Children with special needs or disabilities (FOI)

​Request 699446560

​I have this from 2019 but want it updated: 

A: How many children and young people under 25, have a diagnosed special need or disability?

B: How many currently access primary & secondary schools including specialist provisions?

C: What level of support do primary & secondary aged children currently receive? 

​D: In terms of budget how much money is currently allocated to support children and young people with special needs (0 to 25 years) in health, education, social security and short breaks / respite?

Response

A: CYPES do not collate data on children and young people with a diagnosed special need or disability. Article 3 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) 2011 Law applies. Data is collated for children and young people who have a Special Educational Need or disability (SEND). The Education (Jersey) Law 1999 describes a Special Education Need as:

4        Special educational needs etc.

(1)     For the purposes of this Law, a child has “special educational needs” if the child has a learning difficulty which calls for special educational provision to be made for the child.

B. A total of 2,095 pupils attending Government of Jersey schools are recorded within the SEND Register, the table below represents the number of pupils on the SEND Register in this academic year broken down by category. This data has been taken from the Spring term census:

The Department has determined that to disclose small numbers fewer than 5 would likely breach the privacy of individuals therefore disclosure control has been applied under Article 25 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) 2011 Law.

C. There are currently three levels of provision within Jersey schools:

Universal Provision / Inclusive teaching

Highly Inclusive teaching is the foundation for all other provision or support in settings and comprises adaptive teaching that is made available to all. Through early identification and adaptation, more children and young people can achieve positive outcomes in mainstream settings. 

Targeted Provision / SEND Support Level

Targeted provision is the provision planned where a child or young person is identified as having SEND. 

Settings should take action to remove barriers to learning and put effective provision in place. 

SEND support should take the form of a four-part cycle, assess, plan, do, review (APDR) through which earlier decisions and actions are revisited, refined, and revised with a growing understanding of the child/young person’s needs and of what supports them in securing good outcomes. This is known as the graduated approach. It draws on more detailed approaches, frequent reviews and specialist expertise in successive cycles to match interventions and arrangements to the SEND of the child/young person in a more tightly structured way.

Specialist provision 

Specialist provision is the provision planned for a child/young person with SEND that are over and above what is considered Ordinarily Available (OA) provision (universal and targeted provision) in mainstream settings. 

Where, despite the setting having taken relevant and purposeful action to identify, assess and meet the SEND of the child/young person, they are not consistently achieving planned outcomes, the setting or parents/carers should consider a request for an Exceptional Action Assessment to identify whether arrangements at a specialist level are required. 

Specialist provision is defined in a Record of Need (RoN). Children and young people in receipt of specialist provision will have specific arrangements detailed in their Record of Need. 

Specialist provision does not need to be delivered in a specialist setting. Many children and young people access specialist provision in their mainstream setting.

D. A total of £35,116,920 is allocated by CYPES to Education budgets supporting pupils with Special Educational Needs within Government of Jersey schools, this includes specialist provisions.

A total of £2,526,500 is allocated by CYPES for short breaks and respite.

These totals present the current budget position as of March 31, 2025, and include staff and non-staff costs.

Articles applied

Article 3 - Meaning of “information held by a public authority”

For the purposes of this Law, information is held by a public authority if –

(a)     it is held by the authority, otherwise than on behalf of another person; or

(b)     it is held by another person on behalf of the authority.

Article 25 - Personal information

(1) Information is absolutely exempt information if it constitutes personal data of which the applicant is the data subject as defined in the Data Protection (Jersey) Law 2018.

(2) Information is absolutely exempt information if –

(a) it constitutes personal data of which the applicant is not the data subject as defined in the Data Protection (Jersey) Law 2018; and

(b) its supply to a member of the public would contravene any of the data protection principles, as defined in that Law.​