Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment he has made of trends in the number of Education Health and Care Plans required in (a) Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council and (b) Barnsley Central constituency.

​There were 2,133 Education, Health and Care (EHC) plans in Barnsley local authority in January 2019, a 15% increase on January 2018. Nationally an 11% increase was seen over the same period.

The number of EHC plans in Barnsley local authority is published in the Statements of SEN (special educational need) and EHC plans publication, available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/statements-of-sen-and-ehc-plans-england-2019. The latest publication contains the current position at January 2019, and the number of new plans created in the 2018 calendar year. Data on the total number of EHC plans is not available by parliamentary constituency.

Like most local authorities, Barnsley has seen a significant increase in both the caseload of EHC plans and the number of requests for statutory assessment following the introduction of the special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) reforms. This increase in activity at assessment stage is reflected throughout the SEND system.

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