Methodology document: SFR14/2015

Statements of SEN and EHC plans: England 2015

Methodology Document

1. Background 3

2. Methodology 3

2.1 Data cleaning 3

2.2 Production of Statistical First Release 4

2.3 Calculated item 5

2.4 Process map 6

1. Background

The Statements of SEN and EHC plans: England 2015 statistical first release (Sfr) publishes data from the annual SEN2 data return. In previous years, SEN2 data has been published as part of the Special Educational Needs in England Sfr alongside data from the school census. This year the SEN2 data is published in a separate Sfr because the data is available and ready to publish sooner than school census data. The January 2015 school census data will be published in a separate Sfr in July 2015.

In September 2014 the special educational needs and disability (SEND) reforms came into effect as part of the Children and Families Act 2014. See the SEND code of practice: 0 to 25 for more detailed information on the reforms.

The SEN2 return is mandatory for all local authorities and collects aggregate local authority level information on children with statements of special educational needs (SEN), or Education, Health and Care (EHC) plans. Further details on the 2015 collection can be found in the SEN2 return guide.

The information collected in the SEN2 return is the only source of data on all statements and EHC plans maintained by individual local authorities.

2. Methodology

Local authorities return their information on children and young people with statements of SEN and EHC plans to the DfE via the Collect (Collections On-Line for Learning, Education, Children and Teachers) system.

For details of the SEN2 data collection see the SEN2 collection website.

2.1 Data cleaning

Collect has 64 built-in validation rules which flag up data which is invalid or the quality is questionable. This allows local authorities to identify errors and clean the data before final submission to DfE. Local authorities are encouraged to clean all errors and double- check data where queries are flagged. Local authorities are also encouraged to add notes to their return to explain any “unusual” data.

Additional common sense checks are carried out within and across local authorities, comparing local authorities with each other.

Once all users have cleaned and submitted their data, a final dataset is compiled.

2.2 Production of Statistical First Release

The Sfr contains 10 tables which cover:

 Numbers of statements and EHC plans  Placement of children and young people  Statements and EHC plans issued within timescales  Progress transferring cases to the new system

In all cases the figures are compiled from the aggregate data provided by local authorities. When reviewing the tables, please note the following:

We preserve confidentiality

The Code of Practice for Official Statistics requires we take reasonable steps to ensure that our published or disseminated statistics protect confidentiality.

We round and suppress numbers and percentages

Numbers of children and young people have been rounded to the nearest 5. Numbers based on 1 or 2 children and young people have been suppressed.

Percentages are calculated on unrounded data and are rounded to the nearest 0.1. Percentages based on 1 or 2 children and young people in the numerator or the denominator have been suppressed.

Zeros have not been suppressed.

This suppression is consistent with the Departmental statistical policy which can be found at:

Departmental statistical policy.

And adopt symbols to help identify this

Symbols are used in the tables as follows:

. not applicable

.. not available

x suppressed figure

2.3 Calculated item

In Tables 2 and 6 the item that is labelled;

Total children and young people assessed and decision taken whether or not to issue a statement, or EHC plan, during the calendar year,

was labelled ‘Total children assessed for SEN during [calendar year]’ in previous SFRs. The calculation is essentially the same but now includes EHC plans, and is the sum of;

 Children and young people for whom statements, or EHC plans were made for the

first time during the calendar year  Children and young people assessed under Section 323 of the Education Act

1996 and under the Children and Families Act 2014 during the calendar year for whom it was decided not to issue a statement, or EHC plan

2.4 Process map

The process map shown in Figure 1 covers the end to end process of the SEN2 data collection; from data collection through to publication of the Sfr.

Figure 1: Overview of end to end process of SEN collection and publication

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Methodology document: SFR14/2015

Statements of SEN and EHC plans: England 2015