Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent estimate her Department has made of the number of children who have (a) received a Statement of Special Education Needs and (b) do not have access to the necessary funding to support those needs.

There were 517,049 children and young people with an Education, Health and Care (EHC) plan in England at January 2023. EHC plans replaced statements of Special Educational Needs following the introduction of Special Educational Needs and Disability provisions in the Children and Families Act 2014 on 1 September 2014.

Local authorities are responsible for securing the special educational provision specified in the EHC plans they maintain. Children and young people with an EHC plan are supported and funded from local authorities’ high needs budgets.

High needs funding is increasing to over £10.5 billion next year (2024/25), which is an increase of over 60% from the 2019/20 allocations. This funding will help local authorities, schools and colleges with the costs of supporting children and young people with EHC plans.