Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what comparative estimate he has made of the number of school children with dyslexia who were subject to (a) education, health and care plans and (b) statements under the previous SEN and learning difficulties assessments in each of the last five years.
We publish the number and proportion of pupils with special educational needs (SEN), including the type of need in the annual ‘Special educational needs in England’ statistical release. This is available at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/statistics-special-educational-needs-sen.
SEN pupils are recorded according to their primary type of need. The current types of need do not include a specific breakdown for autism alone. These cases are expected to be recorded under ‘Autistic Spectrum Disorder’. No estimates of the number of children with autism within this category have been made.
The current types of need do not include a specific breakdown for dyslexia alone. These cases are expected to be recorded under ‘Specific Learning Difficulty’. No estimates of the number of children with dyslexia within this category have been made.
The table below shows a breakdown of the number of pupils by each primary type of need available for the last five years (as at January each year).
Statements of SEN (and EHC plans from 2015) | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 |
Specific Learning Difficulty | 10,480 | 10,045 | 9,665 | 8,938 | 8,390 |
Moderate Learning Difficulty | 33,455 | 32,410 | 31,155 | 29,650 | 28,564 |
Severe Learning Difficulty | 27,540 | 28,330 | 28,940 | 29,001 | 29,120 |
Profound & Multiple Learning Difficulty | 9,715 | 9,810 | 10,010 | 9,955 | 10,010 |
Behaviour, Emotional & Social Difficulties | 29,960 | 30,035 |
|
| |
Social, Emotional and Mental Health |
|
| 28,135 | 27,259 | 28,007 |
Speech, Language and Communications Needs | 29,565 | 30,035 | 30,880 | 30,942 | 32,292 |
Hearing Impairment | 6,285 | 6,180 | 6,100 | 5,937 | 5,985 |
Visual Impairment | 3,540 | 3,490 | 3,450 | 3,330 | 3,239 |
Multi- Sensory Impairment | 525 | 550 | 610 | 631 | 686 |
Physical Disability | 13,345 | 13,080 | 13,025 | 12,873 | 12,742 |
Autistic Spectrum Disorder | 47,225 | 49,975 | 54,245 | 57,211 | 60,832 |
Other Difficulty/Disability | 4,395 | 4,540 | 5,150 | 5,228 | 5,727 |
SEN Support but no specialist assessment |
|
| 285 | 268 | 359 |
Total | 216,030 | 218,475 | 221,650 | 221,223 | 225,953 |
Note: The figures provided have been rounded in line with their presentation in the statistics publication 'Special educational needs in England'. Figures are rounded to the nearest five for year 2013 to 2015. No rounding is applied for 2016 onwards.
Source: School Census