Special educational needs and disability (SEND)

A child or young person has a special educational need (SEN) if he or she has a learning difficulty or disability which requires special education provision. This is defined as when a child or young person has significantly greater difficulty in learning than the majority of their peers of the same age. It also includes disability which prevents or hinders them from making use of educational facilities of a kind generally provided for their peers of the same age in schools maintained by the county council.

As part of a range of SEND (special educational needs and disability) reforms, education, health and care (EHC) plans were introduced in September 2014. EHC plans aim to improve outcomes for children and young people by providing a more joined up approach across different agencies and encouraging parents/carers and young people to be fully involved in decisions around their own support requirements. These replace the old statements of special needs. 

• In total 18.6% of pupils (34,628) in schools in Lancashire (including independent schools) are in receipt of SEN provision in the form of SEN support or an EHCP, across England 19.6% of all pupils have SEN provision.

• 5.5% of pupils in Lancashire have an EHC plan (10,155 pupils) as of January 2025 whilst 13.2% of school pupils (24,473) have SEN support.

• SEN prevalence varies across the districts (based on location of school) from 14.5% in Ribble Valley to 22.3% in Burnley. EHCP prevalence is highest in Rossendale (7.9%) whilst SEN Support prevalence is highest in Lancaster (16.0%)

• 22.3% of children with Special Educational Needs have a primary need of Speech Language and Communication (SLC) needs, whilst 20.7% have a Social, Emotional and Mental Health (SEMH) need. In primary schools SLC is the most prevalent primary need whilst in secondary school SEMH is the most prevalent and in Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is most prevalent in Special schools.

• ASD is the most prevalent need for children with an EHCP (33.8%) whilst for pupils with SEN Support SEMH (22.8%) and SLC (22.7%) are most prevalent.

Education Health and Care Plans

• 12,317 children and young people aged 0-25 years have an EHC plan in January 2025, the number of EHCPs has been increasing. Lancashire's current rate of EHC plans is 325.7 per 10,000 0-25 year olds.

• 1,821 new EHCPs were started in 2024, with a rate of 48.2 per 10,000 0-25 year olds.

For further details please see the local authority data available in the data section below. For a range of data and intelligence around disability, please see our disability pages.

Routine data are collected by local authorities on children with statements of special educational needs, but this does not reflect the spectrum of disability and is only a weak proxy measure for severity. There is ongoing work to define disability in the context of the child’s participation in usual activities, using questionnaires to families and children. If this approach were to be adopted nationally (for local implementation) then meaningful comparisons could start to be made.

In 2019 we completed a thematic JSNA for SEND in Lancashire. This was a multi-agency project led by Sally Richardson, Head of Inclusion Service, Lancashire County Council and focused on the 0-25 population. In November 2017, a joint local area SEND inspection conducted identified areas of significant weakness in the local area's practice. As part of the Lancashire SEND partnership written statement of action, a JSNA was identified as necessary to help support the understanding of need across Lancashire. Below are the priorities compiled by the JSNA project group:

• Deprivation - delivering SEND services universally but proportionate to need in order to reduce inequalities

• Exclusions - reducing the number and rate of permanent exclusions from school

• Out of county placements - increasing the sufficiency and sustainability of school placements within Lancashire

• Health needs - delivering cost-effective, community-based health services across Lancashire

• Early identification/intervention - increasing awareness and detection of SEND and its risk factors

• Data - improving the quality and usefulness of data and promoting data sharing between agencies

• Joint working - developing joint working arrangements to improve outcomes

• Transitions - improving the experience of children and young people and their families at key transition points

 For further analysis relating to the SEND JSNA please use our SEND dashboard (below).

Updated assessment of special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) in Lancashire

In 2025 we completed an updated assessment of special educational need in Lancashire which provided an overview of the demographics of the SEN cohort and types of need in the local area. 8 recommendations were provided as a result of the summary document.

This dashboard draws on a wide range of datasets and includes information relating to the likely education, health and social care needs of children and young people with SEN and disabilities.

These datasets include, but are not limited to:

• population and demographic data
• prevalence data for different kinds of SEN and disability among children and young people at local, national and statistical neighbour level
• numbers of local children and young people with EHC plans and their main needs
• the outcomes of developmental assessments (including the two-year-old check)
• where children or young people with SEN or disabilities are educated

Details of and links to datasets, where available, are included on the 'metadata' page of the dashboard.

For help on using these dashboards, please look at our tips and hints (PDF, 454KB).

For help on understanding neighbourhood geographies, please look at our geographies page.

The dashboard can be put into full screen mode by clicking on the double headed arrow in the bottom right hand corner.

Feedback on this dashboard would be welcomed to BusinessIntelligence.JSNA@lancashire.gov.uk.

Please feel free to use any of the information in our dashboards, acknowledging Lancashire county council when you do.

Updated September 2025