Education, health and care plans as at January each year, by primary type of need
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The number of EHC plans active at January each year, by their primary SEN need. This is shown for the type of setting attended, current age, age when plan started, ethnicity, sex and length of plan. 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 2026
- Release type
- Number of rows
- 28,402
- Geographic levels
- Local authority, National, Regional
- Indicators
- Total number of EHC plans
- Autistic spectrum disorder
- Down Syndrome
- Hearing impairment
- Moderate learning difficulty
- Multisensory impairment
- Physical disability
- Profound & multiple learning difficulty
- Severe learning difficulty
- Social, emotional and mental health
- Specific learning difficulty
- Speech, language and communication needs
- Visual impairment
- Other difficulty/disability
- Primary need is not recorded
- Autistic spectrum disorder (%)
- Down Syndrome (%)
- Hearing impairment (%)
- Moderate learning difficulty (%)
- Multisensory impairment (%)
- Physical disability (%)
- Profound & multiple learning difficulty (%)
- Severe learning difficulty (%)
- Social, emotional and mental health (%)
- Specific learning difficulty (%)
- Speech, language and communication needs (%)
- Visual impairment (%)
- Other difficulty/disability (%)
- Primary need is not recorded (%)
- Filters
- Characteristics of child or young person for whom EHC needs assessment requested
- Time period
- 2024/25 to 2025/26
Data set preview
| 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 | ehc_plans | number_asd | number_ds | number_hi | number_mld | number_msi | number_oth | number_pd | number_pmld | number_semh | number_slcn | number_sld | number_spld | number_vi | number_need_unknown | asd_pc | ds_pc | hi_pc | mld_pc | msi_pc | oth_pc | pd_pc | pmld_pc | semh_pc | slcn_pc | sld_pc | spld_pc | vi_pc | unknown_pc |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 202425 | Academic year | National | E92000001 | England | All EHC plans | All EHC plans | 638745 | 201183 | x | 8765 | 67861 | 1692 | 7512 | 24897 | 8577 | 132218 | 135835 | 25025 | 15030 | 5280 | 4870 | 31.5 | x | 1.4 | 10.6 | 0.3 | 1.2 | 3.9 | 1.3 | 20.7 | 21.3 | 3.9 | 2.4 | 0.8 | 0.8 | |||||
| 202425 | Academic year | National | E92000001 | England | Child or young persons age | age 10 | 41405 | 13579 | x | 517 | 4569 | 109 | 517 | 1443 | 528 | 8179 | 8745 | 1477 | 1116 | 335 | 291 | 32.8 | x | 1.2 | 11 | 0.3 | 1.2 | 3.5 | 1.3 | 19.8 | 21.1 | 3.6 | 2.7 | 0.8 | 0.7 | |||||
| 202425 | Academic year | National | E92000001 | England | Child or young persons age | age 11 | 46775 | 15122 | x | 595 | 5585 | 122 | 601 | 1609 | 510 | 10159 | 8596 | 1649 | 1497 | 381 | 349 | 32.3 | x | 1.3 | 11.9 | 0.3 | 1.3 | 3.4 | 1.1 | 21.7 | 18.4 | 3.5 | 3.2 | 0.8 | 0.7 | |||||
| 202425 | Academic year | National | E92000001 | England | Child or young persons age | age 12 | 47172 | 15003 | x | 669 | 6085 | 106 | 605 | 1672 | 583 | 10725 | 7729 | 1791 | 1515 | 366 | 323 | 31.8 | x | 1.4 | 12.9 | 0.2 | 1.3 | 3.5 | 1.2 | 22.7 | 16.4 | 3.8 | 3.2 | 0.8 | 0.7 | |||||
| 202425 | Academic year | National | E92000001 | England | Child or young persons age | age 13 | 47359 | 14737 | x | 594 | 5899 | 115 | 576 | 1573 | 559 | 12367 | 6966 | 1792 | 1484 | 358 | 339 | 31.1 | x | 1.3 | 12.5 | 0.2 | 1.2 | 3.3 | 1.2 | 26.1 | 14.7 | 3.8 | 3.1 | 0.8 | 0.7 |
Variables in this data set
| Variable name | Variable description |
|---|---|
| asd_pc | Autistic spectrum disorder (%) |
| breakdown | Characteristics of child or young person for whom EHC needs assessment requested - Filter by primary need recorded in EHC plan |
| ds_pc | Down Syndrome (%) |
| ehc_plans | Total number of EHC plans |
| hi_pc | Hearing impairment (%) |
| mld_pc | Moderate learning difficulty (%) |
| msi_pc | Multisensory impairment (%) |
| number_asd | Autistic spectrum disorder |
| number_ds | Down Syndrome |
| number_hi | Hearing impairment |
| number_mld | Moderate learning difficulty |
| number_msi | Multisensory impairment |
| number_need_unknown | Primary need is not recorded |
| number_oth | Other difficulty/disability |
| number_pd | Physical disability |
| number_pmld | Profound & multiple learning difficulty |
| number_semh | Social, emotional and mental health |
| number_slcn | Speech, language and communication needs |
| number_sld | Severe learning difficulty |
| number_spld | Specific learning difficulty |
| number_vi | Visual impairment |
| oth_pc | Other difficulty/disability (%) |
| pd_pc | Physical disability (%) |
| pmld_pc | Profound & multiple learning difficulty (%) |
| semh_pc | Social, emotional and mental health (%) |
| slcn_pc | Speech, language and communication needs (%) |
| sld_pc | Severe learning difficulty (%) |
| spld_pc | Specific learning difficulty (%) |
| unknown_pc | Primary need is not recorded (%) |
| vi_pc | Visual impairment (%) |
Footnotes
- Includes service children's education, offshore schools, secure units, British schools overseas and establishments listed as "Miscellaneous" on Get Information About Schools (opens in new tab).
- Cambridgeshire and North East Lincolnshire were not able to return placements for significant numbers of plans for 2025. Brighton and Hove, and Wolverhampton, made significant numbers of errors in the data as to placement attended. Placement attended has been suppressed for these local authorities in 2025.
- Due to issues with data quality in the first year of collection, EHC plans where the primary need is Down Syndrome were included under "other difficulty/disability" for the year 2024/25. For further information please see the methodology document attached to this release.
- Surrey submitted amended figures in 2025 for the primary type of need. The published figures include the amended totals they supplied. Information on the characteristics by primary type of need is not available for this authority..
- Brighton and Hove did not return information on primary need in the 2026 data collection.
- Information on primary type of need indicates the nature of the person’s special educational need and does not indicate prevalence of a medical condition or diagnosis within the population.
- Figures for the Isle of Wight for the 2025 calendar year and 2025/26 academic year are suppressed due to issues with data quality.
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Contact us
If you have a specific enquiry about Education, health and care plans as at January each year, by primary type of need statistics and data:
School Census Statistics team
Email: sen.statistics@education.gov.ukContact name: Special Educational Needs statistics lead