Reporting year 2025

Education, health and care plans

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Department for Education

Introduction

This publication provides information on both the numbers of children and young people with an education, health and care (EHC) plan as at January each year, and the number of children and young people progressing through each stage of the EHC plan process during the preceding calendar year. 

This publication is based on data collected in the SEN2 data collection and covers all children and young people with an EHC plan of ages 0 to 25, including those where the child or young person attends early years settings, further education or is educated other than in school. Data covering SEN in schools, including information on both EHC plans and SEN support, is available in the ‘Special Educational Needs in England’ publication. The data can be found under ‘additional supporting files’.

We present some breakdowns of this data in the text below. More detail is available via the table tool and the underlying data files. The table tool can be accessed via the ‘Explore data’ option under the ‘Quick links’ header to the right. This allows users to produce their own tables, including information at local authority and regional level.

Related information

Releases in this series

View releases (10) for Education, health and care plans

Methodologies

Headline facts and figures - 2025

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  • Download all data available in this release as a compressed ZIP file

Additional supporting files

All supporting files from this release are listed for individual download below:

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About these statistics

Changes to data collection and presentation

In the reporting year 2023 (covering January 2023 and the 2022 calendar year) the department moved from collecting aggregated data on education, health and care (EHC) plans from local authorities, to collecting person level data. This change has allowed the department to conduct much richer analysis of the data, for example producing more detailed age breakdowns, information on the characteristics of children for whom an EHC needs assessment is requested, or cross tabulating data items. It has also introduced new data items such as ethnicity and sex of children and young people with an EHC plan. These changes help create a much greater understanding of both those who have EHC plans and the process of their administration.

In the reporting years 2023 and 2024, data collected from this person level data was aggregated to replicate the information published from the aggregate collection. In 2025, a wider range of information is published for the first time to meet user needs. Where this has led to discontinuity in the time series this is appropriately shown in this publication.

While data returns were received from all local authorities, not all data items are complete across all local authorities and a small number of local authorities have missing data for some fields. Care should be taken when comparing figures between years due to improvements in data quality and content. Caveats and footnotes in individual sections should be noted. For further information on data quality please see the methodology document.

For the first time, the Department of Education has published the number of tribunals by local authority and the appeal rate which was previously published by the Ministry of Justice: Tribunals statistics quarterly: January to March 2025 - GOV.UK (opens in a new tab)

Voluntary data items

Data on phase transfers was collected on a voluntary basis in 2025. Data for these items is not included in this publication. Further checking of the data will take place and a decision of whether the data quality is sufficient for publication will be made at a later date.

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Education, health and care (EHC) plans as at January each year

There were 638,700 children and young people with an EHC plan active as at January 2025. This is an increase of 10.8%, from 576,500 active as at January 2024.

While this year on year increase is lower than the 11.5% rise seen between 2023 and 2024, it remains higher than the year on year increases seen in the preceding four years.

A further breakdown is available showing the number of EHC plans, by type of placement, including all school types, further education, early years settings, and educated other than in school or college, as at January each year, 2019 to 2025.

Characteristics of children and young people with EHC plans 

Children of compulsory school age (aged 5 to 15) account for 78.0% of all EHC plans in 2025, a slightly higher proportion than in 2024 when this percentage was 77.6%.

Around a quarter (26.4%) of children and young people with an EHC plan started their plan when they were 4 or 5 years old, meaning their plan started around the start of compulsory schooling age.

A further 18.7% started their plan at age 10 or 11, around the time most children begin secondary school. Only 5.4% of all existing plans started after the young person was 16 or over, i.e. after compulsory school age.

The majority of children and young people with an EHC plan are male, 70.6% of children and young people with an EHC plan are male, and 29.4% are female. The percentage of those with an EHC plan who are female is slightly higher than in 2024.  

In 2025, 69.9% of those with an EHC plan are white, including 64.9% recorded as ‘English / Welsh / Scottish / Northern Irish / British’. 8.3% are recorded as ‘Asian/Asian British’ and 6.0% as ‘Black / African / Caribbean / Black British’. These percentages vary little from 2024.

A further breakdown is available, showing the number of EHC plans by the child or young persons age, sex, ethnicity and their age when their plan started. 

Placements attended by children and young people with EHC plans 

This section includes information on the settings attended by children and young people with EHC plans. This is where the child or young person is attending on the census date in January to receive their education, this may be different to the placement named in the EHC plan. 

Most children and young people with an EHC plan attend either an early years setting, a school (mainstream or special), alternative provision, or a further education establishment, with 569,700 (89.2%) of children and young people with an EHC plan attending one of these settings.

Of those children with active EHC plans as at January 2025, those of primary school age were more likely to attend a mainstream school than older children. Children of secondary school age were more likely to attend a special school, and those aged 16 and over were more likely to be in further education or educated elsewhere.

Mainstream schools

278,200 children and young people with an EHC plan attend a mainstream school. This represents 43.6% of all children and young people with an EHC plan, slightly higher than in 2024 (43.3%). The percentage of children and young people attending a mainstream school has increased slightly each year since 2020.

Of these, 24,500 were at a SEN unit or resourced provision within the mainstream school. The proportion of all children with an EHC plan who attend resourced provision or a SEN unit of a mainstream school has decreased each year; from 12.7% in 2019 to 8.8% in 2025.

There were 7,200 children and young people with an EHC plan attending mainstream independent schools, representing 1.1% of the cohort which has remained broadly stable over time.

Special schools

The number of children with EHC plans attending special schools increased by 4.9% between 2024 and 2025. This increase is lower than the year on year increase seen for other placements, at 12.2% for mainstream schools, and 8.7% for alternative provision establishments.

The proportion of all children and young people with an EHC plan who attend a special school has decreased in recent years. In 2019, 38.6% of children and young people with an EHC plan attended a special school, this had decreased to 30.4% in 2025.

Most children and young people with an EHC plan who attend a special school, attend a state funded special school (82.4%).

Further education

There were 88,200 young people with EHC plan attending further education establishments, an increase of 5.2% from 2024. This equates to 13.8% of young people with an EHC plan; a decrease from 14.6% in 2024. Of these:

  • 71,000 (11.1%) attended sixth form and FE colleges.
  • 9,700 (1.5%) attended specialist post 16 establishments. These are establishments which are legally established to provide education and are not maintained schools or FE colleges.
  • 7,500 (1.2%) attended establishments listed on the UK Register of Learning Providers. 

Alternative provision 

In 2025, 4,900 children and young people attend alternative provision, an increase in number of 8.7% from 2024. The percentage of all children and young people with an EHC plan attending alternative provision was 0.8%, which has been broadly stable over time.

Early years establishments

There were 4,500 children with EHC plans attending an early years provider other than a school, relating to 0.7% of children with an EHC plan. These include private nurseries, independent early years providers and childminders. 

Children and young people attending placements other than school, early years or further education

In 2025, there were 49,800 children and young people attending placements other than school, early years or further education, an increase of 22.5% from 2024. This represents 7.8% of all plans, a slightly higher proportion than in 2024 (7.1%). 

Included in this category are 18,100 young people who were not in education, employment or training (NEET), representing 2.8% of the cohort, similar to 2024.

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Primary type of need of EHC plans as at January each year

Primary type of need is collected for all children and young people where an EHC plan has been issued, including those plans where the child or young person is placed other than in school. Figures here will therefore be slightly different to those presented in Special Educational Needs in England which includes only pupils with an EHC plan who attend schools in England.

The most common primary type of need among children and young people with an EHC plan is autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) at 31.5% of all EHC plans. The next most common type of need is speech, language and communication needs (21.3%) and social, emotional and mental health (20.7%). These three primary types of need account for almost three quarters of all EHC plans.

Placements and primary type of need 

Mainstream schools are the most common type of placement attended, with 43.6% of all those with an EHC plan attending a mainstream school, and 30.4% attending a special school. This follows for most primary types of need but there are some variations.

  • Those with a primary type of need of social, emotional and mental health account for 20.7% of all EHC plans, and form the largest proportion of those who attend alternative provision or pupil referral units, at 63.0%.
  • Those with a primary type of need of speech, language and communication account for 21.3% of all EHC plans, and form the largest proportion of those who attend early years settings, at 46.5%.
  • Those with a primary type of need of ASD account for 31.5% of all EHC plans and are slightly more likely to attend a special school, accounting for 40.4% of EHC plan needs in special schools.

A further breakdown gives full details of the number of EHC plans, broken down by their primary type of need for each type of placement attended.

Characteristics and primary need 

Age

The prevalence of some types of primary need increases with age, while for others the prevalence is higher in lower age groups. The primary type of need may change over time, other primary types of need may not present and/or require the support of an EHC plan until the child or young person is older.

At aged 5 the most common primary needs are:

  • Speech, language and communication needs, 14,300 EHC plans (46.3%).
  • Autistic spectrum disorder, 10,300 EHC plans (33.5%).

At aged 15 the most common primary needs are:

  • Autistic spectrum disorder, 13,700 EHC plans (30.5%).
  • Social, emotional and mental health, 13,300 EHC plans (29.5%).

For other primary types of need the proportion of plans stays relatively constant across ages.

This is similar to the school pupil data published in Special educational needs in England, Academic year 2024/25 - Explore education statistics - GOV.UK

Sex

There are also differences in primary type of need when looking between males and females with an EHC plan. Males and females have the same most common primary needs, however in different proportions. For example, autistic spectrum disorder is the primary need for 33.9% of males compared to 25.7% of females, while moderate learning difficulty is the primary need for 13.7% of females compared to 9.3% of males. 

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New EHC plans issued in the calendar year

There were 97,700 new EHC plans issued during the 2024 calendar year, an increase of 13,300 (15.8%) when compared to 2023. This rate of increase is lower than that seen between 2022 and 2023 (26.6%). 

Of all EHC plans active in January 2025, 15.3% were first issued during the 2024 calendar year, a similar proportion to that seen in January 2024. 

A further breakdown is available showing the number of new education, health (EHC) plans issued during each calendar year, by placement attended. 

Characteristics of children and young people issued with new EHC plans 

Almost two thirds of new plans (62.9%) were issued for those of primary school age (aged 4 to 10), with just under a third of new plans (31.8%) being issued for secondary school age children (aged 11 to 16). Only 6.5% of new EHC plans were issued for young people aged 16 and over. These proportions are similar to those of 2023.

Of new EHC plans issued during 2024, two thirds are issued to males, with one third issued to females. The proportion issued to females is slightly higher than in 2023. 

Of children and young people with a new EHC plan: 

  • 70.2% are white, with 65.3% recorded as ‘English/Welsh/Scottish/Northern Irish/British’. 
  • 7.5% were ‘Asian/Asian British’.
  • 5.8% were ‘Black/African/Caribbean/Black British’. 

These percentages are slightly higher than in 2023, this is partly due to improvements in data quality, with a lower percentage of children and young people with an unknown ethnicity being recorded in 2024.

A further breakdown is available showing the number of EHC plans issued during the calendar year by each characteristic, by placement attended. 

Placements of children and young people with new EHC plans 

The majority of children and young people who were issued with an EHC plan for the first time in 2024, attend a mainstream school: 

  • 73,400 children and young people with a new EHC plan issued in 2024 attended a mainstream school, at 75.1% of all new EHC plans issued. This has increased from 74.9% in 2023.
  • 9,100 attended a special school, at 9.3% of all new EHC plans issued. This has decreased from 10.5% in 2023.

Primary type of need for children and young people issued with new EHC plans 

Of all new plans issued during 2024, most were for a primary type of need of:

  • Speech, language and communication needs, 27,100 EHC plans (27.7%)
  • Autistic spectrum disorder, 26,900 EHC plans (27.5%)
  • Social, emotional and mental health, 25,600 EHC plans (26.3%) 

These three primary type of needs account for just over 8 in 10 of all new EHC plans issued. 

A further breakdown is available showing the number of new EHC plans issued during the 2024 calendar year, for each primary type of need, by the placement attended.

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Requests for an EHC needs assessment received in the calendar year

During 2024 there were 154,500 requests for an EHC needs assessment, 16,200 more than in 2023, an 11.8% increase.

The number of requests for a EHC needs assessment has increased every year since 2020. This was, however, an atypical year when the pandemic was disrupting both education and local authority services. Since 2020 the number of requests for an EHC needs assessment has more than doubled.

The most common time to request an EHC needs assessment is prior to starting compulsory schooling or prior to the transfer to secondary school. This is consistent with the number of new plans issued.  

Sex

More requests are made for males; 64.3% of requests for an EHC plan needs assessment are for males compared to 35.7% for females.

Ethnicity 

In 2024, 69.4% of requests for an EHC needs assessment were for white children and young people, including 64.9% recorded as ‘English / Welsh / Scottish / Northern Irish / British’. 6.7% were recorded as ‘Asian/Asian British’ and 5.2% as ‘Black / African / Caribbean / Black British’.

The majority of requests for an EHC needs assessment proceed with assessment.

During 2024, the LA approved to proceed with an EHC needs assessment for 65.4% of requests and to not proceed with an assessment for 25.5% of requests. This is a slightly lower rate than in 2023 (67.3%).

A small number of requests were withdrawn before a decision was made (1.6%) while the remainder were ongoing at the end of the calendar year. 

The proportion of requests for an EHC needs assessment where the LA proceeds with an assessment broadly decreases with age. For children aged 3, 75.6% of requests result in an EHC needs assessment. For children aged 10, this falls to 61.2%. For children aged 15, it falls further to 56.7%, and for young people aged 20 or over it falls to 42.5%.

A slightly lower proportion of requests for an EHC plan assessment are approved for females; 62.8% of requests for an EHC needs assessment proceeds to assessment for females compared to 66.9% of requests for males. 

A further breakdown is available showing the number of requests for an EHC needs assessment received, by the outcome of that request, for each age, sex and ethnicity for the calendar year 2024. 

Timeliness of request decisions 

The time between the receipt of the request for an EHC needs assessment, and the outcome of that request being communicated to the parent, carer or young person must take no more than 6 weeks. This is a statutory timeframe, set out in legislation (opens in a new tab).

In the figures presented, the calculation is based on requests where a decision has been made and that decision was communicated in the calendar year. The 6-week period does not include the day of receipt of the request and ends with the date on which the local authority sends the parent, carer or the young person the decision following the request. 

In 2024, 84.8% of decisions regarding a request for a EHC needs assessment were communicated to parents or carers within 6 weeks, with 15.2% of requests taking longer than 6 weeks. These figures are very similar to 2023. 

Mediations and tribunals related to requests for an EHC needs assessment 

It is possible to appeal to the Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) Tribunal if there is a disagreement with the decision made by the local authority about a child or young person’s EHC plan, including if there is disagreement with the content of the plan or refusal to carry out an assessment.

Mediation should be considered in cases of disagreement. Mediation is a meeting between parents/carers or the young person and the LA to help resolve disputes regarding decisions which could be appealed to the tribunal. It is convened at the request of the parent/carer or young person and is chaired by an independent mediator.

More information about the Tribunal can be found at: First-tier Tribunal (Special Educational Needs and Disability) (opens in a new tab) and statistics covering all First-tier Tribunals (Special Educational Needs and Disability) are published by the Ministry of Justice and can be found at: Tribunals statistics - GOV.UK (opens in a new tab).

There were 154,500 requests for EHC needs assessment received during 2024 and this resulted in:

  • 10,500 mediations related to the decision not to conduct an EHC needs assessment, 6.8% of all requests.
  • 4,700 tribunals related to the decision not to conduct an EHC needs assessment, 3.0% of all requests.
  • Of the 10,500 mediations, 1,500 were subject to a tribunal following this mediation, 1.0% of all requests.
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EHC needs assessments carried out during the calendar year

During 2024, there were 105,300 EHC needs assessments carried out, an increase of 14,300 (15.7%) from 2023. 

The outcome of the EHC needs assessment was to issue a plan in 98,500 cases (93.6%). For 6,400 EHC needs assessments, it was decided not to issue an EHC plan (6.1%). For a small number of assessments, 300 (0.3%) the original request was withdrawn before the assessment decision was made. The decision for the remaining assessments was outstanding at the end of the year (0.1%).

The number of EHC needs assessments where a decision was made has increased in recent years. Information on the number where a decision is outstanding and the number withdrawn was not collected prior to the 2022 calendar year. 

Characteristics of children and young people for whom an EHC needs assessment is carried out

Age

The age of children and young people assessed for an EHC plan closely follows that of requested EHC need assessments with: 

  • 72.9% of EHC needs assessments being made for children aged under 11.
  • 23.9% of of EHC needs assessments being made for children aged 11 to 15.
  • 2.9% of of EHC needs assessments being made for young people aged 16 and over.

The percentage of EHC needs assessments where it is decided to issue a plan decreases with age; for children aged 5 at the time of request a plan was issued for 96.0% of all EHC needs assessments carried out during 2024. For children aged 10 this figures drops to 91.1%, and for children aged 15 it drops further to 85.7%.

There are also some differences by sex in the outcomes of EHC needs assessments, with the decision being to issue a plan for 94.1% of males compared to 92.4% of females. 

A further breakdown is available showing the number of EHC needs assessments, and the number and percentage of their outcomes, for each age, sex and ethnicity for the calendar year 2024. 

Timelessness of assessment notifications

Following an EHC needs assessment the local authority, if the local authority decides not to issue an EHC plan, must inform parents and carers of this decision within 16 weeks of the date the request for an EHC needs assessment was received. This is a statutory timeframe, set out in legislation (opens in a new tab).

In the figures presented, the calculation is based on requests where an EHC needs assessment was carried out, where a request received date, and date of outcome assessment was provided and where the decision not to issue a plan was made during the calendar year. The 16-week period 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 decision following the EHC needs assessment. 

In 2024, 65.9% of decisions where an EHC plan was not to be issued were notified within 16 weeks, with 34.1% of requests taking longer than 16 weeks. This means slightly more decisions were notified within 16 weeks than in 2023 when the figures were 63.8% and 36.2% respectively.

Mediations and tribunals related to EHC needs assessments 

Parents and carers have the right to bring an appeal to the First-tier Tribunal (Special Educational Needs and Disability), otherwise known as SEND Tribunal, if following an EHC needs assessment the local authority refuses to issue an EHC plan. Parents also have the right to bring an appeal if they disagree with the content of the plan, this includes section B (SEN), section F (special educational provision) or section I (placement).  

Parents and carers also have the right to mediation, a more informal method where an independent mediator will help parents and the local authority reach agreement. Following mediation, parents and carers continue to have the right to bring an appeal to the SEND Tribunal. 

In relation to the decision not to issue an EHC plan, during 2024 there were:

  • 2,100 mediations related to the decision not to issue an EHC plan (33.2% of assessments with this decision), 
  • 1,400 tribunals related to the decision not to issue an EHC plan (22.6% of assessments with this decision).
  • Of the 2,100 mediations, 500 were then subject to a tribunal.  

In relation to content of the plan (following a decision to issue a plan), during 2024 there were:

  • 1,900 mediations related to the plan content; this may be the special educational need detailed in the plan, the provisions made or the establishment named which will be attended by the child or young person. This represents 1.9% of all assessments where an EHC plan was issued.  
  • 3,100 tribunals related to the plan content, 3.1% of all assessments where an EHC plan was issued.  
  • Of these 1,900 mediations, 700 were then subject to a tribunal. 
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Timeliness - EHC plans issued within the statutory 20 week timeframe in the calendar year

The whole process of EHC needs assessment and EHC plan development, from the point when an EHC needs 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  (opens in a new tab) 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 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 

Of those plans where a decision to issue a new plan was made within the 2024 calendar year, 46.4% were issued within the 20-week timeframe, a decrease from 50.3% in 2023. These figures exclude cases where exceptions apply.

Of the plans issued after the statutory 20 week timeframe, most were issued between 20 and 52 weeks after the request for an EHC needs assessment was made, with 46.2% of new EHC plans issued within this time and 7.3% issued after 52 weeks. Both figures are higher than in 2023.

A further breakdown is available showing the number and percentage of EHC plans issued within, and over, the statutory 20 week timeframe, by age, sex and ethnicity. 

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Annual reviews carried out during the calendar year

To ensure that EHC plans continue to meet the needs of the child or young person, they must be reviewed as a minimum every 12 months. This annual review is the statutory process of looking at the needs, provision and outcomes specified in the EHC plan, and deciding whether these need to change. The first review of the EHC plan should be completed within 12 months of the EHC plan being finalised, with subsequent reviews being completed within 12 months of the previous review. The decision regarding the outcome of the review meeting should be communicated to parents and carers or the young person within four weeks of the review meeting.

The date when the last review meeting occurred, the date when the local authority wrote to the parent or young person with the notification of the decision, and the decision following the annual review were collected as a compulsory data item for the first time in 2025.

As the annual review data item is new to the data collection, we do expect there to be some data quality limitations and anticipate that quality will improve over time as local authorities become more familiar with the data item, and collection guidance is honed through collaboration between local authorities and the department. Where localised data quality issues are known, figures have been suppressed.

Annual reviews

Of the 638,700 EHC plans active as at January 2025, 82.1% (524,700) were expected to have an annual review during the 2024 calendar year. Of which, the majority, 86.5% (453,800) did have an annual review recorded as expected. The outcomes of these reviews were as follows: 

  • For 48.4% of annual reviews it was decided to amend the plan.
  • For 29.8% of annual reviews, it was decided to maintain the EHC plan with no changes.
  • For 0.9% of annual reviews it was decided to cease the plan. However, as any decision to cease the plan may be appealed, the number of plans which cease as a result of the annual review decision will be lower.
  • The outcome was yet to be recorded for 20.9% of annual reviews.

A further breakdown is available showing the number and outcome of annual reviews of EHC plans, by age, sex and placement attended, for the 2024 calendar year. 

Timeliness of annual review decisions 

Following an annual review, local authorities have a statutory duty to inform parents, carers and young people of the outcome of that review within 4 weeks. This is a statutory timeframe, set out in legislation (opens in a new tab).

In 2024 the outcome of 44.4% of annual reviews were notified within 4 weeks where dates were recorded.

Appealable decisions and tribunals

For the first time, the Department for Education has published the number of tribunals by local authority and the appeal rate which was previously published by the Ministry of Justice: Tribunals statistics quarterly: January to March 2025 - GOV.UK (opens in a new tab)

This coincides with the newly collected data on annual reviews as described above. This data on annual reviews allows for a better calculation of the rate of annual review decisions which are appealed following the outcome being communicated to the parents, carers and young people (the "appealable decision rate"). 

Previously, given that no data on annual reviews was available, the appealable decision rate was calculated using the assumption that all active plans would have had an annual review, which did not account for the fact that some plans would not have reached the one year review point, or not have had a review during the calendar year for other reasons. With new data being published on annual reviews, we are now able to more clearly identify the number of decisions made that would have been eligible for appeal and therefore tribunal.

As the annual review data item is new to the data collection, we do expect there to be some data quality limitations and anticipate that quality will improve over time as local authorities become more familiar with the data item, and collection guidance is honed through collaboration between local authorities and the department. Where localised data quality issues are known, figures have been suppressed.

Due to this change in methodology and data quality limitations, we are publishing this data as official statistics in development, providing both the existing and the new methodologies for identifying appealable decisions. This reflects the fact that some users may wish to see the previous figures to note the impact of the new methodology on the longer term rate trends. The Department plans to move to the new methodology in future years. 

We welcome feedback on these statistics, and ask that comments are provided to the team via the details in the “Contact Us” section below.

In the calendar year 2024, there were 22,300 appeals to tribunal registered, a 42.7% increase since last year. This related to 365,000 appealable decision records available, meaning an appeal rate of 5.7%. This rate is based on the new methodology for appeal rates and therefore no equivalent data is available for previous years.

Further information on the methodology applied to calculate these figures can be found in the methodology document accompanying this release. Figures at local authority level, including both approaches as described above, are available under ‘additional supporting files’.

Please note that we have removed SEND table 1 (national totals) from the previously published SEND tribunal appeal rate tables by the Ministry of Justice. The national totals, including national appeal rate, is available at bottom of the LA level table. 

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Residential and work based placements

This section covers those placements attended which are identified as being either residential or work based.   

The unique reference number (URN) of the school or college attended is recorded for children and young people with an EHC plan. This URN is then matched to Get Information About Schools (opens in a new tab) to pick up the type of establishment attended. Some of these will be residential placements or work based, and the placements here form a subset of the placement types included in previous sections. 

Residential placements

Some children will require education provision which includes board and lodging at the school or college they attend. These are termed residential placements. They may be termly boarding (38 to 51 weeks per year) with time at home during school holidays or they may remain in the provision for the full year. 

There were 2,200 children and young people with an EHC plan in a residential setting as at January 2025, an increase of 4.5% from 2024. The majority (62.9%) resided in the setting for 38 to 51 weeks of the year, which is similar to 2024.

Residential settings were mostly used for older children and young people; 73.2% of those placed in a residential setting for 38 to 51 weeks were aged 14 or over.

The majority of children and young people with an EHC plan placed in a residential setting are placed in special schools or specialist post 16 provision.

A further breakdown is available showing the number of residential placements, by length of residential placement, for each age, sex, ethnicity and placement type.  

Work based placements 

These may be:

At January 2025, there were 4,400 young people with an EHC plan with an active work based placement. Most work based placements are supported internships (61.1%).  

The majority of work based placements are also placed in an FE setting, with 74.4% also being recorded in a college or UKRLP provider.

A further breakdown is available showing the number of work placed placements, by type of placement, age, sex, ethnicity and placement attended. 

Following the change to SEN2 being an individual level collection it was found that work based placements were being underreported in the collection and the data for 2024 has not been published. During the 2025 data collection process extensive checking has been carried out and the data can be published with confidence.

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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 (opens in a new tab) for further information on personal budgets. 

Data on personal budgets was provided by 145 out of 153 local authorities in 2025, slightly higher than the number who provided data last year. Figures have not been scaled to account for missing data.

At January 2025, there were 19,600 EHC plans with a personal budget attached, 7.3% higher than in January 2024. Of all EHC plans, 3.1% had a personal budget in place in 2025, a similar figure to 2024. 

Most personal budgets (64.2%) are to cover social care payments only; 16.1% of EHC plans with a personal budget in place had direct payments for education, while 0.8% had direct payments for health.

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EHC plans which ceased during the calendar year

In reporting year 2023, the department began to collect data on the reason why plans ceased for all EHC plans ceasing during the calendar year. Prior to this data was not collected for all children and young people whose plan has ceased, but a sub section covering needs being met without an EHC plan, transfers, and numbers who left school at the end of compulsory schooling. The data shown here only includes that collected from the reporting year 2023 (calendar year 2022) onwards. Data for years prior to this can be found in earlier publications.

During 2024, 44,900 EHC plans ceased, 13.8% more than 2023. Plans which ceased during 2024 account for 7.8% of all EHC plans active as at January 2024, a similar percentage to 2023. 

The most common reason reported for an EHC plan to cease was that the young person no longer wishes to engage in education or training, this accounted for 16,100 (35.9%) ceased plans, a lower percentage than in 2023 (38.2%). The next most common reason was a transfer to another local authority, this accounted for 14,000 EHC plans (31.1%).

There were 4,000 (8.8%) EHC plans which ceased as the ongoing educational or training needs were being met without an EHC plan and 2,600 (5.7%) which ceased as the young person had transferred to higher education. A further 4,100 (9.0%) plans ceased as the young person moved on to paid employment.

Characteristics of children and young people when their plan ceases 

Age on ceasing 

The majority (74.6%) of EHC plans cease after the age of 16. For the majority of young people with a EHC plan, the local authority continue to maintain the plan at least until age 18. 

Length of time plan was in place 

Very few EHC plans cease within a year of the start date (2,400), of which most (84.0%) are due to the plan transferring to another local authority. 

Most plans have been in place for 5 years or more when they cease. Excluding transfers to other local authorities, 77.3% of EHC plans have been in place for 5 years or more on the EHC plan ceasing, indicating that most plans are maintained until the child or young person finishes their education. 

Last placement attended when EHC plan ceased

For the majority of children and young people, the last setting they attended before their plan ceased was either further education or they were educated elsewhere. 

There were 18,400 young people (41.1%) educated elsewhere, which includes children and young people not in education, training or employment with 8,200 classed as NEET and a further 7,100 not in education or training. 

There were 11,800 young people (26.3%) attending FE prior to their EHC plan ceasing.

A further breakdown is available showing the number of EHC plans which ceased during 2024, by reason for ceasing, by age of the child or young person on ceasing, sex, their final placement and length of time the plan was in place.

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Methodology

Find out how and why we collect, process and publish these statistics.

Accredited official statistics

These accredited official statistics have been independently reviewed by the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR). They comply with the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics. Accredited official statistics are called National Statistics in the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007.

Accreditation signifies their compliance with the authority's Code of Practice for Statistics which broadly means these statistics are:

  • managed impartially and objectively in the public interest
  • meet identified user needs
  • produced according to sound methods
  • well explained and readily accessible

Our statistical practice is regulated by the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR).

OSR sets the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics that all producers of official statistics should adhere to.

You are welcome to contact us directly with any comments about how we meet these standards. Alternatively, you can contact OSR by emailing regulation@statistics.gov.uk or via the OSR website.

Contact us

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

Press office

If you have a media enquiry:

Telephone: 020 7783 8300

Public enquiries

If you have a general enquiry about the Department for Education (DfE) or education:

Telephone: 037 0000 2288

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Monday to Friday from 9.30am to 5pm (excluding bank holidays)