Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many special educational needs and disability students are there in (a) further and (b) higher education; and what proportion of those students have an Education, Health and Care Plan.

The number of learners in further education that have declared themselves as being a learner with learning difficulties or disabilities (LLDD) in the 2016/17 academic year is 563,100. Of these, 35,200 had an education, health and care plan (EHCP). An additional 2,900 learners had an EHCP but did not self-declare themselves as being a learner with LLDD. The Individualised Learner Record does not hold information on statements of special educational need and disability, this is only collected for school pupils via the school census.

The Higher Education Statistics Agency publishes data on enrolments in higher education at UK higher education institutions, including enrolments by disability. The latest data on numbers of students with disabilities, for the 2016/17 academic year, was published in January 2018 and is available at: https://www.hesa.ac.uk/data-and-analysis/students/table-15.

Students on higher education courses do not hold EHCPs. In order to cease an EHCP a local authority must consider whether the educational or training outcomes specified in the plan have been achieved. Studying at degree level would be considered a positive outcome from an EHCP, and as such that plan would cease.