Cheryl Gillan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Cheryl Gillan on 2016-07-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many children and young people who are either educated at home or not in employment, education or training are recorded within the statistics and analysis on statements of special educational needs and education, health and care plans in England published on 26 May 2016; and under which categories such children and young people are recorded.

Edward Timpson

The number of children and young people with a statement or education, health and care (EHC) plan who are educated at home is not specifically collected in the ‘Statements and EHC plans England: 2016’ publication[1]. However, as these children and young people will be included in the total number of children and young people with statements and EHC plans, local authorities are likely to have included these children and young people in the ‘other arrangements made by the local authority’ or ‘other arrangements made by the parent’ category.

The number of children and young people with statements or EHC plans who are not in employment, education or training (NEET) is not specifically collected in this statistical first release. Where young people have a statement or EHC plan and are NEET, they will be included in one of the other categories, e.g. ‘other arrangements made by local authority’ or ‘awaiting provision’.

There is not an exhaustive list of arrangements included in the category of ‘Other – arrangements made by the local authority in accordance with Section 319 of the Education Act 1996 or Section 61 of the Children and Families Act 2014’. The published SEN 2016 guide for local authorities[2] completing this part of the collection is as follows:

‘Section 319 of the Education Act 1996 empowers an authority to provide education for children with special educational needs “other than in school”. This may include education in centres run by social services or at home. Children would not normally be on another school register.

‘Section 61 of the Children and Families Act 2014 empowers an authority to provide education for children and young people with special educational needs “other than in school, post-16 institutions, etc”. This may include education in centres run by social services or where the local authority has named home education on an EHC plan.’

[1] https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/statements-of-sen-and-ehc-plans-england-2016

[2] https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/special-educational-needs-survey-2016-guide

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