Demand for education, health and care plans (EHCPs) last year was the highest ever recorded, according to new Department for Education data.

Statistics published today show there were 93,302 initial requests made for assessment for an EHCP during 2021, nearly 20 per cent higher than the 75,951 requested in 2020 - and the highest number since data was first collected in 2016.

Of those requests, more than one in five were rejected. The figures show that 20,800 (22.3 per cent) were refused, a small increase from 2020.

At the Public Accounts Committee yesterday, MPs were told that local authorities were reporting an increase in the demand for EHCPs since the pandemic began.

Today’s DfE figures also show that the number of EHCPs has continued to increase year on year.

As of January 2022, there were almost half a million (473,255) children and young people with an EHCP, up from 430,697 in 2021.

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The combined total of children and young people with statements of special educational needs or disabilities and EHCPs has increased each year since 2010.

EHCPs were introduced in SEND reforms in September 2014, and the period for local authorities to transfer children and young people with statements of SEN to EHCPs ran until March 2018.

While the number of children and young people with EHCPs in all education settings has increased, the proportion of them receiving provision in special schools has decreased in recent years.

In 2019 the figure was 38.6 per cent but this has fallen to 34.8 per cent in 2022. In mainstream schools, the figure has increased slightly from 39.2 per cent to 40.5 this year

The DfE statement says this “is due to larger increases in provision in mainstream and other settings”.

The government’s SEND Green Paper sets out the aim of reducing parents’ need for EHCPs by improving intervention at an earlier stage for pupils.

Responding to the new figures, the NEU teaching union has said that funding for pupils with an EHCP has not kept up with “the huge rise in need”.

It said that, in order to restore EHCP funding levels to their real value in 2015-16, it would require an additional £3.6 billion.

Kevin Courtney, joint general secretary of the NEU, said: “The latest release of pupils with high-level SEND shows that the government do not have a plan to support children and young people with high-level special educational needs and disabilities.

“The government continues to underfund SEND education, and its SEND and Alternative Provision Green Paper does not contain the scale of ambition required to tackle this crisis.”