Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many children (a) with autism and (b) identified as having autistic spectrum disorder as their primary type of need were enrolled in pupil referral units in each year since 2010.

The table below gives the number of children enrolled in pupil referral units with autistic spectrum disorder as their primary type of need from 2012 to 2015. This is based on the underlying data file published alongside the ‘Special Educational Needs: England’[1] report from 2012 onwards. This underlying data was not published prior to 2012.

The coverage for 2015 is different to previous years – pupils who were formerly School Action but have transferred to SEN support were required to provide a type of need for the first time. This should be considered when making comparisons between years.

Please note we are only able to provide data for children who have autistic spectrum disorder as their primary type of need. This does not include children with Autism as a secondary type of need, children with autism receiving school action or potentially children with autism not identified as having SEN.

[1] https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/statistics-special-educational-needs-sen