Last updated: 26 Jan 2011

Please note that there are discrepancies between some of these tables, as some area cross calender years, some academic years and some decisions run from one year to the next.

Pattern of application for statements in Kent: 2005/6-2009/10

	2005/6	2006/7	2007/8	2008/9	2009/10
Requests for a statutory assessment of SEN	1029	1017	10910	1131	1097
Statutory assessments carried out	564	649	721	763	739
New Statements of SEN issued	493	613	646	784	744
% of primary School pupils with statement	1.25	1.15	1.09	1.11	1.12
% of secondary school pupils with statement	2.17	2.00	1.82	1.74	1.62

Pattern of application for statements in Medway: 2006/7-2010/11

	2006/7	2007/8	2008/9	2009/10	2010/11
Requests for a statutory assessment of SEN	265	197	240	252	212
Statutory assessments carried out	176	171	161	177	127
New Statements of SEN issued	158	187	193	180	124
% of primary School pupils with statement	Information not available
% of secondary school pupils with statement	Information not available

 

 

 

 

Children with Statements of SEN in Kent and Medway, based on where child attends school

	2008			2009			2010
	Total Pupils	Pupils with Statements	%	Total Pupils	Pupils with Statements	%	Total Pupils	Pupils with Statements	%
ENGLAND	8,102,190	223,610	2.8	8,071,000	221,670	2.7	8,064,399	220,890	2.7
SOUTH EAST	1,303,490	36,900	2.8	1,301,520	36,870	2.8	1,300,700	37,140	2.9
KENT	232,967	6,544	2.8	231,582	6,556	2.8	230,571	6,492	2.8
MEDWAY	44,196	1,301	2.9	43,886	1,292	2.9	43,262	1,331	3.1

 

Assessments & Statements during Calendar Year 2009 (Government data)

	Total children assessed for SEN during 2009	Children assessed for whom no statement was issued		Children with new statements
	Number	Number	%	Number	%
England	27550	1060	3.8	26490	96.2
South East	4590	180	3.8	4410	96.2
Kent	750	20	2.7	730	97.3
Medway	220	30	13.5	190	86.5

% of children with new statements in 2009 in each type of provision
	SEN Units	Mainstream	Maintained Special Schools	Independent Schools	Hospital Schools & Pupil Referral Units
England	3.0	66.7	21.3	3.1	1.4
South East	4.1	62.7	23.4	3.1	1.1
Kent	8.0	54.4	27.5	3.4	0.8
Medway	8.3	49.5	8.3	6.8	10.9

 

In the above tables, Kent appears to have a higher proportion of children in Special provision than the norm, reflecting its commitment to such provision. Medway appears to have a lower proportion than the norm who successfully follow an assessment through to a statement, it appears to identify potential children for statements much earlier than the norm, and has a very high proportion in hospital Schools (unlikely) or Pupil Referral Units for children who are likely to have been permanently excluded from mainstream education, raising concerns about its support for such children. 

Tribunals

The average time in 2008-9 between Registration of an Appeal to Tribunal and a decision being made was 6.4 months.

There was a total of 2925 appeals concluded in 2009-10. Of these, 940 were conceded by Local Authorities without a hearing. A decision was reached on 661 (postive or negative), 11 were struck out before a hearing as inappropriate, and 1313 were withdrawn. For Kent, out of 139 appeals, 58 were conceded, 52 withdrawn, 0 were struck out, 23 were decided, and 6 were left pending to the next year.

 

Types of Appeal 2009-10	National		Kent		Medway
	Number	% of total	Number	% of Total	Number	% of total
Against refusal to assess	1159	35	62	45	24	45
Against refusal to make a statement	216	7	8	6	6	11
Against refusal to re-assess	430	1	0	0	0	0
Against refusal to change name of school	14	0	0	0	0	0
Against decision to cease to maintain statement	57	2	0	0	0	0
Against school named in statement	0	0	0	0	4	8
Against failure to name a school	1	0	0	0	0	0
Against contents of the statement - parts 2 & or 3 (sometimes with 4)	1400	43	54	39	19	36
Against contents of the statement - part 4	390	12	15	11	0	0
Total Appeals Registered	3280		139		53

Where decisions were reached by Tribunals in 2009-10, these were as follows.

Outcome	Number of Decisions
	National	Kent	Medway
Dismiss Appeal	76		7
Order LA to make and Maintain a Statement	26		2
Remit Case to LA to Consider	1		0
Order LA to continue to Maintain a Statement	14		0
Order LA to cease to maintain a Statement	1		0
Order LA to name parent's preferred school	0		0
Order LA to make a reassessment	67		0
Order LA to change School  named	5		0
Uphold Part of Complaint	135		1
Upheld Parts 2,3 & 4	304		0
Upheld Part 4	46		0
Appeal Struck Out	11		0
Total	688		10

Source: Annual Report of Tribunal 2009-10. There are slight discrepancies in some of the tables, as decision taking often overlaps a year end.

For 2009-10, 141 Appeals to Tribunal were registered by Kent parents, the second highest number for any Local Authority in the country (the highest was Surrey with 147). I should be able to publish data on the outcomes of Kent and Medway appeals to Tribunal, by the end of January.