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Special Educational Needs

Asked by Priti PatelConservativeDepartment for EducationTabled Answered 11 November 2024UIN 12272

The question

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an estimate of the number of Education and Health Care Plans that will be issued for qualifying young people (a) nationwide and (b) in Essex in each of the next five years.

Answered by Catherine McKinnell

​​The number of education, health and care (EHC) plans issued in each local authority area per year is set out in published statistics on GOV.UK and is available here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/150da0a4-2fef-4836-8c12-08dbe514ee42.

The department does not make estimates of the number of EHC plans to be issued in each local authority in future years. However, as noted in the recent National Audit Office (NAO) report into special educational needs and disabilities, the department does make estimates at a national level. Page 35 of the NAO report notes that the department’s central estimate is that, without policy interventions, the number of EHC plans will nearly double from approximately 518,000 in 2022/23 to just over one million in 2032/33.

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