Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the ages were of (a) children and (b) adults assessed for (i) special educational needs and (ii) an education, health and care plan in each of the last 10 years.

The department recognises that special educational needs (SEN) is a broad term, and that a child is defined as having a SEN if he or she has a learning difficulty or disability which calls for special educational provision to be made for him or her. The Education, Health and Care (EHC) plan process is driven by a child's needs rather than any diagnosis they might have. The EHC needs assessment identifies the child or young person’s SEN, together with any relevant health or social care needs. The local authority, with advice from its partners, then considers whether to issue an EHC plan, which specifies provision to meet each identified need. The ‘SEND code of practice: 0 to 25 years’ makes it clear that meeting the needs of a child or young person with SEN does not require a diagnostic label or test. The ‘SEND code of practice: 0 to 25 years’ can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/send-code-of-practice-0-to-25.

Local authorities have a statutory responsibility to assess whether children and young people have SEN that requires an EHC plan if they are requested to do so.

The department does not hold a breakdown by age group of individuals assessed over the last 10 years because the SEN2 collection has changed into an individual level collection from an aggregate level last year. Therefore, there is one year (2022) that shows the number of assessments carried out broken down by single years of age, which is attached.

In terms of figures over time, the number of people assessed for a statement (which were replaced in 2014 by EHC plans, with no new statements since 2015), the number of individuals assessed for an EHC plan, and the number of people assessed where an EHC plan was issued are available at the following link: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/b4f6814c-b0da-43d1-0b12-08dc74c3bb80

The department publishes information about SEN and EHC plans annually on the GOV.UK website. The information for the 2022/23 academic year can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/special-educational-needs-in-england. The data for the 2023 reporting year can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/education-health-and-care-plans.