Dfe Data on SLCN Taken from School Census Data 2015/16

DfE data on SLCN – taken from School census data 2015/16

This data is drawn from School Census information collected in January 20161. Every year, schools complete a census about the pupils they have on roll, covering things like gender, whether they have free school meals (which is often used as a social disadvantage measure), ethnicity and special educational needs, etc. This data is therefore based on school report and should not be quoted as definitive research data. From September 2014, any children or young people who were newly referred to a local authority for assessment were considered under the new EHC plan assessment process. In addition, the previous ‘School Action’ and ‘School Action Plus’ categories were replaced by a new single category called ‘SEN support’. Please note that in previous years it was only ‘School Action Plus’ statistics reported rather than the newly combined ‘School Action Plus’ and ‘School Action’ statistics categorised as ‘SEN support’. Due to this change in cohort, it is now only possible to report on comparisons between 14/15 and 15/16.

A few selected key points regarding children and young people with SLCN:  SLCN has the second highest prevalence of any type of need across the total of all pupils who are on SEN support or with statements/EHC plan.  SLCN is the most prevalent primary need for pupils with SEN (inc SEN support and statement/ EHC plan) in state funded primary schools.

Question: how many pupils are identified by schools as having SLCN?

In January 2016, of the 1,132,907 children with a Statement/ EHC plan or on SEN Support attending state-funded primary, state-funded secondary and maintained and non-maintained special schools (but excluding independent schools, general hospital schools, nursery schools and pupil referral units), 19.5% (221,456) were identified as having SLCN as their primary need. This the second most prevalent primary need of pupils with SEN, the most prevalent primary need is Moderate Learning Difficulty (24.2%).  28% of all state-funded primary school pupils on SEN support or with statements/EHC plan had SLCN (27.7% in 2015).  10.3% of all state-funded secondary school pupils on SEN support or with statements/EHC plan had SLCN, (9.8% in 2015).  Only 5.9% of all special school pupils on SEN support or with statements/EHC plan had SLCN as their primary need (5.5% in 2015).

1 Schools, pupils and their characteristics: January 2016 London: DfE. SLCN is the most prevalent SEN primary need (SEN support and statement/EHC plan) in primary schools.

SLCN is the fourth most prevalent SEN primary need (inc SEN support and statement/EHC plan) in secondary schools. The most common types of need in this phase are Moderate Learning Difficulty (25.2%), Specific Learning Difficulty (21.4%), and Social, Emotional and Mental Health (18.5%). That said, SLCN is the second most prevalent (18%) primary need for pupils with a statement/EHC plan specifically in secondary schools. Autistic Spectrum Disorder was the most prevalent (24.8%) primary need in this group.

Comparison to last year The proportion of pupils with SLCN as their SEN primary need overall (primary, secondary and special schools) has increased. Last year 18.8% of pupils with SEN had SLCN as their primary need, this year the proportion has increased to 19.5%. Compared to 2015, SLCN is still the most common SEN primary need in primary school overall. It has also continued to be the fourth most common primary need for pupils with SEN in secondary school overall and the second most prevalent primary need for secondary school pupils with a statement/ EHC plan.