarify that no children will be left behind".

More than 19,000 children in Surrey have Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs) which are legal documents which set out the support which a child with special education needs should receive.

Surrey County Council says the figure represents a significant rise over recent years.

Clack said pressures on the SEND system were "being felt nationwide", and there was an "urgent for funding and reform across the country".

She said: "With regard to Alternative Provision and Education Otherwise Than at School, additional commissioning resource has been deployed over the summer period, helping to ensure that support packages are in place ahead of September."

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