To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many children and young people placed in pupil referral units returned to mainstream education in each year since 2016, by local education authority area and education Key Stage.
Answered on
11 January 2022
The table below is the high-level view of the total number of pupils within pupil referral units (PRUs) since 2016 with a Statement/Education Health Care (EHC) plan, as well as with and without Special Education Needs (SEN) support.
2015/16 | 2016/17 | 2017/18 | 2018/19 | 2019/20 | 2020/21 | |
No SEN | 3,499 | 3,583 | 3,419 | 3,065 | 2,879 | 2,210 |
SEN Support | 10,015 | 10,453 | 11,447 | 10,908 | 9,997 | 7,511 |
Statement or EHC | 1,501 | 1,633 | 1,866 | 2,161 | 2,520 | 3,064 |
Total | 15,015 | 15,669 | 16,732 | 16,134 | 15,396 | 12,785 |
The complete breakdown by the number of children and young people placed in state place-funded alternative provision (AP) schools (i.e. pupil referral units, AP academies and AP free schools whose main registration is in an AP setting) each year since 2016 is included in the attached spreadsheet. This includes detail of placement by local authority, year group, and identification of special educational need.
This table has been produced using the ‘Special educational needs in England’ data publication, which is based on data collected in the spring school census in January each year. This can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/special-educational-needs-in-england.
The department does not currently collect data on pupil reintegration from AP to mainstream education.