The information concerns parental responsibility measures in the 2023/24 academic year, based on figures provided by local authorities in the parental responsibility measures attendance census (referred to henceforth as ‘the census’).
My request relates directly to the figures provided by the council in response to this census, and subsequently published by the Department for Education. A spreadsheet containing relevant figures can be found here Spreadsheet, and my questions will refer to the spreadsheet.
1. Of the pupil enrolments in academic year 2023/24 submitted in response to the census, and shown in column K of the attached spreadsheet, how many pupils had an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) and/or Special Educational Needs (SEN) support short of an EHCP?
2. Of the pupil enrolments in academic year 2023/24 submitted in response to the census, and shown in column K of the attached spreadsheet, how many pupils had an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP)?
For questions 1 and 2, we are unable to provide figures relating to the number of EHCPs and SEN support for the enrolments within the spreadsheet, as we do not hold this exact information.
However, the DfE publish census data at the end of each academic year which details the number of children with EHCPs and SEN Support.
These figures differ slightly due to the table provided due to being taken at a different point in the year.
These figures provided below remove all those below or above school age who would not be included in the enrolments.
These are the figures for 2023/24:
| Total | 89,227 |
| Education, Health and Care plans | 5,165 |
| No identified SEN | 70,097 |
| SEN support / SEN without an EHC plan | 13,965 |
3. Of the penalty notices issued in relation to school attendance in 2023/24, as per column L of the attached spreadsheet, how many were in relation to pupils who had an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) and/or SEN support short of an EHCP?
4. Of the penalty notices issued in relation to school attendance in 2023/24, as per column L of the attached spreadsheet, how many were in relation to pupils who had an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP)?
5. Of the penalty notices issued in relation to school attendance for reasons other than holidays or lateness in 2023/24, as per column P of the attached spreadsheet, how many were in relation to pupils who had an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) and/or SEN support short of an EHCP?
6. Of the penalty notices issued in relation to school attendance for reasons other than holidays or lateness in 2023/24, as per column P of the attached spreadsheet, how many were in relation to pupils who had an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP)?
For questions 3-6, compliance with this request would exceed the appropriate cost limit under Section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 which is £450 or 18 hours of officer time. Each referral we receive would need to be reviewed to see whether the child has an EHCP. We issued over 3000 penalty notices in the year 2023/24, which is a combination of holidays and persistently absent/late, which would take roughly 2 minutes to check and therefore over the 18 hours of officer time.
Under the Act, there is a duty to provide advice and assistance as to how a request can be refined to fit within the appropriate limit. Unfortunately, due to the way the data is held, this is not possible for this request.