New
SEND data from the Department for Education school census has been published for 2023-24 and includes schools and pupils in:
- state-funded primary, secondary schools, and special schools
- non-maintained special schools
- state-funded alternative provision schools, academies and free schools, including pupil referral units (PRUs)
- independent schools
- hospital schools, resourced provision, SEN units and approved special provision
The headline data shows:
- a total of 18.4% of children in England have some kind of special educational need - up from 17.3% in 2023
- this results in a total of 1,673,205 of children with SEND
- 434,354 pupils have an EHCP, up by 11.6% from 2023
- in percentage terms, 4.8%, of pupils, up from 4.3% in 2023
- 1,238,851 children are on SEN support, without an EHCP, up by 4.7% from 2023
- in percentage terms, 13.6% of pupils are on SEN support, up from 13.0% in 2023
- there’s been a 7.1% increase in the number of children on SEN support who have no type of assessed need noted
Changes to note
- The most common type of need for those with an EHCP is autistic spectrum disorder and for those with SEN support is speech, language and communication needs.
- 23.5% increase in children with EHCPs in mainstream nursery, although the numbers are still under 1% of the total.
- In mainstream primary there are increases of 16%.
- Mainstream secondary, increases of 14.5%.
- Mainstream special school saw a 5.6% increase.
- But non-maintained special schools only rose by 1.6% in NMSS.
- Independent provision saw a 16.7% increase in children with EHCPs.
- Alternative provision (AP) increase is 13.9%.
- AP is growing at a similar rate as an “EHCP destination” as mainstream school. When you add in those in AP without EHC Plans, it has risen by 20.3% on 2023. This is the fastest-going sector.
This data is also reflected in this diagram provided by ASCL Council member and SEND representative
Dr Nic Crossley.
