Feb 7, 2025, tes Magazine: Revealed: the scale of the SEND crisis in numbers
The huge shortfall in funding for pupils with special educational needs and disabilities is clear.
But how many children now need support – and how has this figure increased in recent years? Tes analyses the latest DfE data.
The fact that there is a crisis in funding and provision for pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) is one thing that both major political parties can agree on.
Former education secretary Gillian Keegan called it “a lose-lose-lose situation” in 2023,
while her successor, Bridget Phillipson, has described the system as “neglected to the point of crisis”.
Now the Department for Education (DfE) has formed a new advisory group of 19 leaders from across the sector to help inform strategy in this area.
But what exactly is the current state of the SEND system - and how has it changed in recent years? Tes has analysed the latest DfE data to provide a clear overview of the situation.
How many pupils have SEND?
The DfE categorises pupils with SEND into two groups:
1. Those with education, health and care plans (EHCPs), a local authority-issued document outlining the pupil’s needs and the long-term provision in place to meet them.
2. Those who receive SEN support, which the DfE defines as any support additional to what is generally available to children of the same age. These children do not have an EHCP.
Combining these two figures shows that as of 2024, 1,673,205 pupils in English schools have SEND. This represents 18.4 per cent, or almost a fifth, of the school population.
This is an increase of 100,650 children (or 6.4 per cent) on 2023, when there were 1,572,555 pupils with SEND. This upwards trend is consistent with recent years: there has been a 31.2 per cent increase since 2016, when 1,228,787 pupils had SEND.
While there has been a rise in the school-age population since then, with 6.2 per cent more children in schools in 2024 than in 2016, this increase is far below the growth of SEND support.
How many pupils have EHCPs?
Of the 1.67 million pupils with SEND, 434,354 have EHCPs - an 11.6 per cent rise on 2023 and a huge 83.4 per cent increase from 2016, when 236,806 pupils had an EHCP.
The figure for 2024 represents 26 per cent of all those with SEND, up from 19.3 per cent in 2016.
Overall, the current EHCP figure represents 4.8 per cent of the total school population.
What kinds of school do pupils with SEND attend?
The number of pupils with SEND has increased across all school types.
The biggest rise has been in independent schools, where the number of pupils with SEND grew from 77,996 in 2016 to 132,510 in 2024 - a 69.9 per cent increase. This is particularly striking given that the independent school population rose by only 1.8 per cent over the same period.
Meanwhile, in the state sector, at primary there has been a 27.3 per cent increase, from 619,094 pupils with SEND in 2016 to 788,100 in 2024. During this time the pupil population stayed broadly the same.
And there has been a 40 per cent increase at secondary, from 406,431 in 2016 to 571,502 in 2024. However, during this period the secondary population increased by nearly 15 per cent.
There has also been a significant increase in the number of pupils with SEND in state special schools, with a rise of 50.3 per cent, from 104,303 in 2016 to 156,785 in 2024. But this is more in-keeping with the overall special-school pupil population, which rose by 49 per cent over the same period.
What kinds of school do pupils with EHCPs attend?
As you’d expect, the number of pupils with EHCPs has also risen across all school
types between 2016 and 2024, as shown for each setting below:
In nurseries the number has risen by 164 per cent at a time when the overall population decreased by 16 per cent.
In state-funded primaries the number has risen by 126 per cent.
In state-funded secondaries the number has increased by 79 per cent.
In state-funded special schools the number has risen by 53 per cent.
In state-funded alternative provision schools the number has increased by 156 per cent.
In independent schools the number has risen by 148 per cent.
Apart from nurseries and secondaries, all these school types have seen only marginal changes in population size during this time.
What kinds of needs do pupils with SEND have?
From this point on in this article, all the data excludes independent schools.
Looking specifically at data for pupils with EHCPs, the most common primary need is autism spectrum disorder (ASD). One in three children with an EHCP - or 33 per cent - have this need. That’s 132,249 pupils.
The second most common primary need is speech, language and communication: 78,199 - or 18 per cent of all those with EHCPs - have this need.
These figures, too, have changed over time, with a 14 per cent increase in pupils with ASD as their primary need since 2023, and a huge 130 per cent increase since 2016, when 57,474 students had this primary need.
There is the same trend for speech, language and communication needs: numbers have risen by 18 per cent on 2023, when 66,827 had this primary need, and by 152 per cent on 2016, when 31,045 did.
For pupils receiving SEN support, speech, language and communication needs are most common, with a quarter - 26 per cent or 291,742 students - identified as having this. This is followed by social, emotional and mental health needs, which 254,202 students receiving SEN support (22 per cent) are identified as having.
These figures have also changed over time, with speech, language and communication needs up 5 per cent on 2023, when 278,596 pupils had this primary need, and 50 per cent on 2016, when 194,200 did.
It’s a similar story for social, emotional and mental health needs: this year is up 10.7 per cent on 2023, when 229,723 students had this need, and 52.8 per cent on 2016, when 166,347 did.
Although ASD is just the fifth most common primary need for pupils receiving SEN support, it is the fastest rising, with a 141 per cent increase in this being identified between 2016 and 2024, from 43,327 to 104,395.
Meanwhile, numbers of pupils receiving SEN support with a primary need of a severe learning difficulty or a moderate learning difficulty are decreasing, respectively by 35.1 per cent and 26.6 per cent since 2016.
How old are students with SEND?
The proportion of pupils with SEND increases through the primary year groups, with a peak at age 10.
This then steadily decreases throughout secondary school.
Are there differences for girls and boys?
SEND is more prevalent in boys than in girls.
Of those with EHCPs, 288,144 are male and 112,269 are female.
Of pupils receiving SEN support, 706,245 are male and 433,501 are female. . . .
The future of SEND
So where do we go from here?
In October, the National Audit Office warned of the financial crisis that lies behind the scenes, reporting that while over the past decade spending on SEND has risen 58 per cent to £10.7 billion [$13.2B], this has not led to better outcomes for children and young people with SEND.
Increasingly, a lack of specialist state provision has been part of the problem, as councils often pay for students to attend independent settings because that is where the only spaces are available.
So the education secretary’s November announcement of a raft of measures aimed at making mainstream schools more inclusive for pupils with SEND was welcomed by many.
Yet how quickly this work will take place remains unclear, especially since a Tes investigation in January showed that Catherine McKinnell, the minister tasked with reforming SEND, visited no special schools for at least four months after the 2024 general election.
Given how many children are affected - and how rapidly these numbers are rising - there needs to be a solution, and fast.
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