Skip to content
Facts CountEdition: PortsmouthChange place
or browse all wards

Find your area

Schools and SEND · What matters

Schools, SEND and attendance

Children with special educational needs wait too long for education, health and care plans, and too many pupils miss large amounts of school.

Raised by: Council plans

The issue in five minutes

The problem
New education and care plans issued within 20 weeks: 42.9% (2025). Affects: Children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities, their families, and pupils who are persistently or severely absent.
3 related measures
  • 2,616 plans Children and young people with education and care plans (January 2026)
  • 3.5% Pupils missing at least half their sessions (2024/25)
  • 70.6% Children with a good level of development at the end of Reception (2025/26; 1.7 percentage points lower than England (72.3%))

Different measures, sources and periods: shown together, not ranked against each other.

Who says so
Department for Education.
What’s being done
  • Local SEND Reform PlanDeliver the Local SEND Reform Plan, centred on the Inclusion Hub and Experts at Hand early-support offer, which tracks demand for education, health and care needs assessments alongside attendance and exclusions.Lead Portsmouth SEND and alternative provision partnership Approved · evidence 29 October 2026
    Funded by
    • Funded by Local area partnership (funding sources not named in the plan) £1,405,900 · Projected spend in the first-year plan, over three quarters of 2026/27, including £69,000 for educational psychologist time in Experts at Hand
  • Open the St George’s Inclusion Centre with 18 places from September 2026, funded from the Dedicated Schools Grant.Lead Portsmouth City Council Funded · evidence 7 October 2026
    Funded by
    • Funded by Department for Education (Dedicated Schools Grant) Amount not stated · Revenue, from the Dedicated Schools Grant
Show the other 1
  • SENDAP Strategy 2024-2029Improve outcomes for children and young people aged 0 to 25 with special educational needs and disabilities through the SENDAP Strategy 2024-2029, and publish a refreshed local area SEND strategy.Lead Portsmouth City Council Not verified · evidence 28 October 2026

All 4 official commitments on this issue → · funding and delivery in the tracker →

What is still missing
5 items not yet published or reported

Not yet published for the work above:

  • No outcome rule for education, health and care plans issued within 20 weeks: the published series swings from 90% (2022) to 1.6% (2023), so a threshold from its own year-to-year changes would hide real movement
  • Early help waiting times (Freedom of Information request)
  • Whether the St George’s inclusion centre opened in September 2026 as budgeted
  • How education, health and care plans are tracked: no published decision or costing for a family-facing case-management portal was found, and an internal audit of plan reporting in the council’s Synergy system could not be read
  • School and SEND place contributions secured through planning agreements for the major housing schemes (none verified in the records read on 10 November 2026; the council's 2024/25 infrastructure statement records no school places agreed through obligations that year, and says nothing about earlier or unsigned agreements)
Facts Count suggestion
Proposed by Facts Count Publish a costed plan for children needing extra support. Not costed. A suggestion, shown after the official response.
How we’ll know
Pupils missing at least half of their school sessions, compared over 3 years.

1 · The issue

What the evidence says

Who is affected: Children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities, their families, and pupils who are persistently or severely absent.

  • Pressure Children need support before absence deepens. In 2024/25, 3.55% of pupils missed at least half their school sessions; 42.9% of new education and care plans were on time in 2025. These are different populations and years. They show two service pressures, not proof that delayed plans caused every absence. In context →

2 · The evidence

The figures

42.9%

New education and care plans issued within 20 weeks City 2025 Department for Education ↗ · retrieved 3 Oct 2026

Getting worse

How change is judged

Pupils missing at least half of their school sessions: up 1.2 percentage points between 2021/22 and 2024/25.

Rule: Standard deviation of the 17 changes between consecutive published years, 2006/07 to 2024/25 (0.24 percentage points, rounded to 0.24). The 2018/19 to 2020/21 step spans the year DfE did not publish (2019/20), and 2020/21 and 2021/22 were pandemic-affected. This rule covers attendance only: the share of new education, health and care plans issued within 20 weeks has no outcome rule because it fell from 90% to 1.6% between 2022 and 2023, which makes a noise threshold meaningless. Compare the latest year with the same measure three years earlier.

More trends for this issue (3)

Children with a good level of development at the end of Reception

2021/22 to 2025/26

Portsmouth · %

Reviewed figures: 2021/22 to 2025/26.

Shown on this chart: From 2021/22 to 2025/26, children with a good level of development at the end of Reception rose by 8.6 percentage points in Portsmouth and rose by 7.1 percentage points in England.

Both places compared over 2021/22 to 2025/26, using matching published dates.

Compared areas: Portsmouth; England.

Actual values

PortsmouthEngland

Each line joins consecutive published observations for that place. Missing dates remain gaps.

Source: Department for Education ↗ · retrieved 11 Nov 2026

This is a teacher assessment, not a test.

Pupils eligible for free school meals

2015/16 to 2025/26

Portsmouth · %

Reviewed figures: 2015/16 to 2025/26.

Shown on this chart: From 2015/16 to 2025/26, pupils eligible for free school meals rose by 18.5 percentage points in Portsmouth and rose by 12.2 percentage points in England.

Both places compared over 2015/16 to 2025/26, using matching published dates.

Compared areas: Portsmouth; England.

Actual values

PortsmouthEngland

Each line joins consecutive published observations for that place. Missing dates remain gaps.

Source: Department for Education ↗ · retrieved 11 Nov 2026

Since April 2018, pupils who become eligible keep eligibility while Universal Credit is rolled out, even if family income rises. DfE says this protection is the main reason the share keeps rising, so the rise is not only a rise in poverty.

Pupils missing at least half of their school sessions

2006/07 to 2024/25

Portsmouth · %

Reviewed figures: 2006/07 to 2024/25.

Shown on this chart: From 2006/07 to 2024/25, pupils missing at least half of their school sessions rose by 2.2 percentage points in Portsmouth and rose by 1.4 percentage points in England.

Both places compared over 2006/07 to 2024/25, using matching published dates.

Compared areas: Portsmouth; England.

Actual values

PortsmouthEngland

Each line joins consecutive published observations for that place. Missing dates remain gaps.

Source: Department for Education ↗ · retrieved 11 Nov 2026

No full-year figures were published for 2019/20. Any change that spans that year is across a gap in the series, not a one-year change.

Related measures

  • 2,616 plans Children and young people with education and care plans City January 2026 · How many children and young people have a plan.
  • 3.5% Pupils missing at least half their sessions City 2024/25 · Pupils missing at least half of their school sessions.
  • 70.6% Children with a good level of development at the end of Reception City 2025/26 · 1.7 percentage points lower than England (72.3%) · Readiness for school at the end of Reception.
Show the other 2 measures
  • 37.2% Pupils eligible for free school meals City 2025/26 · 11 percentage points higher than England (26.5%), calculated from unrounded figures · Pupils from low-income families, who are more likely to need extra support.
  • 3.6% Pupils missing at least half of their school sessions City 2024/25 · 1.2 percentage points higher than England (2.4%) · Pupils missing at least half of their school sessions, full-year series from 2006/07 (no figure for 2019/20).

All the Portsmouth figures for this issue

UK FactsUK Facts · Deep diveSpecial educational needs across the UKThe national picture ↗
Latest national releases (1)

Children, Families and Youth Grant · 2026/27

Children, Families and Youth Grant 2026-27£4,884,963
… of which Family First Partnership programme ringfence 2026-27£3,813,458
… of which holiday activities and food ringfence 2026-27£1,005,350

Holiday activities and food, expected split:

… of which expected HAF programme and admin spend£952,530
… of which expected LA capacity spend£52,820
Source and limits
  • Allocations, not spending.
  • The holiday activities and food (HAF) ringfence now includes money for council capacity on school-age childcare, so it is not directly comparable with earlier HAF grants.
  • Matched to the council by name.

Children, Families and Youth Grant Determination 2026 to 2027 ↗ · Holiday activities and food and local authority capacity support: 2026 financial year allocations ↗; retrieved 2026-11-10. Data (JSON)

3 · What residents say

Residents’ evidence

0 surveys

Not yet known: No published survey of Portsmouth residents asks about this issue directly. General concern about an issue does not show support for any particular proposal.

All residents’ survey results →

4 · Who is acting

Official commitments and projects

4 official commitments · 2 with dated evidence

Formal commitments by public bodies, with their original decision. Stages without dated evidence are hatched, never filled.

Committed by Portsmouth City Council Not verified

SENDAP Strategy 2024-2029

Improve outcomes for children and young people aged 0 to 25 with special educational needs and disabilities through the SENDAP Strategy 2024-2029, and publish a refreshed local area SEND strategy.

ApprovedFundedUnder wayCompleted

No dated evidence of progress has been found; stages are shown hatched.

Who pays, key dates and what is missing

Funded by: not stated in the record.

Made 2024 · Portsmouth SEND and alternative provision strategy (web page) ↗

2 dated records
  1. 22 July 2026 milestone Department for Education: Portsmouth’s 2026/27 high-needs block is £32,737,303 after deductions for directly funded places (provisional until March 2027). source ↗
  2. 28 October 2026 milestone Council advertised a permanent educational psychologist post (closing 26 November 2026), including statutory assessment work. It also offers University of Southampton doctoral placements and says it wants to recruit two assistant psychologists. source ↗

Committed by Portsmouth City Council Not verified

Corporate Plan 2024-2026

Improve support for children with special educational needs and their families, including the timeliness of education, health and care plans.

ApprovedFundedUnder wayCompleted

No dated evidence of progress has been found; stages are shown hatched.

Who pays, key dates and what is missing

Funded by: not stated in the record.

Made October 2024 · due 2026 · Corporate Plan 2024-2026 (Council Plan 2024) ↗

2 dated records
  1. 4 December 2023 milestone In an upheld complaint, the council told the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman it had added two SEN caseworkers and two SEN advisers, filled its SEN team vacancies, used agency staff and contracted 240 needs assessments over six months. The Ombudsman did not judge how well the plan worked. source ↗
  2. 11 June 2025 milestone Council advertised a permanent SEN caseworker post. The advert does not say whether it was a new or replacement post. source ↗

Committed by Portsmouth City Council Funded

Open the St George’s Inclusion Centre with 18 places from September 2026, funded from the Dedicated Schools Grant.

ApprovedFundedUnder wayCompleted

Status evidence, 7 October 2026: Dedicated Schools Grant 2026-27 Quarter 1 Budget Monitoring and Revised Budget (report to Schools Forum) ↗

Who pays, key dates and what is missing
Funded by
  • Funded by Department for Education (Dedicated Schools Grant) Amount not stated · Revenue, from the Dedicated Schools Grant

Made 7 October 2026 · due September 2026 · Dedicated Schools Grant 2026-27 Quarter 1 Budget Monitoring and Revised Budget (report to Schools Forum) ↗

Show the other 1 official commitments

Committed by Portsmouth SEND and alternative provision partnership Approved

Local SEND Reform Plan

Deliver the Local SEND Reform Plan, centred on the Inclusion Hub and Experts at Hand early-support offer, which tracks demand for education, health and care needs assessments alongside attendance and exclusions.

ApprovedFundedUnder wayCompleted

Status evidence, 29 October 2026: Written statement HCWS431: Local SEND Reform Plan outcomes ↗

Who pays, key dates and what is missing
Funded by
  • Funded by Local area partnership (funding sources not named in the plan) £1,405,900 · Projected spend in the first-year plan, over three quarters of 2026/27, including £69,000 for educational psychologist time in Experts at Hand

Made 18 June 2026 · The Local SEND Reform Plan – Final 2026 ↗

Every action on this issue, including other organisations and political proposals, in the explorer →

Projects by other organisations

In the city · otherUnder way

Holiday Activities and Food: Fun Pompey

Free holiday activities and meals in the Easter, summer and Christmas holidays, mainly for school-age children on benefits-related free school meals. From 2026/27 the grant also funds the council’s planning for school-age childcare.

Whose project
Run by Portsmouth City Council
Stage
In 2025: 23,605 places offered and 89% attendance across funded spaces (spring 93%, summer 97%, winter 79%). Unique children reached: 2,553 in spring, 5,621 in summer (1,543 with SEND) and 1,273 in winter; these should not be added together. Feeding Britain’s £7,200 funded 600 summer and 120 October places for children outside HAF eligibility. (1 June 2026, HAF Fun Pompey Annual Report 2025 ↗)
Where, funding and what would show it worked
Where
Venues across the city · Portsmouth children; venues across the city.
Funding
  • Funded by Department for Education Grant: £1.01m · 2026/27 HAF ringfence: £952,530 programme and administration, £52,820 council capacity for school-age childcare. Not directly comparable with 2025/26, whose scope was narrower source ↗
  • Funded by Department for Education Grant: £971,550 · 2025/26 HAF grant (earlier scope) source ↗
  • Funded by Feeding Britain Grant: £7,200 · 2025: £6,000 for 600 summer places and £1,200 for 120 October half-term places, for children outside HAF eligibility source ↗
What would show it worked
Output: Places offered and attended; unique children by season. Outcome: Whether venues, hours and SEND support meet working families’ childcare needs (not yet measured).
Next check
2026 annual report; the national settlement runs to 2028/29.
1 earlier value
  • 8 May 2026: HAF grant was “£971,550 (2025/26)”, now “£1,005,350 (2026/27, now including childcare capacity)” (source)
In the city · otherFunded

Families First Partnership (family help reform)

Government-funded reform of early help and children’s social care into joined-up family help.

Whose project
Run by Portsmouth City Council
Stage
2026/27 ringfence within the Children, Families and Youth Grant. (8 May 2026, Children, Families and Youth Grant Determination 2026 to 2027 ↗)
Where, funding and what would show it worked
Where
City-wide · Portsmouth families.
Funding
  • Funded by Department for Education Grant: £3.81m · 2026/27 ringfence within the £4,884,963 Children, Families and Youth Grant source ↗
What would show it worked
Outcome: Children in need and re-referrals (not yet linked).
Next check
How the council reports family help delivery.
In the city · educationUnder way

Supported internships for young people with SEND

Year-long work placements with job coaching for young people with special educational needs, run by the college with the council and Minsted Trust, and by the council directly.

Whose project
Run by Portsmouth City Council with City of Portsmouth College, Minsted Trust
Stage
College programme: ages 16 to 24, one year, next start 6 September 2027. Council programme: ages 18 to 24 with an EHCP or SEND, September to April. The two pages describe the offer differently. (10 November 2026, Supported internship programme ↗)
Where, funding and what would show it worked
Where
Workplaces across the city · Council programme for residents of PO1 to PO6.
Funding
No funding published.
What would show it worked
Output: Interns placed and completing. Outcome: Interns entering paid work.
Next check
Placements, completions and job outcomes, without counting a learner on both schemes twice.
5 · What could change

Proposals

5 proposals

Facts Count proposals are suggestions, labelled as ours. Stages are a suggested sequence, not deadlines.

Proposed by Facts Count

Publish a costed plan for children needing extra support

Set out, with costs, how Portsmouth could cut waits for assessments, give earlier speech, language and mental-health help, and plan local specialist places, now that the special-needs reserve is forecast to run out during 2026/27.

EstimateAllocatedSpentUnknown

Proposed lead: Portsmouth City Council (children, families and education, with the finance director), as a proposal, working through the existing SEND and alternative provision partnership board

First step: A councillor or Schools Forum member could ask for a paper reconciling the grant reserve history and the high needs shortfall to be added to a future Schools Forum agenda.

Issue: Schools, SEND and attendance

Proposed by Facts Count

Sustained small-group help in reading, writing and maths for pupils falling behind

Help Portsmouth primary schools offer regular small-group teaching in reading, writing and maths, kept going for several years, to pupils assessed as falling behind, so fewer disadvantaged children leave primary school below the expected standard.

EstimateAllocatedSpentUnknown

Proposed lead: Portsmouth Education Partnership, with schools and academy trusts deciding whether to take part (a proposal, not an agreed role)

First step: The Portsmouth Education Partnership's literacy and maths groups could add a short survey of current small-group provision to their existing work.

Issue: Schools, SEND and attendance

Show the other 3 proposals

Proposed by Facts Count

Show what schools, health, road and parking support each major housing scheme has secured and delivered

For each major housing scheme, publish what school, SEND, GP, transport and parking contributions or works are required, paid, allocated and delivered, using planning agreements and the Community Infrastructure Levy records.

EstimateAllocatedSpentUnknown

Proposed lead: Portsmouth City Council planning, education, transport and highways teams, with NHS Hampshire and Isle of Wight Integrated Care Board, as a proposal

First step: Anyone could start by recording, for each of the eight schemes in the developments research, what the council’s planning papers and agreement summaries say about schools, SEND, GP and parking, and flag where nothing is found.

Issue: Homes and homelessness, Schools, SEND and attendance, Health and access to care

Proposed by Facts Count

A shared SEND hub: one secure record families can follow

Give families, schools and the council one secure place to follow an Education, Health and Care needs assessment, plan and annual review: what has been requested, who must act, what support has been agreed and when the next decision is due.

EstimateAllocatedSpentUnknown

Proposed lead: Portsmouth City Council Director of Children's Services (suggested; not agreed), with the SEND service accountable, the council digital and information-governance teams implementing, and schools, parent-carer representatives, young people and health professionals co-designing

First step: Ask the council to commission a short fit-gap and business-case exercise, and first to check what its existing system and any current delivery commitment already cover, so that Facts Count additions are not mistaken for official programme work.

Issue: Schools, SEND and attendance

Proposed by Facts Count

An EBSA support hub: a named worker, tuition and SEMH support

Offer children struggling to attend because of emotional distress a named worker, suitable tuition and social, emotional and mental health support, working with the child, family and school on a safe education plan, including adjustments or another suitable setting where needed.

EstimateAllocatedSpentUnknown

Proposed lead: Portsmouth City Council education inclusion and attendance service (suggested; not agreed), with schools, educational psychology, the SEND service, health partners and families; commissioning and provider roles are still to be agreed

First step: Ask the council to publish what it already provides for children unable to attend because of emotional distress, with anonymised numbers, so the pilot can be sized and so existing services are not duplicated.

Issue: Schools, SEND and attendance

6 · How we’ll know

What would show progress

Getting worse
  • Outcome: Pupils missing at least half of their school sessions, latest against 3 years earlier; changes smaller than 0.24 are treated as no clear change. Now: getting worse.
  • Publish a costed plan for children needing extra support: New EHC plans issued within 20 weeks; Severe absence; Waiting time from referral to therapy or mental-health assessment; Family experience of the assessment and support process; Dedicated Schools Grant balance.
  • Sustained small-group help in reading, writing and maths for pupils falling behind: Disadvantaged pupils meeting the expected standard in reading, writing and maths at key stage 2; All pupils meeting the expected standard in reading, writing and maths at key stage 2; Progress of pupils receiving small-group help; Take-up and session attendance.
  • Show what schools, health, road and parking support each major housing scheme has secured and delivered: Schemes with verified school, SEND and GP obligations; Promised, paid, allocated and delivered by scheme and service; Housing Delivery Test result; Registered patients per GP practice; Motor traffic on the city’s roads.
  • A shared SEND hub: one secure record families can follow: Assessment decisions and plans within deadlines; overdue advice; overdue annual-review decisions; completeness of provision records; family understanding of case status; staff time; complaint resolution.
  • An EBSA support hub: a named worker, tuition and SEMH support: Time to first support; education offered and received; wellbeing; family experience; learning progress; sustained engagement; transitions; repeat referrals; cost per child. Returning to school is reported separately.

What is not yet known

  • No outcome rule for education, health and care plans issued within 20 weeks: the published series swings from 90% (2022) to 1.6% (2023), so a threshold from its own year-to-year changes would hide real movement (another source needed)
  • Early help waiting times (requested under Freedom of Information)
  • Whether the St George’s inclusion centre opened in September 2026 as budgeted (not published)
  • How education, health and care plans are tracked: no published decision or costing for a family-facing case-management portal was found, and an internal audit of plan reporting in the council’s Synergy system could not be read (not published)
  • School and SEND place contributions secured through planning agreements for the major housing schemes (none verified in the records read on 10 November 2026; the council's 2024/25 infrastructure statement records no school places agreed through obligations that year, and says nothing about earlier or unsigned agreements) (another source needed)

Cost of living is featured by editorial choice. Other issues follow the order respondents gave the council in its 2025 budget consultation, a survey people chose to take part in; it describes respondents, not all residents.