Surrey County Council’s final Budget agreed after vital amendments proposed by Residents’ Association & Independents Group were included. 

Group Leader Cllr Catherine Powell secured support for several key amendments, which led to Surrey County Council’s final Budget passing today. The amendments are:

• Re-establish the Foster Carer Association and extend foster carer support.
• Focus on making schools more autism friendly by expanding the PINS (Partnership for Inclusion of Neurodiversity in Schools) pilot and increasing the capacity and remit of the School Autism Friendly Review Team.
• Conduct a combined review of sufficiency and opportunities for SEND (Special Educational Needs and Disabilities), Alternative Provision and Mainstream school spaces to inform Capital planning and urgently address the significant shortfall in specialist places.
• Commit to longer leases of SCC buildings to charities providing Youth Services.
• Increase funding for short breaks play and leisure service providers who support children and families with SEND to maintain service levels.
• Carry out a review of DDRT (Digital Demand Responsive Transport), funded school buses and Home to School Transport to identify opportunities to expand and simplify school/college transport provision and integrate H2ST and DDRT where appropriate.

The final adopted amendments proposed by Councillor Powell can be found in Appendix J of the Council Papers:

Item 5 - Annex J - Agreed Budget Amendments.pdf

Cllr Powell stated:
“I am delighted that the Budget includes these vital amendments, which shows my detailed analysis to build a strong case has paid off. The reviews that have been secured are critical to providing baseline information to support key urgent decisions by Surrey County Council and will provide essential information for the future unitary authorities to make difficult decisions on expenditure and efficiencies. Investing more in key early intervention and support measures to benefit children and young people has become crucial and these amendments do that.”

For further information contact:

County Councillor Catherine Powell: 07824516433 Catherine.Powell@surreycc.gov.uk