Education, health and care plans, England
Children and young people aged up to 25 in England with an education, health and care (EHC) plan, counted each January since 2019. Years are academic years: 2025/26 is the count in January 2026.
Children and young people with an EHC plan
718,838
2025/26 · January 2026
Verified against source, 29 October 2026, 11:48 UTCSource: Department for Education. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
Data table
8 rows
| Category | EHC plans |
|---|---|
| 2018/19 | 353,995 |
| 2019/20 | 390,109 |
| 2020/21 | 430,697 |
| 2021/22 | 473,255 |
| 2022/23 | 517,048 |
| 2023/24 | 576,474 |
| 2024/25 | 638,745 |
| 2025/26 | 718,838 |
Source and licence
- Publisher
- Department for Education
- Check it yourself
- https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/education-health-and-care-plans
- Licence
- Open Government Licence v3.0 – Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
- Retrieved
- 29 October 2026, 11:46 UTC
- Raw files fetched
- https://api.education.gov.uk/statistics/v1/data-sets/01a0aa37-1008-7183-9271-35e3bcbb26c8/query?dataSetVersion=1.0&indicators=YJV9H&filters.eq=EY6Rq&filters.in=QBxmw&geographicLevels.eq=NAT&pageSize=10000SHA-256 a725ec416825daf9e54163d481ca4982a065749d341fd7b66e3cb9b189e13176 · 1,616 bytes
Verification
Verified against source, 29 October 2026, 11:48 UTC Run at 29 October 2026, 11:48 UTC; 8 of 8 figures matched the live source.
| Result | Check | Detail |
|---|---|---|
| Pass | Provenance recorded | Department for Education; Open Government Licence v3.0; retrieved 2026-10-29T11:46:45Z; 1 raw file(s) |
| Pass | Raw files match recorded SHA-256 | 1 of 1 files intact |
| Pass | Re-parsing raw files reproduces figures | 8 of 8 figures and the headline reproduced |
| Pass | Figures are finite numbers | 8 figures, 0 invalid |
| Pass | Live source matches every figure | 8 of 8 figures match exactly after downloading 1 source file(s) again (0 byte-identical); the headline matches |
| Pass | EES data set is current | latest period 2025/26 ended 212 days before retrieval (limit 540) |
| Pass | The data set's CSV file agrees | 8 of 8 figures match England's row in https://api.education.gov.uk/statistics/v1/data-sets/01a0aa37-1008-7183-9271-35e3bcbb26c8/csv?dataSetVersion=1.0 |
| Pass | The nine regions add up to England | 8 of 8 figures match the nine regions' rows in https://api.education.gov.uk/statistics/v1/data-sets/01a0aa37-1008-7183-9271-35e3bcbb26c8/csv?dataSetVersion=1.0 |
| Pass | Source page answers | https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/education-health-and-care-plans – HTTP 200 |
Notes
- Plans active on the census day in January, as local authorities report them: the 15th of January in 2026. They include children in early years settings, young people in further education and those educated elsewhere.