Speeches

Jim Fitzpatrick – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Fitzpatrick on 2016-03-01.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many deaf children attended mainstream schools in England in each of the last 10 years; and how many such children were taught British Sign Language in each of those years.

Edward Timpson

The number of children with special educational needs (SEN) who have ‘hearing impairment’ listed as their primary need can be found in the annual statistical first release ‘Special Educational Needs in England’ on GOV.UK. Table 1, below, provides collated figures for the last ten years, for pupils attending state-funded primary and secondary schools. These figures include children in resourced provision or SEN units but not children in special schools. There will be children whose primary need is not ‘hearing impairment’ but who, nevertheless, have a hearing impairment. These children are not covered by this information.

From September 2014 the ’SEN support’ category replaced the ’school action’ and ‘school action plus’ categories. Those recoded, in 2015, as having ‘SEN support’ but who were formerly included in the ‘school action’ category will not previously have had a primary type of need recorded. This is likely to have contributed to the large increase – between 2014 and 2015 – in the numbers of children recorded as having a hearing impairment.

The Department does not collect statistics on the number of deaf children in mainstream schools who are being taught British Sign Language.

Table 1:

Year

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

State funded primary schools

6,390

6,570

6,650

6,860

7,230

7,370

7,510

7,610

7,915

9,275

State funded secondary schools

5,510

5,670

5,980

6,350

6,730

7,080

7,125

7,225

7,125

8,705

Total

11,900

12,240

12,630

13,210

13,960

14,450

14,635

14,835

15,040

17,980

The links to published data can be found here:

2015

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/special-educational-needs-in-england-january-2015

2014

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/special-educational-needs-in-england-january-2014

2013

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/special-educational-needs-in-england-january-2013

2012

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/special-educational-needs-in-england-january-2012

2011

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/special-educational-needs-in-england-january-2011

2010

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/special-educational-needs-in-england-january-2010

2009

http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20130401151655/http://www.education.gov.uk/researchandstatistics/statistics/allstatistics/a00196058/special-educational-needs

2008

http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20130401151655/http://www.education.gov.uk/researchandstatistics/statistics/allstatistics/a00195802/pupils-with-special-educational-needs

2007

http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20130401151655/http://www.education.gov.uk/researchandstatistics/statistics/allstatistics/a00195520/special-educational-needs-in-england-january-2007

2006

http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20130401151655/http://www.education.gov.uk/researchandstatistics/statistics/allstatistics/a00195201/special-educational-needs-in-england-january-2006