State of the South West 2008

Pupils with Special Educational Needs

4.23 Pupils with special educational needs (SEN), which vary from sensory difficulties to physical and learning difficulties, may be ‘ statemented’ or ‘ non-statemented'. Pupils with SEN become statemented when an LEA concludes, after a statutory assessment, that the special needs provision required to meet the needs of the pupil cannot be reasonably provided with the normal resources available to the school. As with other school-related information, variation is dependent on a variety of factors but, perhaps particularly in this case, individual LEA policy depends on SEN and inclusion.

4.24 There were just under 12,000 pupils with statements of SEN in primary and secondary schools in the region in January 2007. This equates to 1.5 % of the total primary school population and 1.9% of the total secondary school population, figures comparable to national averages. Over 65,000 pupils in the region’s primary schools have SEN but are non-statemented, around 17.5% of the total primary school population, marginally below the average for England of 17.7%. For secondary schools this figure is just over 45,000, equating to 14% of the total secondary school population, again lower than the national average of 16.2%.