§ Mrs. LaingTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what types of specific(a) handicap and (b) special needs are defined as constituting special needs; and how many children there are with each specific type of handicap. [58930]
§ Mr. Ivan LewisThe guidance contained in the new SEN Code of Practice, which came into force in January 2002, does not assume that there are hard and fast categories of special educational need. It recognises that each child is unique and the questions asked by LEAs should recognise that there is a wide spectrum of special educational needs that are frequently inter-related, although there are also specific needs that usually relate directly to particular types of impairment. Children will have needs and requirements which may fall into at least one of four areas, and many children will have interrelated needs. The impact of these combinations on the child's ability to function, learn and succeed should be taken into account. The areas of need are: communication and interaction; cognition and learning; behaviour, emotional and social development and sensory and/or physical.
1067WInformation on numbers of children with specific types of handicap is not available centrally. The Department is considering introducing a requirement for schools and local education authorities to provide this information from 2004.
§ Mrs. LaingTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many children with special educational needs there are at each of stages one to four of the Code of Practice. [58925]
§ Mr. Ivan LewisInformation is not collected in the form requested. Information on the stages of SEN was collected for the first time in January 2002 but in line with the new SEN Code of Practice which replaced the categorisation of SEN into stages 1–5.
The number of SEN pupils without statements in maintained primary schools in England was 865,140 (or 19.8 per cent of pupils on roll) and 536,810 (or 16.5 per cent of pupils on roll) in maintained secondary schools in January 2002.
§ Mr. Laurence RobertsonTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many children have been statemented in Gloucestershire in each of the last 10 years for which figures are available; and if she will make a statement. [60113]
§ Mr. Ivan LewisThe information requested is shown in the following table.
Number of pupils with statements of special educational needs (SEN)1, Gloucestershire local education authority2 (position in January each year) Year Total pupils Number of pupils with statements of SEN 1992 75,244 1,476 1993 76,873 1,756 1994 78,447 2,114 1995 80,267 2,240 1996 81,527 2,431 1997 82,630 2,480 1998 83,496 2,472 1999 84,586 2,487 2000 85,407 2,623 20013 85,695 2,561 20024 85,972 2,343 1 Includes maintained primary and secondary and maintained and non-maintained special schools. 2 Pupils attending schools within Gloucestershire LEA. 3 Information submitted by some schools in January 2001 was known to be incomplete and estimates were made at national and regional level to allow for this. Figures shown for Gloucestershire LEA are, however, not adjusted and are as reported to the Department. 4 Provisional. Source:
Annual Schools' Census
§ Mrs. LaingTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many children with statements of special educational need were taught in(a) maintained special schools and (b) other maintained schools in each of the last five years, broken down by local education authority. [58926]
§ Mr. Ivan LewisA table showing the available information has been placed in the House of Commons Library.