Nottinghamshire SEND
Nottinghamshire is a large rural local community, covering over 800 square miles. It is the 10th largest local authority.
It is made up of 7 Districts: Ashfield, Bassetlaw, Broxtowe, Gedling, Mansfield, Newark & Sherwood and Rushcliffe.
(Nottingham City is a separate unitary area to the County, and manages its own affairs, although it is surrounded by 4 of the Nottinghamshire Districts).
In 2022/23 there were 129,244 children and young people attending Nottinghamshire schools.
‘A child has special educational needs (SEN) if they have learning difficulties or disabilities that make it harder for them to learn compared to most other children of about the same age.’
Pupils with EHC Plans and SEN Support
Of the total pupil population, 2,565 (2.0%) had an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHC Plan). This is very low when compared with the national level of 4.3%.
In addition, 13,273 (10.3%) of the pupils in Nottinghamshire have SEN support, whereas this is 13% nationally.
In 2022/23, the primary areas of need for children & young people with an EHCP were as follows:
- Autistic Spectrum Disorder;
- Social, Emotional, and Mental Health;
- Severe Learning Difficulty
- Speech, Language and Communications
needs
Whereas primary areas of need for children & young people with SEN Support were:
- Social, Emotional, and Mental Health;
- Speech, Language, and Communication Needs;
- Autistic Spectrum Disorder;
- Moderate Learning Difficulty; and
- Specific Learning Difficulty
The percentage of children and young people in Nottinghamshire with SEN Support varies considerably across the County:
- in Ashfield schools, 11.9% of all children and young people have SEN support
- whilst only 5.6% of children and young people in Rushcliffe receive SEN Support (School Census 2021)
Educational provision in Nottinghamshire
- 881 Early years providers
- 284 Mainstream primary schools
- 45 Mainstream secondary schools
- 6 Enhanced provision units within mainstream schools
- 11 Special schools (2 new schools agreed)
- 11 Independent special schools
- 97 Approved alternative provisions
- 5 Alternative provision free schools
- 2 Mainstream further education colleges
- 2 Universities
- 1 Special further education college
Two-thirds of children with an EHC Plan attend special schools. The next largest group is educated in mainstream schools, followed by those in post-16 settings, such as Further Education (FE) colleges.
