(England) "Substantial [SPED] increase every year for past decade"; 20.8% of students have SPED needs

Oct 14, 2026, Educational needs are a higher education issue – Wonkhe

As the schools system tries to get to grips with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) support, it turns out the higher education sector might have a lot to say. David Kernohan tracks learning needs into higher education

Higher education in England currently sits between three departments – none of which is primarily or even tangibly interested in higher education.

All three are looped into the devolution of skills provision and growth that has always characterised the Burnham-led administration. Beyond this, the new Department for Business, Innovation, Science, and Trade is mostly concerned with driving economic growth more widely, while the Department of Work and Pensions has hands full reconfiguring (again) the UK’s social security system. And the major policy focus of the Department for Education is currently on special educational needs and disability (SEND) provision in schools.

The sector clearly has the ability to influence the debate in each of these three areas – but it needs to do so in ways that ensure it has the resources it needs to deliver on national priorities that sit a long way outside the historic purposes: providing higher learning for traditionally academic young people, and conducting high quality research.

Of the three departmental areas of concern, the SEND debate in schools feels most remote from sector concerns. Historically, the perception has been that pupils on the SEND pathway have tended not to progress into higher education – and even those that do are then separated from the plans and approaches that supported them in compulsory education. An education, health, and care plan (EHCP) does not follow an applicant from school to university (though it persists until the age of 25 for those taking other post-compulsory routes).

But universities are already dealing with the impact of a growth in both prevalence and reporting of learning disabilities and mental health problems. Dealing with these growing demands is a big part of what higher education – in the absence of much meaningful NHS action on youth mental health – has been doing over the past decade.

The scope of SEND

As of 2026, more than 1.8 million pupils in England have the special educational needs marker – representing a year-on-year increase of 91,400, and there has been a substantial increase every year for the past decade. This 1.8 million represents some 20.8 per cent of the school population: 6 per cent of all pupils have a personalised EHCP, and a further 14.8 per cent have some level of additional SEN support without an EHCP.

Support like this encompasses a range of identified needs, not all of which will be accompanied by a medical diagnosis. Both SEND provision and EHCPs are officially provided according to need – which may include classroom observations, measures of actual against expected academic performance, or insights from a range of professionals who may work with a child. .

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SEND in higher education admissions

You’ll recall that around 20 per cent of school-aged children currently have some kind of SEND support need: you may be surprised to learn that around 20 per cent of university entrants made a disability or mental health declaration when applying to start university in 2025 (ten years ago it was around ten per cent). While there is not a direct read-across between formal SEND or EHCP status at school and making what is a personal declaration as part of the higher education application process, it is fair to assume that similar proportions of students will have some kind of a support need in each setting. . . .

It may also surprise you that the proportions of applicants with a SEND marker and the proportions of accepted applicants with a SEND marker are very similar (both a little over 20 per cent), and were similar even a decade ago. Declaring a disability does not appear,at a very broad level, to affect your chances of being accepted into higher education at all. . . .

The recent Fonagy report into ADHD and autism in society (two groups of diagnoses linked directly to educational needs) argues for a shift from a “diagnosis-dependent” to a “needs-led plus diagnosis approach” – a focus on responding to needs as they present themselves even before diagnosis is made: to prevent avoidable distress and impairment where possible, and allow people to “participate” in education, work, communities, family life, and relationships. It calls for enhanced public information about mental health conditions, focused on prevention (in particular via long-term investment in youth, community, and voluntary organisation).

The finding that made the headlines is that sceptics are wrong to cast doubt on the struggles faced by young people. While overdiagnosis and misdiagnosis are always risks, and while diagnosis will improve with time, an absence of a diagnosis does not mean an absence of a problem. And systemic interventions are often more effective than over-stretched attempts to provide bespoke support. .

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