Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the reasons for the increase in the number of children with Special Educational Needs.

Over the last ten years, there has been an international increase in children identified with special educational needs (SEN). Between 2016/17 and 2021/22, England saw a 40% increase in pupils with an official SEN designation. For France it was 49% and for Germany 19%, according to the European Agency for Special Needs and Inclusive Education. Further information is available here: https://www.european-agency.org/activities/data/cross-country-reports.

Definitions and systems vary considerably between countries, but overall, international studies suggest this increase is driven by a combination of better understanding and diagnosis of need, as well as social and medical factors. Over the same period, there was also a steeper rise in England in special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) that attract a statutory plan compared to other similar countries. This started after the 2014 reforms and has been driven by more use of statutory plans for some types of need. Social, emotional and mental health needs, speech, language and communication needs and autistic spectrum disorder make up 88% of the total increase seen in education, health and care (EHC) plans since 2014.

Examples of the factors behind rises in needs are a greater awareness and understanding of conditions within families, the medical profession and schools, a cultural shift towards greater acceptance and support for those with SEN, and advancing parental age and increases in pre-term birth survival.

Between and within local areas, there is significant variation in the identification of SEND. In 2021, the Education Policy Institute published a paper examining the factors that predicted the probability of a child being identified for SEND support or an EHC plan. The research found that which school a child attends makes more difference to their chances of being identified with SEND than anything about them as an individual, their experiences or what local authority they live in. This paper can be accessed at: https://epi.org.uk/publications-and-research/identifying-send/.

The government is carrying out a programme of work as part of a SEND and alternative provision data strategy to ensure we take stock of our system health indicators and data flows, as well as the regular data and insights needed as we embark on a programme of reform. This work will be an integral part of programme governance going forward.