Opinion: Cultural Change and Leadership Will Be Required by West Surrey’s Children’s Services

Published on: 23 Feb, 2026
Updated on: 26 Feb, 2026

By Fiona Davidson

former R4GV Surrey county councillor

As the former chair of the Children and Families’ Select Committee at Surrey County Council I was pleased to learn that central government has finally agreed additional funding to relieve councils’ debts incurred in providing for children with additional education needs.

SCC’s cumulative debt in this area is forecast to be £248 in March 2026 when this new bailout ends – after a previous bail-out of £91 million (to date).

Fiona Davidson

As the deficit in March 2027 is projected to be £309 million, it is though possible that further debt will be added to the several billion pounds that the new West Surrey Unitary Council is likely to inherit from boroughs and SCC.

However, funding alone will not resolve the deep-rooted issues in Surrey’s Children’s Services – all of its own making – and improve the dreadful experiences of too many families of children with additional educational needs, adding significant stress to already difficult lives.

Despite the huge spend, Children’s Services in Surrey continues to fail far too many of these children. It fails to deliver the services the children have a right to, and it fails to meet its legal obligations, even after being taken to legal tribunal.

There are too many appalling examples of parents’ communications being ignored – for weeks and months – and of Education Care and Health Plans being out-of-date, inaccurate and incomplete.

The many improvement programmes (I can think of three during my tenure as Select Committee Chair) have yielded little, and have certainly not delivered value for the significant amounts spent.

Then there are the many children with additional education needs who are not in school or are severely absent (probably in excess of 2,000 of them), and receive little or no education for months and years – despite Surrey’s legal obligation.

West Surrey in particular could be significantly short of maintained specialist schools, which means that the new authority will have to rely on very expensive independent schools, or continue to deny children the education they have a right to.

Many parents regard Children’s Services in Surrey as an uncaring and unaccountable bureaucracy, more concerned with maintaining its position than the well-being of children.

In July 2025 I took the unusual step of writing to the Secretary of State for Education to take issue with the positive picture of Surrey’s Children’s Services painted by the SCC Chief Executive. His view was that the issues were in the past. My experience was that they were all very current, and I understand this remains the situation.

The new West Surrey Council is inheriting a Children’s Service that needs root and branch transformation. It needs cultural change and leadership that puts the needs of children first. It must not be “in denial” and hostile to even constructive criticism.

I hope this will be a priority for the newly elected Cabinet, despite the significant financial pressures that it will also inherit. Local authorities should have the needs of residents – and particularly children who are already disadvantaged – at the heart of their agenda.

Recruiting senior Children’s Service leaders who actually live in West Surrey, and who know what’s happening on the ground, would be a start. As would a commitment to a Children’s Service that prioritises openness and transparency and really does work with families, rather than paying lip service to collaboration and “co-production”.