Special educational needs in England: 2012/13

Statistical First Release

Special Educational Needs In England, January 2013

Introduction

This Statistical First Release brings together information on pupils with Special Educational Needs (SEN) and related information about special schools in England. It provides analyses on the characteristics of pupils by their SEN provision together with information on the assessment and placement of pupils with new statements of SEN.

Summary

The percentage of pupils with statements of SEN across all schools in England has remained unchanged in recent years. The number of pupils with SEN without statements, however, has decreased for the third consecutive year – as shown in Chart 1 below. Chart 1: Percentage of pupils with SEN in all schools in England

Main Points

Pupils with SEN in schools (Tables 1A, 1B and 1C)

 In January 2013, there were 229,390 pupils across all schools in England with statements of SEN. The percentage of pupils with SEN was 2.8% which has remained unchanged over the last 5 years.

2.8 2.8 2.8 2.8 2.8

17.9 18.3 17.8 17.0 16.0

0.0

2.0

4.0

6.0

8.0

10.0

12.0

14.0

16.0

18.0

20.0

2009 2010 2011 2012 2013

Statement of SEN SEN without a statement

Sfr 30/2013 30 July 2013 Coverage: England Theme: Children,

Education and Skills

Issued by Department for Education Sanctuary Buildings Great Smith Street London SW1P 3BT Telephone: Press Office 020 7783 8300 Public Enquiries 0370 000 2288 Statistician Graham Knox

Email SEN.Statistics@education. gsi.gov.uk Internet https://www.gov.uk/govern ment/organisations/depart ment-for- education/about/statistics

 The percentage of pupils with SEN without statements in all schools has decreased from 17.0% in 2012 to 16.0% in 2013. Most of the decrease is in pupils at School Action. This figure has steadily decreased since 2010.

Gender (Tables 5A, 5B, 5C and 5D)

 In primary schools, the percentage of pupils with SEN remained much higher for boys than for girls. 2.0% of boys in primary schools had SEN with a statement, compared with 0.8% of girls in primary schools. Similarly, the percentage of pupils with SEN without statements was higher for boys at 20.5% than the 11.3%.

 Secondary schools show a similar picture regarding gender. The percentage of boys with statements at secondary schools was 2.8%, which is nearly 3 times that for girls at 1.0%. The percentage of pupils with SEN without statements at secondary schools was 20.7% for boys and 13.4% for girls.

Free school meal eligibility (Table 7)

Pupils with SEN are much more likely to be eligible for and claiming free school meals than those pupils with no SEN.

Chart 2: Percentage of pupils eligible for and claiming free school meals.

31.5 27.3

36.8

15.3

12.3

3.4

State-funded primary State-funded secondary Special schools

Pupils with SEN Pupils with no SEN

Characteristics Of Pupils With SEN

Age (Tables 5A, 5B, 5C and 5D)

 In primary schools, the percentage of pupils with statements of SEN increased with age. For secondary school age pupils in secondary schools, the percentage of pupils with statements was fairly constant through the age range.

 The percentage of pupils with SEN without statements in primary schools increased fairly constantly with age. In secondary schools, for pupils of secondary-school age, the percentage of pupils with SEN without statements decreased from age 11 onwards, falling sharply at age 16.

 In special schools, the percentage of pupils with statements of SEN was lowest among those aged under 5 and remained constant from ages 6 to 18. For those with SEN without statements, the highest percentage was in the under 5 age group.

Ethnicity (Tables 8A, 8B, 8C and 8D)

 In January 2013, around 1.6% of White ethnic origin pupils in primary schools had statements of SEN. This figure was the same for Mixed pupils but for Black pupils the figure was slightly higher at 2.0%.

 2.0% of White pupils in secondary schools had statements of SEN, the same as for both Mixed pupils and Black pupils.

Chart 3: Percentage of pupils with SEN by ethnicity

 Across primary, secondary and special schools combined, the percentage of pupils with statements of SEN was greatest amongst Traveller of Irish Heritage pupils at 5.1%, Black Caribbean pupils at 4.1% and Any Other Black Background pupils at 4.0%. However, caution is recommended in interpreting data for Traveller of Irish Heritage children due to the small numbers recorded.

 Similarly, the percentage of pupils with SEN without statements, across primary, secondary and special schools combined, was greatest amongst Traveller of Irish Heritage pupils at 47.9%, Gypsy/Roma pupils at 38.8% and Black Caribbean pupils at 24.7%. Again, caution is recommended in interpreting data for Gypsy/Roma and Traveller of Irish Heritage children due to the small numbers recorded.

 In primary, secondary and special schools combined, the lowest occurrence of SEN (with and without statements) was generally found in pupils of Chinese ethnic origin and Asian ethnic origin. Again, caution is needed in interpreting data for Chinese children due to the small numbers involved.

First Language (Tables 9A, 9B, 9C and 9D)

 In primary schools, the percentage of pupils with statements of SEN is lower for pupils whose first language is known or believed to be other than English with 1.4%, compared to those whose first language is known or believed to be English at 1.6%. A similar pattern is seen in secondary schools (1.3%, compared to 2.0%).

In primary schools, the percentage of pupils with SEN without statements was slightly lower for pupils whose first language is known or believed to be other than English with 17.8%, compared to those whose first language is known or believed to be English at 18.4%. In secondary schools, the percentage was slightly higher for pupils whose first language is known or believed to be other than English at 18.0%, compared to those whose first language is known or believed to be English with 16.9%.

Type Of Primary Need (Table 10A)

 Primary need is collected for those pupils at School Action Plus or with a statement of SEN. Overall, the distribution across the types of SEN is similar to last year. The figures below are for School Action Plus and statemented pupils but it should be noted that the distributions vary between these two groups.

Chart 4: Percentage of pupils with each type of primary need in state-funded primary, state-funded secondary and special schools.

0.0 5.0 10.0 15.0 20.0 25.0 30.0

Specific Learning Difficulty

Moderate Learning Difficulty

Severe Learning Difficulty

Profound & Multiple Learning Difficulty

Behaviour, Emotional & Social Difficulties

Speech, Language and Communications Needs

Hearing Impairment

Visual Impairment

Multi- Sensory Impairment

Physical Disability

Autistic Spectrum Disorder

Other Difficulty/Disability

School Action Plus Statement of SEN

 In state-funded primary schools the three most frequent types of primary need were Speech, Language and Communication needs with 30.6%, Moderate Learning Difficulty with 20.3% and Behaviour, Emotional & Social Difficulties with 18.4%.

 In state-funded secondary schools the three most frequent types of primary need were Behaviour, Emotional & Social Difficulties with 27.7%, Moderate Learning Difficulty with 21.6% and Specific Learning Difficulty with 15.8%.

 In all special schools the three most frequent types of primary need were Severe Learning Difficulty with 24.7%, Autistic Spectrum Disorder with 21.5% and Moderate Learning Difficulty with 17.8%.

Distribution Of Pupils With SEN

53.0% of pupils with statements of SEN were attending mainstream schools (nursery, primary, secondary, academies, city technology colleges), compared to 53.7% in 2012. In addition, 39.6% were attending state-funded special schools, 4.9% attended independent schools, 1.8% attended non- maintained special schools and 0.7% attended pupil referral units.

Note:

The following information is drawn from the SEN2 survey where data is collected from local authorities and not from schools like the School Census survey (where all of the above information is taken from). For this reason figures from the two sources cannot be aggregated or compared.

Newly Made Statements Of SEN (Tables 2 and 3A)

 There were 29,565 children assessed for SEN during the 2012 calendar year and 28,635, or 96.9%, of these were issued with a statement for the first time. This percentage is high since it is recommended that LA’s only carry out an assessment if they believe that the child probably has special educational needs and that the child’s provision needs to be determined by making a statement. In cases where an assessment does not lead to a statement being made the LA has usually been able to identify ways in which the school can meet the needs of the child without the need for them to provide a statement of SEN.

 For those children issued with a new statement, the pattern of placements was similar to the 2011 calendar year:

 5.9% were placed in resourced provision or SEN units in maintained mainstream schools

 62.6% were placed in mainstream state-funded schools

 24.9% were placed in special schools (maintained, non-maintained, independent and academies)

 2.5% were placed in non-maintained early years settings in the private and voluntary sector, and 4.1% elsewhere

All Children With Statements Of SEN (Tables 3B, 4A and 4B)

 Figures for all children with statements of SEN (not just those in schools) show that the number of statements maintained by an authority has increased by nearly 3,275 to 233,430 at January 2013. Of those, 41.0% of children with statements of SEN were placed in early years settings or in maintained mainstream schools (including in resourced provision or SEN units in maintained mainstream schools). This compares with 45.5% at January 2012. This percentage does not take into account children with statements of SEN placed in mainstream academies. 12.5% of children with statements of SEN were placed in mainstream academies, compared to 8.6% in January 2012.

 The majority of state-funded primary schools (76.4%) and state-funded secondary schools (59.6%) had fewer than 2% of pupils with statements of SEN. Fewer than 1.0% of both primary and secondary schools had over 10% of pupils with statements.

Charts

Chart A State-funded primary, state-funded secondary and special schools: Distribution of primary type of need for pupils at school action plus, England, January 2013

Chart B State-funded primary, state-funded secondary and special schools: Distribution of primary type of need for pupils with a statement of SEN, England, January 2013

Tables

Table 1A All schools: Pupils with statements of SEN, England, January 2009 to 2013

Table 1B All schools: Pupils with SEN without statements, England, January 2009 to 2013

Table 1C All schools: Pupils with SEN England, January 2009 to 2013

Table 1D Academies: Pupils with SEN England, January 2009 to 2013

Table 2 Education arrangements, assessment and placement of children for whom local authorities maintain a statement of SEN, England

Table 3A Assessment and placement of children with new statements of SEN, England, 2008 to 2012

Table 3B Placement of children with a statement maintained by the local authority, England, 2009 to 2013

Table 4A State-funded primary schools: Number of schools by percentage of pupils with SEN, England, January 2013

Table 4B State-funded secondary schools: Number of schools by percentage of pupils with SEN, England, January 2013

Table 5A State-funded primary schools: Number of pupils with SEN by age and gender, England, January 2013

Table 5B State-funded secondary schools: Number of pupils with SEN by age and gender, England, January 2013

Table 5C Special schools: Number of pupils with SEN by age and gender, England, January 2013

Table 5D State-funded primary, state-funded secondary and special schools: Number of pupils with SEN by age and gender, England, January 2013

Table 6A State-funded primary schools: Number of pupils with SEN by national curriculum year group, England, January 2013

Table 6B State-funded secondary schools: Number of pupils with SEN by national curriculum year group, England, January 2013

Table 6C Special schools: Number of pupils with SEN by national curriculum year group, England, January 2013

Table 6D State-funded primary, state-funded secondary and special schools: Number of pupils

with SEN by national curriculum year group, England, January 2013

Table 7 State-funded primary, state-funded secondary and special schools: Number and percentage of pupils known to be eligible for and claiming free school meals by SEN provision, England, January 2013

Table 8A State-funded primary schools: Number of pupils with SEN by ethnic group, England, January 2013

Table 8B State-funded secondary schools: Number of pupils with SEN by ethnic group, England, January 2013

Table 8C Special schools: Number of pupils with SEN by ethnic group, England, January 2013

Table 8D State-funded primary, state-funded secondary and special schools: Number of pupils with SEN by ethnic group, England, January 2013

Table 9A State-funded primary schools: Number of pupils with SEN by first language, England, January 2013

Table 9B State-funded secondary schools: Number of pupils with SEN by first language, England, January 2013

Table 9C Special schools: Number of pupils with SEN by first language, England, January 2013

Table 9D State-funded primary, state-funded secondary and special schools: Number of pupils with SEN by first language, England, January 2013

Table 10A State-funded primary, state-funded secondary and special schools: Number and percentage of pupils by type of need, England, January 2013

Table 10B Academies: Number and percentage of pupils by type of need, England, January 2013

Table 11 Special schools: Number and percentage of pupils attending special schools, England, January 2009 to 2013

Table 12 Special schools: Types of provision for which schools have been approved, England, January 2013

Table 13A Special schools: Number of schools by size, England, January 2013

Table 13B Special schools: Number of pupils by the size of their school, England, January 2013

Additional Tables

The following additional tables will be available on the publication page.

Local Authority Tables:

Table 14A All schools: Pupils with SEN, based on where the pupil attends school, by local authority area and region, England, January 2009 to 2013

Table 14B All schools: Pupils with SEN without a statement, based on where the pupil attends school, by local authority area and region, England, January 2009 to 2013

Table 15 State-funded primary schools: Number of pupils with SEN, based on where the pupil attends school, by local authority area and region, England, January 2013

Table 16 State-funded secondary schools: Number of pupils with SEN, based on where the pupil attends school, by local authority area and region, England, January 2013

Table 17 All schools: Number of pupils with SEN, based on where the pupil attends school, by local authority area and region, England, January 2013

Table 18 Number of pupils with a statement maintained by each local authority, by local authority area and region, England, 2009 to 2013

Table 19 Assessment and placement of children with new statements of SEN during 2012, by local authority area and region, England

Table 20 Maintained mainstream schools: Pupils for whom statements were newly made, by local authority area and region, England, 2008 – 2012

Table 21 Placement of children with a statement maintained by each local authority, by local authority area and region, England

Table 22 State-funded primary schools: Number and percentage of pupils with statements of SEN or at School Action Plus by type of need, by local authority area and region, England, January 2013

Table 23 State-funded secondary schools: Number and percentage of pupils with statements of SEN or at School Action Plus by type of need, by local authority area and region, England, January 2013

Table 24 Special schools: Number and percentage of pupils with statements of SEN or at school action plus by type of need, by local authority area and region, England, January 2013

Table 25 State-funded primary schools: Number and percentage of pupils with SEN attending SEN units or placed in resourced provision, by local authority area and region, England, January 2013

Table 26 State-funded secondary schools: Number and percentage of pupils with SEN attending SEN units or placed in resourced provision, by local authority area and region, England, January 2013

Additional Information

In order to improve data accessibility, underlying data will be published at the same time as the publication and will be available on the publication webpage. Additional tables on pupil characteristics by primary need will be published on our website at https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-for-education/about/statistics in October 2013.

Related Publications

SFR14/2012 - Special Educational Needs in England: January 2012 (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/special-educational-needs-in-england-january-2012)

SFR21/2013 – Schools, Pupils and Their Characteristics, January 2013 (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/schools-pupils-and-their-characteristics-january-2013)

OSR20/2012 - Children with Special Educational Needs: an analysis, October 2012. (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/children-with-special-educational-needs-an-analysis- 2012)

Statistics From Other UK Countries

Welsh Assembly Government: Pupils with statements of Special Educational Needs (SEN), January 2013. http://wales.gov.uk/topics/statistics/headlines/schools2013/pupils-statements-special-educational- needs-january-2013/?lang=en Scottish Government: In Scotland there is different legislation and instead of having SEN they have pupils with Additonal Support Needs (Asn). Information on this is included in the below publication. Summary Statistics for Schools in Scotland. http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2012/12/2355/15 Department for Education, Northern Ireland: Special Educational Needs (SEN) pupils by Education and Library Board (Elb) 2012/13. http://www.deni.gov.uk/index/facts-and-figures-new/education-statistics/32_statistics_and_research- numbersofschoolsandpupils_pg/32_education_and_library_board_level/statistics_and_research_elb_d ata_1213-2.htm Special schools data 2012/13. http://www.deni.gov.uk/index/facts-and-figures-new/education-statistics/32_statistics_and_research- numbersofschoolsandpupils_pg/32_statistics_and_research- schoolleveldata_pg/statistics_and_research-school_enrolment_1213-2.htm

National Statistics Publication

The United Kingdom Statistics Authority has designated these statistics as National Statistics, in accordance with the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007 and signifying compliance with the Code of Practice for Official Statistics.

Designation can be broadly interpreted to mean that the statistics:

 meet identified user needs;  are well explained and readily accessible;  are produced according to sound methods, and  are managed impartially and objectively in the public interest. Once statistics have been designated as National Statistics it is a statutory requirement that the Code of Practice shall continue to be observed.

The Department has a set of statistical policies in line with the Code of Practice for Official Statistics, these are published here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/standards-for-official-statistics- published-by-the-department-for-education

Confidentiality

The Code of Practice for Official Statistics requires that reasonable steps should be taken to ensure that all published or disseminated statistics produced by the Department for Education protect confidentiality. Pupil numbers at national and regional levels have been rounded to the nearest 5. Pupil numbers of 1 or 2 have been suppressed, being replaced in the tables by an ‘x’. Where any number is shown as zero (0), the original figure was also zero. Where the numerator or denominator of any percentage calculated on pupil numbers is less than 3, this has been replaced by an ‘x’. This suppression is consistent with the Departmental statistical policy which can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/190768/Confidentiality_ Policy_v4.pdf

Revisions

There are no planned revisions to this Statistical First Release, however, if at a later date we need to make a revision, this will comply with the departmental revisions policy which is published at https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/190767/Revisions_Polic y_v3.pdf

Technical Notes

Data Sources

1. Information presented in this Statistical First Release is drawn from two sources: the school census and the SEN2 Survey. The school census collects information from schools and records pupils with and without statements of SEN who are educated at the school, regardless of which local authority (LA) is responsible for the pupil. The SEN2 survey collects information from LAs on children with statements of SEN and new statements made in the previous calendar year. It records information on those children for whom the LA is responsible, regardless of whether they are educated in the LAs own maintained schools, in another LAs schools, in the non-maintained or independent sectors or educated outside of school. For this reason figures sourced from the school census and the SEN2 Survey are not directly comparable.

2. The school census has collected information from schools on pupils with special educational needs (SEN) on the census date in January since 1985. Figures for pupils with SEN without statements were collected from maintained primary and secondary schools for the first time in 1995.

3. The SEN2 Survey has collected information on children with statements on the census date in January and new statements made in the previous calendar year from LAs since 1984.

SEN legislation and effect on long term data trends

4. Arrangements for identifying and providing for children with SEN are set out in Part Iv of the 1996 Education Act (and, prior to this, the 1981 and 1993 Education Acts). New rights and duties were introduced by the SEN and Disability Act 2001 (Senda). A Code of Practice, issued in 1994, supported the rights and duties in the 1996 Act. A new SEN Code of Practice took effect from January 2002. All LAs, schools and early years settings must have regard to it.

5. The SEN Code of Practice introduced in January 2002 replaced the five stages with School/Early Years Action, School/Early Years Action Plus and Statements of SEN. The effect of this change was to reduce the number of pupils recorded as having SEN without statements. Numbers of children with SEN without statements reported in 2003 and later are not directly comparable with earlier years. Therefore information from this release may not be compatible with information for years prior to 2003 shown in previous publications. Further changes may result from the March 2011 public consultation “Support and aspiration: a new approach to Special Educational Needs and disability”.

Definitions

6. The description ‘state-funded primary schools’ refers to those schools maintained by the local authority, including middle schools deemed as primary, as well as primary academies and primary free schools. The description ‘state-funded secondary schools’ refers to those schools maintained by the local authority, including middle schools deemed as secondary, city technology colleges, secondary academies and secondary free schools. The description ‘state-funded special schools’ refers to those schools maintained by the local authority, as well as special academies.

Symbols used

7. For national tables, pupil numbers have been rounded to the nearest 5. Pupil numbers of 1 or 2 have been suppressed, being replaced in the table by an ‘x’. The corresponding percentages have also been suppressed. Where any number is shown as zero (0), the original figure was also zero. Where the numerator or denominator of any percentage calculated on pupil numbers is 1 or 2, this has been replaced by an ‘x’.

8. For the local authority tables, national and regional pupil numbers have been rounded to the nearest 5. Pupil numbers of 1 or 2 have been suppressed, being replaced in the table by an ‘x’. The corresponding percentages have also been suppressed. Where any number is shown as zero (0), the original figure was also zero. Where the numerator or denominator of any percentage calculated on pupil numbers is 1 or 2, this has been replaced by an ‘x’.

9. All percentages have been rounded to one decimal place.

10. The following symbols have been used within this publication:

0 - zero

x - small number suppressed to preserve confidentiality (see Technical Notes 8 and 9)

. - not applicable

.. - not available

Enquiries

11. Enquiries (non-media) or feedback about information contained in this release should be addressed to Children and Early Years Data Unit, Room 1F Area H, Mowden Hall, Staindrop Road, Darlington, Co Durham, DL3 9BG or e-mail sen.statistics@education.gsi.gov.uk

12. Media enquiries about information contained in this Statistical First Release should be made to the Department’s Press Office at DFE, Sanctuary Buildings, Great Smith Street, London, SW1P 3BT or telephone 020 7783 8300.

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