Reporting year 2023

Education, health and care plans

This is the latest data

• Published: 8 June 2023
• Next update: June 2024
• Last updated: 10 November 2023
  See all updates (7)

  1. 10 November 2023

     Clarification made to methodology note.

  2. 28 September 2023

     Corrections to a number of LA level figures and work based placement data. This follows further engagement with LAs.

  3. 18 July 2023

     Grammar/spelling fix - no change to data

  4. 13 July 2023

     Compulsory and non-compulsory school age breakdowns added to ceased plans data where a time series exists for compulsory school age pupils. Correction to establishment types where data was incorrectly assigned to further education for a number of LAs, this will also impact on national and regional establishment type figures

  5. 22 June 2023

     Suppression of 3 local authorities' figures in 20 week timeliness data, new plans and initial requests refused pending further checks

  6. 12 June 2023

     Labelling of tribunals underlying data changed to make clear the break in the time series in 2022

  7. 8 June 2023

     Correction to suppression of 2 local authorities' figures in 20 week timeliness data

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This publication provides data on children and young people with an education, health and care (EHC) plan in England and, historically, for those with a statement of special educational needs (SEN). 

Data is presented for both the caseload as at January 2023, for example the number of EHC plans, and for activity during the 2022 calendar year, for example the number of new EHC plans in the calendar year.

The publication is based on data collected in the SEN2 data collection. From 2023, the data collection changed from aggregated figures at local authority level, to a person level collection. This has been a major change in approach and as such there are a number of changes in the publication including new breakdowns and time series breaks.

Data covering SEN in schools, including EHC plans and SEN support, is available in the ‘Special Educational Needs in England’ publication, available in the ‘Related pages’ sidebar.

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Headline facts and figures - 2023

The total number of Education, Health and Care (EHC) plans has continued to increase

The number of children and young people with EHC plans increased to 517,000, as at census day in January 2023, up by 9% from 2022. This has increased each year since 2010.

The number of new EHC plans made in the calendar year has also continued to increase

66,700 new EHC plans were made during the 2022 calendar year, up by 7% from the previous year. The number of new EHC plans has increased each year since their introduction in 2014.

The number of initial requests for an EHC plan increased during the calendar year, continuing the long-term trend of increases

There were 114,500 initial requests for an EHC plan during 2022, up by 23% from 93,300 in 2021. Apart from a decrease in 2020, an atypical year when the pandemic was disrupting both education and local authority services, initial requests have increased each year since EHC plans were introduced.

The proportion of new plans issued within 20 weeks has decreased 

In 2022, 49.2% of new EHC plans were issued within 20 weeks. This was a decrease when compared to 2021.

The publication is based on data collected in the SEN2 data collection. From 2023, the data collection changed from aggregated figures at local authority level, to a person level collection. This has been a major change in approach and as such there are a number of changes in the publication including new breakdowns and time series breaks.

The initial release of this publication sees the replication of the majority of data that has been collected and published in previous years. Due to changes in the method of data collection however, there are some gaps in some of the breakdowns presented. These include transfers between placement types and ongoing assessments at the end of the year. These will be added at a later date.

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Data Quality

Changes to data collection

The department has moved from collecting aggregated data from local authorities, for example the number of new plans issued in the calendar year, to collecting person level data that can be aggregated up to produce these measures. This change allows the department to conduct much richer analysis of the data that was previously not possible, for example producing more detailed age breakdowns or cross tabulating data items. This will help the department to gain a much greater understanding of both those who have EHC plans and those who are undergoing the request and assessment process.

As this is a new method of data collection, we expect the quality of the data returns to improve over time as the collection becomes established. 

Response rate

Data returns were received from all local authorities, however not all data items are complete across all local authorities and therefore there are a number of measures where a local authority may not be included, or where breakdowns such as establishment type have large proportions of ‘Unknown’ recorded. 

Voluntary data items

Data on annual reviews has been collected on a voluntary basis in 2023. These data items will be subject to further quality assurance and analysis and are to be compulsory from 2024. Data for these items is not included in the publication.

Data collection mitigations

In order to lessen the burden of the change to data collection on local authorities from 2023, a number of mitigations were included for the first year. This ranged from making new data items voluntary to allowing higher level of detail to be returned as an establishment type where specific information was not available. Further information on the mitigations in place are detailed in the methodology document.

Further data updates

The publication is based on data collected in the SEN2 data collection. From 2023, the data collection changed from aggregated figures at local authority level, to a person level collection. This has been a major change in approach and as such there are a number of changes in the publication including new breakdowns and time series breaks.

The initial release of this publication sees the replication of the majority of data that has been collected and published in previous years. Due to changes in the method of data collection however, there are some gaps in some of the breakdowns presented. These include transfers between placement types and ongoing assessments at the end of the year. These will be added at a later date.

Education, Health and Care plans at census date

There were 517,000 children and young people with Education, Health and Care (EHC) plans as at January 2023. This is an increase of 9% from 473,300 as at January 2022. This follows similar increases in recent years.

The combined total of children and young people with statements of SEN and EHC plans has increased each year since 2010. EHC plans were introduced from September 2014. The period for local authorities to transfer children and young people with statements of SEN to EHC plans started in September 2014 with statements of SEN being phased out by March 2018. As such we no longer see statements of SEN in the total.

Figures in this section refer to the total of both statements of SEN and EHC plans unless specified.

Children of compulsory school age continue to account for over two thirds of EHC plans

The number of children and young people with EHC plans has increased at all age bands, with largest increases in children of compulsory school age. This is a consistent long-term trend.

From September 2014, EHC plans replaced Learning Difficulty Assessments (LDAs) for young people in further education, with LDAs then being phased out. Data on the number of LDA's was not collected in SEN2 and therefore figures up to 2015 do not include LDA's. The percentage of children and young people with an EHC plan who are aged 16 years old and over has subsequently increased since January 2014, however this has now stabilised, with reductions in the percentage of EHC plans in these groups seen in recent years despite increases in overall numbers.

The majority of those with an EHC plan are male

71.8% of children and young people with an EHC plan are male, with 28.1% female. This is the first year for which data has been collected for gender.

Data is also available on the ethnicity of the child or young person with an EHC plan for the first time. The table below includes both high level groupings (Ethnicity major) and more detailed figures (Ethnicity minor).

This shows that 68.4% of those with an EHC plan are white, with 63.6% recorded as ‘English/Welsh/Scottish/Northern Irish/British’. Just over 10% of children and young people with an EHC plan have an unknown ethnicity, this includes where the ethnicity is not known to the local authority, is not recorded or data could not be provided.

Historic data on gender and ethnicity is available for school pupils with EHC plans in the Special educational needs in England publication.

Number of plans by establishment type

The method for collecting data on establishments has changed from previous years. A full time series to 2022 is still available within the data that can be downloaded from this publication, or via the table tool.

Previously, local authorities provided data on the number of EHC plans where the child or young person was attending through a set list of establishment types. From 2023, information on the specific establishment has been recorded, with either the Unique Reference Number (URN), UK Provider Reference Number or where neither are applicable, a specific category recorded.

As a result of this change, caution should be taken when comparing across years by establishment types.

Children and young people attending school and further education

Most children and young people with an EHC plan are attending a school, with 213,400 attending a mainstream school (41.3% of all EHC plans) and 171,700 attending a special school (33.2% of all EHC plans).  A further 76,500 young people (14.8%) were attending further education.

2.3% of children and young people were not recorded as having a URN, UKPRN or one of the specific options available.

Awaiting provision/Not in education

Data on the number of children and young people awaiting provision is no longer collected in the same way. 

Data has been collected on both the setting named on a plan and settings that a child or young person is currently attending. Further, in order to better define data on where a child or young person is not attending any placement, data on the number of children and young people who are not in education has been collected, including specifically where a notice to cease has been issued. This is in addition to the number of young people who are recorded as Not in Education, Employment or Training (NEET).

Prior to this publication, due to changes in the data collection, comparisons to previous years were not advised. This includes changes to the categories recorded. Figures for awaiting provision up to and including 2017 are known to also include those who are NEET, which has since been a separate category.

In 2023, there were 12,100 young people recorded as NEET. A further 6,000 children and young people were not in education, of which 2,300 had a notice to cease their EHC plan issued. Of the remaining 3,700 who were not in education, 1,400 were of compulsory school age.

Elective home education

4,300 children and young people were recorded as in Elective home education. 

Other arrangements

8,400 children and young people were recorded as in other arrangements made by the local authority (Educated Otherwise Than At School, EOTAS), while 850 were recorded as other arrangements made by parents (excluding elective home education).

New EHC plans in the calendar year

The number of new EHC plans has continued to increase

66,700 new EHC plans were made during 2022, an increase of 4,500 (7%) when compared against 2021. This follows an increase of 3% from 2020 to 2021. 

This is the highest number of new EHC plans in a year, following increases each year since their introduction in 2014.

Almost half of new plans continue to be for ages 5 to 10

44.7% of new plans were made for those in this age group, this equates to 29,800 new plans. This is similar to previous years. Age 11 to 15 continues to be the next highest group at around a quarter of new plans. This has been the second highest group since 2017, when it overtook the under 5 age group. 

New plans for those aged 20 to 25 made up just 0.2% of all new plans, down from 0.3% in 2021 and continuing a decline from a high of 2.2% in 2017. 

The majority of new EHC plans issued are to males

68.8% of children and young people with a new EHC plan in 2022 are male, with 31.1% female. This is the first year for which data has been collected for gender.  

Data is also available on the ethnicity of the child or young person with an EHC plan for the first time. The table below includes both high level groupings (Ethnicity major) and more detailed figures (Ethnicity minor).

Of those with a new plan, 68.4% are white, with 63.3% recorded as ‘English/Welsh/Scottish/Northern Irish/British’. 10.9% of children and young people with a new EHC plan have an unknown ethnicity, this includes where the ethnicity is either not known to the local authority, is not recorded or data could not be provided. These figures are in line with those for all children and young people with an EHC plan at the census date.

Historic data on gender and ethnicity is available for school pupils with EHC plans in the Special educational needs in England publication.

Number of new plans by establishment type

The method for collecting data on establishments has changed from previous years. A full time series up to and including the 2021 calendar year is still available within the data that can be downloaded from this publication, or via the table tool.

Previously, local authorities provided data on the number of new EHC plans where the child or young person was attending through a set list of establishment types. From the 2023 data collection, information on the specific establishment has been recorded, with either the Unique Reference Number (URN), UK Provider Reference Number or where neither are applicable, a specific category recorded.

As a result of this change, caution should be taken when comparing across years by establishment types.

Children and young people attending school and further education

Most children and young people with a new EHC plan in 2022 are attending a school, with 48,100 attending a mainstream school (72.1% of all new plans) and 8,400 attending a special school (12.5% of all EHC plans).  

3.7% of children and young people were not recorded as having a URN, UKPRN or one of the specific options available. 

Awaiting provision/Not in education

Data on the number of children and young people awaiting provision is no longer collected in the same way. 

Data has been collected on both the setting named on a plan and settings that a child or young person is currently attending. Further, in order to better define data on where a child or young person is not attending any placement, data on the number of children and young people who are not in education has been collected, including specifically where a notice to cease has been issued. This is in addition to the number of young people who are recorded as Not in Education, Employment or Training (NEET).

Prior to this publication, due to changes in the data collection, comparisons to previous years were not advised. This includes changes to the categories recorded. Figures for awaiting provision up to and including 2017 are known to also include those who are NEET, which has since been a separate category.

There were under 300 young people who had a new plan start in 2022, that were recorded as being NEET. A further 400 children and young people were not in education, of which 15 had a notice to cease their EHC plan issued. Of the remaining children and young people who had a new plan who were not in education, 200 were of compulsory school age, and 200 were not of compulsory school age.

Elective home education - new plans

600 children and young people were recorded as in Elective home education. 

Other arrangements - new plans

600 children and young people were recorded as in other arrangements made by the local authority (EOTAS), while just under 100 were recorded as other arrangements made by parents (excluding elective home education).

Requests and assessments

A parent, young person aged 16-25, or a person acting on behalf of a school or post-16 institution can ask their local authority to carry out an assessment if they think a child or young person needs an EHC plan. 

The number of initial requests for assessment continues to increase

There were 114,500 initial requests made for assessment for an EHC plan during 2022, up from 93,300 in 2021 and the highest number since data was first collected in 2016. Of those, 25,300 (22.1%) were refused, a small decrease from the previous year.

Once a request for assessment has been approved, an assessment is undertaken and a decision on whether or not to issue a plan is made.

From 2023, the figures below include all assessments during the calendar year, including where a decision to issue a plan has been made, but the plan has not yet started. Previously this only included where a decision to issue a plan had been made and the new plan had started. Therefore from 2023, the figures do not match those for new plans in the section above. Around 2,000 decisions to issue were made where a new plan has not yet started in the calendar year.

The number of assessments completed during the calendar year also continued to increase

Assessments completed increased from 66,100 in 2021 to 72,700 in 2022, an increase of 10%. Of these, 68,700 (94%) resulted in a decision to issue a plan, of which 66,700 started in the calender year 2022. There were 4,200 assessments (6%) where it was decided not to issue an EHC plan.

The map below shows the percentages for initial requests refused, assessments that resulted in a plan and assessments where a decision was made not to issue a plan, for each local authority for the 2020 to 2022 calendar years.

Timeliness - EHC plans issued within 20 weeks

The whole process of EHC needs assessment and EHC plan development, from the point when an assessment is requested (or a child or young person is brought to the local authority’s attention) until any final EHC plan is issued, must take no more than 20 weeks. The relevant legislation provides for exceptions to the time limits in certain situations.

In the figures presented, the calculation is based on assessments where the decision to issue a plan was reported as ‘Yes’, the date of that outcome was within the 2022 calendar year, and the request for assessment or the decision to assess was not subject to mediation or a tribunal.

For the purposes of this data collection, the 20-week period (or 140 calendar days) does not include the day of receipt of the request and ends with the date on which the local authority sends the parents of the child or the young person the final EHC plan.

EHC plans issued within 20 weeks has decreased

Of those plans where a decision to issue a new plan was within the 2022 calendar year, 49.2% were issued within the twenty week time limit. This is a reduction from 59.9% in 2021. These figures exclude where exceptions apply.

Mediation and tribunals

Following the decision to proceed with an assessment or following the assessment of needs of a child or young person, if the local authority decides not to issue an EHC plan, or if parents/carers disagree with the educational provision set out in the EHC plan, they would be able to appeal to the First-tier Tribunal (Special Educational Needs and Disability). They then decide whether they want to go to mediation or proceed to the First-tier Tribunal, part of the Health, Education and Social Care Chamber within the First-tier Tribunal. 

Mediation cases are defined as the number of mediation meetings that have occurred, regardless of whether the case then went to Tribunal. A mediation meeting is one in which the mediator, parents/carers or young person and the local authority met to discuss the case. 

Tribunal cases include where the parents or young person decided not to take part in mediation before tribunal.

More information about the Tribunal can be found at: www.gov.uk/courts-tribunals/first-tier-tribunal-specialeducational-needs-and-disability. 

Statistics covering the First-tier Tribunal (Special Educational Needs and Disability) can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/tribunals-statistics

Data has been collected from 2022 on the reason for mediation and appeals to tribunal. Previously a single total of cases that were subject to mediation or appeal to tribunal was collected. Data is collected on appeals to tribunal, this differs from the tribunal statistics referred to above, which counts all tribunals that were heard.  

In 2022, a total of 5,500 mediation cases were reported and 4,800 appeals to tribunal were reported. This includes

• 4,100 mediation cases, and 2,500 tribunal cases, following the decision as to whether to proceed with an assessment
• 1,000 mediation cases, and 900 tribunal cases, following the decision as to whether to issue a plan
• 700 mediation cases, and 1,500 tribunal cases, for other reasons, including the educational provision set out in the plan

Personal Budgets

An optional personal budget is an amount of money identified by the local authority to deliver provision set out in an EHC plan where the parent or young person is involved in securing that provision. See the SEND code of practice: 0 to 25 for further information on personal budgets. 

Data on personal budgets was provided by 142 out of 152 local authorities, caution should be taken when comparing to previous years given the change to data collection.

There were 18,900 plans reported by local authorities to have a personal budget in place in 2022. Of those personal budgets, 74% were reported to have direct payments for social care, 9% had direct payments for education and 1% had direct payments for health.

The number of plans reported to have a personal budget has decreased by around a quarter from 2021, when it was just over 25,000. Based on feedback from local authorities, this reduction is expected to be driven by availability of data and does not reflect a significant change in approach from local authorities. 

Ceased plans

From 2023, data is collected on the reason for cessation for all EHC plans that have ceased in the calendar year. While data was previously collected on plans that ended for certain specific reasons for certain groups, this was only collected for pupils of compulsory school age and not universal for all children and young people. As such, the time series includes a break from 2022 onwards, from which point the improvement to data coverage begins. 

In particular, we see a large increase in ‘special needs being met without an EHC plan’ that was previously only collected for compulsory school age but now covers all ages from 0-25. This has been broken down by compulsory age and non-compulsory age to allow for clearer comparisons to previous years, but caution should be used when comparing across years.

In 2022, a total of 34,700 were reported to have ceased. This includes where the local authority no longer administers the EHC plan due to the plan transferring to another local authority. 

The most common reason reported, in just over a third of cases (11,700) was that the young person no longer wishes to engage in education or training (33.9%). The next most common reasons were that the plan had transferred to another local authority (9,400 plans, 27.0%) and that the ongoing educational or training needs were being met without an EHC plan (4,030 plans, 11.6%). Of those where needs were being met without a plan, 313 were of compulsory school age.

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• Education, health and care plans

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If you have a specific enquiry about Education, health and care plans statistics and data:

School Census Statistics team

Email: sen.statistics@education.gov.uk
Contact name: Special Educational Needs statistics lead

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