'Growing demand' for SEND support, council says

A council is set to discuss how it supports children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) amid a "growing demand".

The meeting by City of Wolverhampton Council's Children and Young People panel on Wednesday will also look at how it is preparing for national reforms, such as the introduction of individual support plans (ISPs).

According to a council report published ahead of the meeting, there are 7,784 children in the city receiving SEND support, amounting to 14.8% of children, which is above the national average of 14.2%.

This cohort has increased by 16.3% between August 2019 and August 2025.

Significantly, the total number of children with an education, health and care plan (EHCPs) in the city has increased by 74% since 2019, with 3,303 plans in 2025.

EHCPs are legal documents that identify a pupil's needs and set out what support they should receive, with local authorities responsible for ensuring EHCPs are followed.

The council report claimed that males in the city were twice as likely as females to have an EHCP, while white children were over-represented in EHCPs and south Asian children were under-represented.

Furthermore, the report found that prevalence of EHCPs was higher in more deprived wards in the city, such as Bushbury South, Low Hill, and East Park.

Autism spectrum disorder has risen by 73.5% since 2020, with the report saying the wait for an autism assessment in over fives remained "extremely long".

The officials behind the document do not go into the potential reasons behind this large rise but it comes amid a huge increase in the number of children diagnosed as autistic in many countries.

Scientists have suggested these enormous increases could be down to changes in the definition of autism and more awareness of the condition.

Also in the Wolverhampton report, there has been a significant increase in children and young people with speech, language and communication needs in the city over the same period, with approximately 905 children waiting for speech and language therapy.

The report also found that the number of permanent exclusions for children and young people in the city had reduced since 2021-22, with Wolverhampton improving from being the eighth highest excluding authority nationally to 104th of 152 in 2024-25.

One of the purposes of the report is to update the council's Children and Young People Scrutiny Panel on the current SEND support delivery model in Wolverhampton and guide the local authority's response to the national SEND reforms.

The council's report stated that the national reform would aim to address a "broken" system characterised by unsustainable costs, long delays and poor outcomes for children.

However, it added that the city's partnership was "taking a proactive approach and is not simply waiting for the national reform".

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