Data set from Education, health and care plans

Education, health and care plans as at January each year - Legacy

Latest data

Published 25 June 2026

Last updated 17 September 2026

The number of EHC plans active at January, including information on setting attended. It is available by age at the start of each academic year, the age when plan started, ethnicity, sex and length of plan. Data is shown on an academic year basis.

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On this page

Data set details

• Theme: Pupils and schools
• Publication: Education, health and care plans
• Release: Reporting year 2026
• Number of rows: 37,291
• Geographic levels: Local authority, National, Regional
• Indicators:
  • Total number of EHC plans
  • Mainstream LA maintained schools
  • Mainstream LA maintained schools - SEN units
  • Mainstream LA maintained schools - resourced provision
  • Mainstream academies
  • Mainstream academies - SEN units
  • Mainstream academies - resourced provision
  • Mainstream free schools
  • Mainstream free schools - SEN units
  • Mainstream free schools - resourced provision
  • Mainstream independent schools
  • Total mainstream schools
  • Total percentage mainstream schools
  • LA maintained special schools
  • Special academies
  • Special free schools
  • Non maintained special schools
  • Independent special schools
  • Total special schools
  • Total percentage special schools
  • Pupil referral units
  • Alternative provision academies
  • Alternative provision free schools
  • Total alternative provision
  • Total percentage alternative provision
  • FE colleges and sixth forms
  • Specialist post 16 establishments
  • UKRLP providers
  • Total further education and post 16
  • Total percentage further education and post 16
  • Non maintained early years
  • Non maintained early years percentage
  • Elective home education
  • Other arrangements made by LA
  • Other arrangements made by parents
  • Online providers
  • Other school types
  • Other types of placement
  • Welsh schools and establishments
  • Not in education or training – compulsory school age
  • Not in education or training – notice to cease issued
  • Not in education or training – other age groups
  • Not in employment, education or training
  • Total educated elsewhere
  • Total percentage educated elsewhere
  • Placement not recorded
  • Placement not recorded percentage
  • Awaiting provision (pre 2023 only)
  • Permanently excluded (pre 2023 only)
• Filters:
  • Characteristics of child or young person with EHC plan
• Time period: 2018/19 to 2025/26

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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	special_free_school	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	x	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	x	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	x	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	x	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	x	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 all 50 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
await_prov_2022	Awaiting provision (pre 2023 only)
breakdown	Characteristics of child or young person with EHC plan - Filter by characteristics of child or young person with an EHC plan, years plan in place or the setting attended
ed_elsewhere	Total educated elsewhere
ed_elsewhere_pc	Total percentage educated elsewhere
ehcplans	Total number of EHC plans
elective_home_education	Elective home education
fe_total	Total further education and post 16
fe_total_pc	Total percentage further education and post 16
general_fe_tertiary_colleges	FE colleges and sixth forms
mainstream_academy	Mainstream academies
mainstream_academy_resourced_provision	Mainstream academies - resourced provision
mainstream_academy_senunit	Mainstream academies - SEN units
mainstream_free_school	Mainstream free schools
mainstream_free_school_resourced_provision	Mainstream free schools - resourced provision
mainstream_free_school_senunit	Mainstream free schools - SEN units
mainstream_independent	Mainstream independent schools
mainstream_la_maintained	Mainstream LA maintained schools
mainstream_la_maintained_resourced_provision	Mainstream LA maintained schools - resourced provision
mainstream_la_maintained_senunit	Mainstream LA maintained schools - SEN units
mainstream_total	Total mainstream schools
mainstream_total_pc	Total percentage mainstream schools
neet	Not in employment, education or training
neet_ntci	Not in education or training – notice to cease issued
neet_other	Not in education or training – other age groups
neet_other_csa	Not in education or training – compulsory school age
nm_early_years	Non maintained early years
nm_early_years_pc	Non maintained early years percentage
online_provider	Online providers
other_arrangements_la	Other arrangements made by LA
other_arrangements_parents	Other arrangements made by parents
other_placement_settings	Other types of placement
other_schools	Other school types
perm_ex_2022	Permanently excluded (pre 2023 only)
placement_unknown	Placement not recorded
placement_unknown_pc	Placement not recorded percentage
special_academy	Special academies
special_free_school	Special free schools
special_independent	Independent special schools
special_la_maintained	LA maintained special schools
special_non_maintained	Non maintained special schools
special_total	Total special schools
special_total_pc	Total percentage special schools
specialist_post_16_institutions	Specialist post 16 establishments
ukrlp_provider	UKRLP providers
w_settings	Welsh schools and establishments

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Footnotes

1. 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).
2. 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.
3. Figures for 2024 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.
4. Wakefield submitted aggregate information for new plans for 2022. The totals will therefore not match the sum of characteristics and placements information.
5. 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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Using this data

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Download this data using code

Access this data using common programming languages using the URL below.

Example code

Python

import pandas as pd

pd.read_csv("https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-catalogue/data-set/49e7efca-f010-4044-9f70-578032a23cf7/csv")

R

read.csv("https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-catalogue/data-set/49e7efca-f010-4044-9f70-578032a23cf7/csv")

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Contact us

If you have a specific enquiry about Education, health and care plans as at January each year - Legacy statistics and data:

School Census Statistics team

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

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