Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many (a) school, (b) alternative provision and (c) other places for (i) children and (ii) adults with (A) SEND and (B) an education, health and care plan there were in each of the last 20 years.

Data on special educational needs (SEN) provision was collected for the first time in the School Capacity Survey (SCAP) in 2023. Local authorities provided the capacity, as at May 2023, of special schools plus SEN units and resourced provision in mainstream schools. This includes post-16 capacity in secondary specialist provision, where appropriate, and does not include independent or alternative provision. As a new data collection, the department expects the quality of the data returns to improve over time as the collection becomes established. However, it should be noted that all local authorities returned data as requested for this first collection. Data was published as official statistics in development here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-capacity.

There were 148,000 special school places reported in 2022/23, including 60,000 primary places and 88,000 secondary. This is alongside 9,000 places in SEN units, of which 6,000 were in primary schools and 3,000 in secondary, and 18,000 places in resourced provision, of which 10,000 were in primary schools and 8,000 in secondary, in mainstream schools. Data is not available by age. Secondary places in some special schools will include places for some young people over compulsory school age.

The department publishes annual statistics on the number of pupils with SEN support and Education, Health and Care (EHC) plans over time. Due to the request ranging back 20 years, there are three publications required to answer the question. The most recent figures are from the 2022/23 academic year and are available here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/special-educational-needs-in-england. These statistics date back to 2015/16.

Data prior to 2015/16 is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/special-educational-needs-in-england-january-2015 and data prior to 2007 is available here: https://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ukgwa/20070905140107/http:/www.dcsf.gov.uk/rsgateway/DB/SFR/s000661/index.shtml.

The department does not hold historical trend information on adults with SEN and their placements. This is because the Special Educational Needs survey only accounts for school pupils. Also, the SEN2 collection has changed into an individual level collection from an aggregate level last year.