Special Needs

Introduction

The site highlights the statistics which are available about special needs provision in England and Wales. The most useful document for people wanting an overview is the DfEE Statistical Bulletin (http://www.dfee.gov.uk/statistics/DB/SBU/b0207/index.html) which appears in November and relates to data collected from schools and LEAs in the previous January. The same material appears earlier in the First Notices (May 2000) and the full "Schools in England" (September 2000) but is less easy to access.

A regular update on special needs is available online from the DfES on http://www.dfee.gov.uk/sen/update

Background

The Statistical Bulletin gives useful background about the law regarding statementing and other aspects of special needs provision. The confusing terminology in this area is also clarified in a recent parliamentary answer (link needed here) The background information relates to the law as it stands now. However as a Special Educational Needs and Disability Act has just received Royal Assent there will be changes in schools. The Act aims to change the law to strengthen the rights of children with SEN to be educated in mainstream schools and to place new requirements and duties on schools and LEAs not to treat disabled pupils less favourably than non-disabled pupils. In relation to this the Government has announced capital spending to make school buildings more accessible (http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld199697/ldhansrd/pdvn/lds00/text/0110).

The Disability Rights Commission will prepare new Codes of practice to explain how the legislation should be implemented (http://www.dfee.gov.uk/pns/DisplayPN.cgi?pn_id=2000_0597).

Trends

Recent trends identified in the Statistical Bulletin include:

• The number of children statemented is increasing although the percentage remains the same at 3%.

• The proportion of statemented children attending mainstream schools is increasing, while the proportion attending special schools and Pupil Referral units is declining even though there is an increase in pupils attending Pupil Referral Units (PRUs) (http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200001/cmhansrd/cm010208/text/10.

• Primary schools report 20% of their pupils as having special needs (both statemented and not statemented); the figure for secondary schools is 22%.

• The proportion of statemented and other special needs pupils varies greatly from school to school. Some schools report over half their pupils having special needs.

Comparisons

The tables in the Bulletin show clearly the marked differences from area to area and school to school in terms of the proportion of pupils with special needs. For example, Table 13 shows Barnsley has 4 of its 87 primary schools having at least 25% special needs children, whereas the figure for Hull is 31 out its 80 primary schools. Similar differences can be picked out elsewhere in both the primary and secondary sectors.

Another kind of difference which shows up in the fuller tables of "Schools in England" (http://www.dfee.gov.uk/statistics/DB/VOL/v0192/vol04-2000.pdf) is the fact that a higher proportion of pupils in special schools are eligible for free school meals. In Special Schools, 39.7% of the pupils are eligible, compared with 18.3% in mainstream primary schools and 16.5% in mainstream secondary schools.

Resources

Funding provision for special needs is variable from area to area and depends in part on the success of bids to the Government’s Standards Fund, for projects to support special needs work (http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld199697/ldhansrd/pdvn/lds00/text/0111).

Gradually the Standards Fund has been simplified and more of the money is offered on the basis of a formula rather than through bidding. £82 million has been promised for 2001-2002 (http://www.dfee.gov.uk/pns/DisplayPN.cgi?pn_id=2000_0573).

June 2001