A new analysis has highlighted the difference in the proportion of Year 7 students with education, health and care plans (EHCPs) being admitted to mainstream secondary schools.
FFT Education Datalab has found that there were almost 400 schools where at least 5 per cent of their 11-year-old pupils had EHCPs, double the national rate.
But it also found 276 schools where no Year 7 pupils had an EHCP last year.
More than a third (34 per cent) of these 276 schools were selective grammar schools, the analysis by FFT Education Datalab chief statistician Dave Thomson reveals.
Of these 276 schools, 60 also had no 11-year-old students with EHCPs in 2020 or 2021 - in this case, the majority (77 per cent) were grammar schools.
This leaves 14 schools that were not selective and who have not had a student with an EHCP in their year seven cohort for three consecutive academic years.
EHCPs are legal documents that set out a young person’s special educational needs or disabilities (SEND) and how services will meet them. They were introduced in SEND reforms in 2014.
The analysis, which used data from the January School Census 2022, comes after government data revealed that more than 1.5 million pupils in England are now identified as having SEND.
The FFT analysis reveals that there were nearly 3,300 state-funded mainstream schools with at least 30 11-year-old students with an EHCP last year.
On average, 2.5 per cent of 11-year-old students in those schools had EHCPs. However, this figure varies between schools.
The analysis also shows the placement of 11-year-old students with EHCPs in 2022.
It found that 47 per cent of students attended mainstream schools, including 3 per cent of pupils who attend SEND units or specialist-resourced provisions within a mainstream school.
Another 44 per cent attended special schools and the remainder were in other settings, including independent special schools and alternative provision schools. The census data did not include students without a school place.
NEW: How well do secondary schools’ intakes of pupils with EHC plans reflect the areas in which they are located?https://t.co/68e7ya11mA
- FFT Education Datalab (@FFTEduDatalab) June 30, 2023
Mr Thomson also looked to what extent students with an EHCP attend their nearest mainstream school.
The analysis found that just 17 per cent of 11-year-old students with EHCPs in 2022 were attending their nearest mainstream school. This figure was slightly lower when the nearest school was judged to be “outstanding” by Ofsted.
This number compares with 46 per cent of 11-year-old students with SEN Support and 44 per cent of those without SEND attending their nearest state-funded mainstream school in January 2022.
FFT’s blog post, published today, also shows that around one-in-five students with EHCPs who were on roll in state-funded mainstream schools in Year 7 in 2018 had left by the January of Year 11.
It also looked at patterns in large academy trusts with more than 10 non-selective mainstream schools with 11-year-old students.
Overall, 2.5 per cent of students at this set of trusts had EHCPs compared to 5.3 per cent of students resident in their schools’ catchments.
New figures published earlier this month show there were 517,026 EHCPs in January this year, up from 473,300 in January 2022 - an increase of 9 per cent.
