Richard Adams is the Guardian’s education editor.
The number of children and young people with special needs requiring support through an education, health and care plan (EHCP) continues to increase rapidly, according to the latest figures released by the government in England.
Nearly 100,000 new EHCPs – statutory documents that detail support agreed by councils, schools and families – were issued last year. That took the total active EHCPs up to the age of 25 to 638,700 by the start of 2025, a year-on-year rise of 11% and three times the number active in 2017.
For EHCPs citing speech and language difficulties specifically, the year-on-year increase was 18%.
The increases will stoke fears that local authority budgets will come under greater strains despite the government’s announcement last week that councils will be able to keep the estimated £5bn debts off their balance sheets for another two years as it tries to find a solution.
Georgina Smerald, policy and research manager at Sense, the charity representing disabled people with complex needs, said:
Our failing specialist education system means that, every single day, disabled children are being denied their basic right to access education and get the best start in life.
Jane Harris, chief executive of Speech and Language UK, said:
The dramatic 18% rise in children needing EHCPs for speech and language challenges shows the system is at breaking point. Schools are doing the right thing by asking for more support because speech, language and communication skills are the bedrock of a child’s ability to thrive and succeed. But teachers aren’t being given the tools to support these children.
The figures show that more than 400 young people each day approached their council for special needs support last year.
Tim Oliver, chair of the County Councils Network, said:
Today’s new figures once again demonstrate a system in desperate need of reform. It does not work for anyone: families are facing increasing waits for support, schools do not have the capacity and resources whilst councils are building up unmanageable deficits, having spent colossal sums on support over the last decade.