Last last week, the Department for Education (DfE) published its annual statistics on special educational needs in England.
If there are specific things you want to find out, then the DfE does a good job of making the data available to play with – you can find it here. But if you just want the main facts and figures, then we’ve summarised those for you below, with our usual infographics throughout and the main graphic at the end
What’s in this data?
These figures come from a census the DfE ask schools to complete annually; it’s a snapshot of the third week in January 2025. The census data is collected from state-funded nurseries, state-funded schools, hospital schools, mainstream independent schools, alternative provision, and non-maintained special schools.
But because it’s a school census, it leaves out large parts of the education population with special educational needs. The data doesn’t cover further education, home education, apprenticeships, or supported internships. It doesn’t cover specialist post-16 colleges, and there’s no real depth to the coverage of the independent school sector either.
On top of that, there are some health warnings to bear in mind too: The data includes a breakdown of different types of special educational needs and disability, and it’s done in a standard way. But the terminology used to classify SEND isn’t that helpful. Some of the categories of SEND the census uses are inadequate catch-alls. For example, you can’t use these numbers to work out the number of school pupils with ADHD, or Developmental Language Disorder.
This data is hoovered up from tens of thousands of individual schools, each with their own take on identifying and classifying SEN. Research from the Education Policy Institute convincingly shows how much inconsistency there is in SEN identification at school level—and that’s before anyone tries comparing SEN identification across state and independent school sectors. Eton, for example, has 27% of its pupils on its SEN register.
So what does the 2025 data tell us?
Basically, it’s more of the same: a larger number and proportion of school pupils have been identified with a special educational need than last year. The overall number and proportion of pupils who have statutory support through an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) is also growing.
In January 2025, there were 9 million pupils recorded on the English school census in state schools, mainstream independent schools, and non-maintained special schools. Of those, roughly 1.8 million (19.6% of them) were reported to have a special educational need.
That’s higher than last year, but it’s not the highest ever. We saw similar numbers and percentages of pupils identified with SEN in the early 2010s.
- In January 2025, 73% of these school pupils—roughly 1.3 million of them, or 14.2% of the total school population—were on SEN Support. These pupils are supported almost entirely through resources delegated down to individual mainstream schools and academy trusts.
- The number of pupils on SEN Support has grown by 45,000 in a year (3.7%), and by roughly 220,000 in a decade.
- The others – roughly 482,000 of them, or 5.3% of the total school population – have an EHCP. That’s a number that’s grown a lot: by 11% on last year, and effectively double the number of school pupils on statutory support a decade ago.
- The types of SEN most commonly identified in state schools haven’t changed. Speech, language and communication is still the most commonly identified category of primary need. Autism is still the most commonly identified need for school pupils with an EHCP.
- Overall, 64% of state school pupils with SEND were reported to be boys in January 2025. For pupils with EHCPs, 71% were reported to be boys. That represents a tiny increase in the proportion of girls over the last few years. The boy-girl split was wider for autistic pupils and those with social, emotional and mental health listed as a primary need. What that tells us is unclear, particularly when identification of need is so inconsistent.
For all the headlines lately, the education of school pupils with SEND still overwhelmingly takes place in mainstream schools and in the state sector.
- 82% of school pupils with SEND are educated in mainstream, and
- 92% of school pupils with SEND are educated in the state sector.
Has VAT on independent schools caused an influx of SEND pupils to mainstream?
The new government added VAT to mainstream independent school fees at the start of 2025. There’s no obvious sign yet from the DfE data of an influx of pupils with SEN from the independent sector to the state sector, although this census was taken a few weeks after VAT kicked in, so it’s early days.
According to the DfE data, the number of pupils with SEN in mainstream independent schools was 3% higher in January 2025 than it was in January 2024. That’s also consistent with census data from the sector’s own body, the Independent Schools Council.
2025 vs 2016
The SEND system created in 2014 looks like it’s being led unsteadily towards the glue factory. So, how have some of these numbers changed over the years? We can’t do the full decade, but we can do a reasonable comparison for state schools from January 2016 to January 2025. They show the number and incidence of pupils with SEN are clearly up since 2016, but in what ways?
Looking at the difference in number from 2016 to 2025, in terms of primary identified type of SEN:
- There are roughly 250,000 more state school pupils on SEN Support in 2025 than there were in 2016.
- The biggest single increase in the primary type of SEN for these pupils is social, emotional and mental health (SEMH), closely followed by speech, language and communication (SLCN), with a sizeable drop in the number of pupils on SEN Support identified with Moderate Learning Difficulty (MLD).
- There are roughly 220,000 more state school pupils with EHCPs in 2025 than there were in 2016.
- Almost 90% of this net EHCP increase is of pupils with one of three types of primary identified SEN: ASD, SEMH, or SLCN.
- It’s probably no coincidence that some of the most common problems identified in Ofsted and CQC Area SEND inspections are weaknesses in local NHS assessment and treatment pathways for neurodivergence, mental health, and speech and language therapy.
Changes in Numbers of School Pupils on SEN Support, 2025 vs 2016 Click to enlarge. Accessible PDF at the end
Changes in Numbers of School Pupils with EHCPs, 2025 vs 2016 Click to enlarge. Accessible PDF at the end
Looking at how things have changed across school year groups:
- If you look at the proportion of pupils on SEN Support in 2025 from early years to year 11, and compare those numbers to 2016, then the percentage of the cohort on SEN Support is up – but the rise is pretty even across all ages …
- …but try the same exercise for pupils with EHCPs, and the increase since 2016 is much more pronounced for pupils of primary school age than it is for pupils of secondary age.
Incidence of SUP Support by School Year Groups, 2025 vs 2016 Click to enlarge. Accessible PDF at the end
Incidence of EHCPs by School Year Groups, 2025 vs 2016 Click to enlarge. Accessible PDF at the end
Exploding SEND? Not so much…
When people say SEND has ‘exploded’ in recent years, it’s not that accurate. The number of pupils who have statutory support has grown quickly and steadily, particularly from 2019 onwards. But the overall number and proportion of pupils with SEND is lower than it was at the start of austerity.
The rise in the number of pupils with EHCPs has caused a mass outbreak of sweat patches on pinstriped skirts and suits in Whitehall, and small, unseemly bulges in the pressed chinos of the highly-paid advisers and consultants helping civil servants manage SEND demand.
If you’re reading this, it won’t have escaped your notice the government wants to reform the SEND system. There won’t be any official details until the autumn, although there’ll doubtless be a continual trickle of rumour. But most of the tight circle around the reform process appears to want EHCPs restricted further, or even gone entirely.
You might be able to do that if you have precision-guided, surgically sharp policy tools. But thanks to the wider SEND sector’s professional standards and accountability, these guys don’t have surgically sharp policy tools, precision-guided or otherwise. All they have are blunt, but easily weaponisable, wooden clubs. And for some reason, they don’t appear to realise that.
The vibe appears to be that if statutory support survives, then it’ll be limited to those with as-yet undefined “most complex needs”. In school terms, at least, that appears to mean calibrating policy to deliver something like a two-percentage-point drop in the proportion of school pupils getting statutory support to meet their additional needs.
View the main infographic
Download the accessible PDF of all infographics here
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Also read
- SEND in England 2024
- Depressingly awful data and our 2024 EHCP Hall of Shame reveal the sad state of disabled children’s education, with growing numbers out of school
- See all our infographics
- Beyond EHCPs: Why Inclusion Needs More Than a Document
- The Unacceptable Truth: 20 SEND legal rights at risk from the Government’s SEND reforms
- How health and family support systems are failing children starting school
- WEBINAR RECORDING! The implications for children’s legal rights to EHCPs and EOTAS of the Government’s SEND proposals
- When things go right: Shining a light on SEND Practitioners making a positive impact [Giveaway!]
- From suspicion to support: why the Government’s child protection reforms matter for disabled children
- Have your say on the future of transport for disabled children and young people
- Unison voices major concerns over SEND reform health plans for sick and disabled children out of school in the EOTAS consultation
- Top Tips for the EOTAS & EHCP consultation: Protect your child’s rights to statutory SEND support
- Navigating constraints: Why a former PCF chair thinks the current model is missing the mark for families
- Dear Secretary of State for Education, Lucy Powell: an Open Letter from Special Needs Jungle and SEND legal charity SOS!SEN
- Research: Disabled young people define inclusive education as “learning in the place that’s right for them”
- Why every child deserves Portage, wherever they’re born
- Mainstream SEND Funding: A simple explainer, another consultation, and why it really matters
- What might the SEND reform proposals mean for specialist tutors, alternative provision and EOTAS?
What kind of government is “bold” enough to scrap statutory EHCPs from vulnerable children?May 16, 2025
The SEND reforms in the Schools White Paper reveal rights given, and rights stripped awayFebruary 24, 2026
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Matt specialises in SEND stats, data analysis, and in-depth investigations of policies. He has given evidence to several Parliamentary Select Committee inquiries, and his articles for SNJ on SEND funding, local government policy, and the SENDIST Tribunal have been quoted in Select Committee inquiry reports and national media.
- Top Tips for the EOTAS & EHCP consultation: Protect your child’s rights to statutory SEND support - August 19, 2026
- Mainstream SEND Funding: A simple explainer, another consultation, and why it really matters - July 22, 2026
- EHCPs 2026: A relentless rise, but who’s surprised? Plus SNJ’s annual LA Hall of Shame - June 27, 2026
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