Data set from Education, health and care plans

Number of education, health (EHC) plans as at January each year

Latest data

Published 26 June 2025

Last updated 26 June 2025

The number of EHC plans active at January each year. This is shown for the type of setting attended, broken down by current age, age when plan started, ethnicity, sex and how long the plan has been in place. Data is shown on an academic year basis.

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Data set details

• Theme: Pupils and schools
• Publication: Education, health and care plans
• Release: Reporting year 2025
• Number of rows: 25,339
• Geographic levels: Local authority, National, Regional
• Indicators:
  • Total number of EHC plans
  • Mainstream LA maintained schools
  • Mainstream LA maintained schools - SEN units
• Filters:
  • Characteristics of child or young person with EHC plan
• Time period: 2018/19 to 2024/25

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Data set preview

Table showing first 5 rows, from underlying data

time_period	time_identifier	geographic_level	country_code	country_name	region_code	region_name	new_la_code	old_la_code	la_name	breakdown_topic	breakdown	ehcplans	mainstream_la_maintained	mainstream_la_maintained_resourced_provision	mainstream_la_maintained_senunit	mainstream_academy	mainstream_academy_resourced_provision	mainstream_academy_senunit	mainstream_free_school	mainstream_free_school_resourced_provision	mainstream_free_school_senunit	mainstream_independent	mainstream_total	mainstream_total_pc	special_la_maintained	special_academy_free	special_independent	special_non_maintained	special_total	special_total_pc	ap_pru_academy	ap_pru_free_school	ap_pru_la_maintained	ap_pru_total	AP_PRU_total_pc	general_fe_tertiary_colleges	specialist_post_16_institutions	ukrlp_provider	fe_total	fe_total_pc	elective_home_education	other_arrangements_la	other_arrangements_parents	online_provider	w_settings	other_schools	other_placement_settings	neet	neet_ntci	neet_other	neet_other_csa	ed_elsewhere	ed_elsewhere_pc	nm_early_years	nm_early_years_pc	placement_unknown	placement_unknown_pc	await_prov_2022	perm_ex_2022
201819	Academic year	National	E92000001	England						All EHC plans	All EHC plans	353995	64450	6214	3486	51194	4885	2984	1716	32	51	3618	138630	39.2	84033	35065	13744	3788	136630	38.6	709	157	1865	2731	0.8	52235	4956	x	57191	16.2	x	2969	2809	x	x	x	1902	5876	x	x	x	11654	3.3	1708	0.5	x	x	3486	63
201819	Academic year	Regional	E92000001	England	E12000001	North East				All EHC plans	All EHC plans	17294	2398	406	72	1917	279	95	42	0	0	47	5256	30.4	4868	2416	467	360	8111	46.9	19	1	42	62	0.4	2706	156	x	2862	16.5	x	127	77	x	x	x	221	389	x	x	x	593	3.4	70	0.4	x	x	119	0
201819	Academic year	Regional	E92000001	England	E12000002	North West				All EHC plans	All EHC plans	47353	10772	744	456	4199	377	123	152	0	0	262	17085	36.1	13823	3710	1851	637	20021	42.3	37	11	314	362	0.8	7267	662	x	7929	16.7	x	274	216	x	x	x	209	722	x	x	x	1212	2.6	277	0.6	x	x	258	0
201819	Academic year	Regional	E92000001	England	E12000003	Yorkshire and The Humber				All EHC plans	All EHC plans	31792	5975	865	9	5491	262	6	110	0	0	188	12906	40.6	7098	2985	834	283	11200	35.2	52	7	448	507	1.6	5147	478	x	5625	17.7	x	194	243	x	x	x	53	651	x	x	x	1088	3.4	145	0.5	x	x	260	8
201819	Academic year	Regional	E92000001	England	E12000004	East Midlands				All EHC plans	All EHC plans	24760	3445	289	426	4033	278	216	61	0	0	155	8903	36	5159	4184	954	218	10515	42.5	23	9	50	82	0.3	3272	526	x	3798	15.3	x	462	215	x	x	x	118	216	x	x	x	893	3.6	131	0.5	x	x	320	0

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Variables in this data set

Table showing first 5 of 49 variables

Variable name	Variable description
ap_pru_academy	Alternative provision academies
ap_pru_free_school	Alternative provision free schools
ap_pru_la_maintained	Pupil referral units
ap_pru_total	Total alternative provision
AP_PRU_total_pc	Total percentage alternative provision

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Footnotes

1. Cambridgeshire and North East Lincolnshire were not able to return placements for significant numbers of plans for 2025. These are shown as "Not recorded".
2. Includes service children's education, offshore schools, secure units, British schools overseas and establishments listed as "Miscellaneous" on Get Information About Schools (opens in a new tab).
3. Incudes those awaiting provision, those where a type of setting is specified in the EHC plan (e.g. special school) but no specific setting is named, those out of provision, and all other settings not otherwise listed.
4. Age is calculated based on the start date recorded for the EHC plan.
5. Figures for 2023/24 include the total number of  EHC plans for Hackney and Peterborough. Both LAs submitted total figures but were unable to return individual level data. Figures do not therefore sum to the totals.

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