How many children with ehcp's is average in mainstream secondary school

[elliejjtiny]

And does it matter?
Secondary school is average comp, roughly 250 children in each year. Ds4 is in year 7. 2 children in his year have an ehcp, him and another boy.

Ds5 is going up into year 7 in September. Currently there are 6 children who will be in his year group who already have ehcp's and 8 being assessed. There are also many more children in both year groups who have SEN but not severe enough to have an ehcp.

I was just wondering what was the average number? And will it be good for ds5 to have so many other children with ehcp's, or bad, or not relevant?

2 is incredible low. Either there isn’t any children of that level of need or school isn’t recognising it.

In 2023/24, 2.7% of pupils in state funded mainstream secondary schools had EHCPs. On the government’s website, you can see statistics for your LA average. Although there will be some who have significantly more and with hardly any. And pupils aren’t always spread evenly across the year groups.

There are pros and cons of having a small number and a bigger proportion. It can also depend on the school and the individual.

But, regardless of how many or not, the provision in F must be provided.

Thank you. We are having problems with his ehcp at the moment because although his section F is really good, the LEA has only given the school £4000 to fund it all. His section F includes a 1-1 teaching assistant as well as other things that cost money. School are appealing at the moment.

As long as the provision is detailed, specified and quantified in F, it must be provided, and can be enforced. Focus on that over the funding. So, check the wording in F. Make sure it is detailed, specified and quantified. No woolly and vague language such as “access to”, “would benefit from”, “regular”, “up to”, “or equivalent”, “opportunities for/to”, “as appropriate”, “would be useful/helpful”, “such as”, “e.g.”, “etc.”, “as required”, “as advised”, “key adult”. Also ensure wording like ‘support’ states exactly what support. Some parents don’t realise the wording is unenforceable until their DC isn’t receiving the support they need and they try to enforce it and can’t.

I know it's increased massively in recent years. My when my son joined his 1 form entry primary in reception, he was only one of 3 kids in the school with an EHCP. He's in year 6 now and there's more like 2-3 in each class.

How on earth do you know? Isn't it confidential?

@BertieBotts not for the incoming year, but some schools publish SEN data broken down by year group. That is acceptable if individual’s can’t be identified.

For the data for those starting in September, some LAs publish their admission data. Although there may be DC placed in the school after that was published.

The senco just told me there were 2 in my son's year. I know my son is one of them and I guessed who the other one was because he and my son share a teaching assistant sometimes.

Also if a school gets a good reputation for SEND then they will attract more SEND kids. But that can be a doubled edged sword as then it can be difficult to meet needs effectively. On the other hand they can have built expertise.

A full time 1-1 TA is rare in mainstream (although maybe not among members of this message board). I’m not surprised the school would appeal as not being able to
meet need.

The funding situation - schools are supposed to meet up to the first £6,000 of cost from existing budgets (which include funding for SEN). So the council may view it that in providing £4,000 additional funding, the school should spend £10,000 in total. The "up to £6,000" bit is meant to come from something called the "notional SEN budget" - more info here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/pre-16-schools-funding-local-authority-guidance-for-2024-to-2025/the-notional-sen-budget-for-mainstream-schools-operational-guide-2024-to-2025

However. It was never intended to fund the scale of support currently being demanded - it assumes most children with SEN have support needs requiring far less. There are more and more EHCPs being issued and most schools do not have the budget to fund the first £6,000 of funding towards increasingly specific, tightly worded plans requiring thousands of pounds per pupil in funding. So they cannot contribute enough towards it, and the total funding required for the EHCP is not available.

This is why a lot of schools are struggling. The system never envisaged providing additional support on the scale currently demanded.

Thank you, that's really interesting. The senco at my dc secondary school said that they rarely have 1-1 teaching assistants and they are mainly for children who need one for their own safety. I have known children in primary school having 1-1 teaching assistants but they have all moved to special needs school by the start of year 3.

My ds has never managed to do any school work unless he has someone say with him 1-1 encouraging him. At the moment the teacher and the class TA just keep coming over to him, do some 1-1 with him and then encourage him to carry on while they help someone else. Except he doesn't and he is either staring into space, trying to self harm with a pencil, stimming etc. SATs practice papers he normally answered 30-50% of the questions. The ones he did answer were mostly correct though. He is at age related expectations for about half the subjects and working towards for the rest. Marks have been slowly getting worse over the last few years.

Moving from one part of the school to another he walks with the teacher and they have doors that need a staff pass to get through so if he runs off he can't get far anyway.

Ultimately, under section 42 of the Children and Families Act 2014, the LA is responsible for ensuring the provision detailed, specified and quantified in F is provided. That includes ensuring that is adequate funding. EHCPs can be fully funded but they don’t do that unless forced.

Thank you. I just find it unbelievable that the LA can do what they did.

First they refused to assess ds for an ehcp when he obviously meets the criteria because they said the school hadn't talked to an autism specialist. At mediation both the school and I pointed out that the report from the autism specialist had been included in his ehcp application.

Then we get the ehcp written and I double and triple check it for any wooly wording and things missed out. I get several professionals to check it too. The LA were quite cagey about finding and I discover that they have only given £4000 for a child that has 1-1 teaching assistant in his section F as well as other things. The LA contact our local secondary school and ask if they can meet need. Secondary school contact us, say they do want ds but they will have to fight the LA for more money. School say they can't meet need without a lot more money and they want more things for him that aren't included in his section F like an OT. LA don't even reply and name them in ds ehcp anyway with no increased funding. I tell the senco and she doesn't know they have been named on the ehcp. I contact the LA and they say no extra funding because the primary school have managed without it. But primary school is different from secondary. And ds academic performance is gradually getting worse each year. And for the first 3 years of primary school he was eating the craft stuff because he didn't have enough supervision.

When I talk to people about it they are shocked that it could happen like that and say I should contact my MP.

2 comps in my town.

One has 5.9% EHCP, the other 2.1%.

Basically the second one gives off vibes to parents of SEN kids that they may be better off elsewhere. The first school then struggles to cope with the number it gets.