HC Deb 05 March 2004 vol 418 cc1216-7W
Mr. Hoban

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many children were first identified as having special educational needs(a) before the start of compulsory schooling, (b) at primary school and (c) at secondary school in the last year for which figures are available. [157153]

Mr. Stephen Twigg

Information is not collected about numbers of children first identified as having special educational needs. However, figures are available for children for whom new statements were issued. The last year for which figures are available is 2002.

During 2002, statements were made for the first time for 7,120 children aged under 5. 15,690 statements were issued for children aged 5–10 and 7,910 for children aged 11–19.

Mr. Hoban

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what assessment he has made of the distribution of children with special educational needs across maintained schools; and what impact publication of the arrangements made by local education authorities to monitor admissions of children with special educational needs has had on that distribution. [157175]

Mr. Stephen Twigg

The following table shows the distribution of children with special educational needs (SEN)—with and without statements of SEN—across maintained primary and maintained secondary schools in England.

Number and percentage of schools by percentage of pupils with

SEN
Primary schools Secondary schools
Pupils with SEN Number Percentage Number Percentage
Up to 5 per cent. 682 3.8 258 7.5
5 per cent. up to 25 per cent. 13,864 77.6 2,616 76.1
25 per cent. up to 35 per cent. 2,459 13.8 373 10.9
35 per cent. up to 50 per cent. 761 4.3 170 4.9
50 per cent. and above 95 0.5 19 0.6
Total number of schools 17,861 3,436
Source:
Statistics of Education—Special Educational Needs in England: January 2003 Issue Number 09/03, published November 2003

Local Education Authorities' Admission Forums consider how well admission arrangements work locally, including arrangements for the admission of children with special educational needs. As Admissions Forums became mandatory only on 20 January 2003, it is too early to determine the impact they will have had on promoting protocols for the admission of these children.

Mr. Hoban

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what progress the Department has made in developing descriptions for types of special educational needs for use in the Pupil Level Annual Schools Census. [157177]

Mr. Stephen Twigg

Draft descriptions of types of special educational need were developed in autumn 2002. These were then sent to a sample of schools, local authorities and voluntary organisations for consultation at the end of November 2002. The descriptions were amended in the light of the responses received and the final version sent to local authorities in June 2003 and also placed on the Department's website.

In September 2003, copies of the guidance were sent to all maintained and non-maintained schools to enable them to prepare for the Pupil Level Annual Schools Census in January 2004.

There are eleven categories of need described in the guidance, grouped into the four main areas of difficulty set out in the SEN Code of Practice 2001. From January 2004, data on pupils type of need will be collected for all pupils with a statement of SEN and those at "school action plus".

Mr. Hoban

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many schools have been awarded the Special Educational Needs Quality Mark; and how many have failed to meet the criteria for its award. [158089]

Mr. Stephen Twigg

The Government do not run a scheme of Special Educational Needs Quality Marks.