Budgeted expenditure on Special Educational Needs (SEN) and Additional Learning Needs (ALN) provision: April 2025 to March 2026
Information by school sector and local authority for April 2025 to March 2026.
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In this page
Introduction
This statistical release analyses the budgeted expenditure data supplied by Welsh Local Authorities in respect of Special Educational Needs/Additional Learning Needs (SEN/ALN) provision for the financial year prior to March 2026.
The term SEN/ALN refers to children who have learning difficulties or disabilities that make it harder for them to learn or access education than most children of the same age.
This report only deals with financial years, for example, April 2025 to March 2026. These will be displayed as 2025-26.
The data are provided on the revenue account (RA) and Section 52 Budget (S52B) returns submitted by all 22 county councils in Wales.
Detailed information over time and at a local authority and individual school level is published in the associated data tables (MS Excel) and on the StatsWales website (Education) and StatsWales website (Delegated school budgets).
Main points
Total expenditure on SEN/ALN provision in schools by local authorities is budgeted to be £668 million, an increase of £75.8 million or 12.8% compared with the previous year.
29% of the total budgeted SEN/ALN expenditure is delegated to special schools. Notional allocations within nursery, primary, middle and secondary schools account for a further 40% of the total. The remaining 31% is non-delegated money held centrally by local authorities.
Denbighshire delegate the largest proportion of their SEN/ALN budget to their schools at 84%, whilst Merthyr Tydfil delegate the smallest proportion at 49%.
Total SEN/ALN expenditure per pupil for Wales is budgeted to be £1,486. This consists of £1,028 delegated expenditure per pupil and £458 non-delegated expenditure per pupil.
Merthyr Tydfil has the largest SEN/ALN budget per pupil at £2,258, whilst Rhondda Cynon Taf has the smallest SEN/ALN budget per pupil at £1,086.
Figure 1: Proportion of SEN/ALN provision, 2025-26
Description of Figure 1: Bar chart showing the split between delegated and non-delegated SEN/ALN budgeted expenditure. In 2025-26, delegated expenditure is expected to make up 69% and non-delegated expenditure 31% of all budgeted expenditure on SEN/ALN.
Source: Welsh Government revenue account and section 52 returns.
More data on the school budgets be found in the associated data tables (MS Excel) and on the StatsWales website (Education) and StatsWales website (Delegated school budgets).
Figure 2: Budgeted expenditure on SEN/ALN provision 2003-04 to 2025-26
Description of Figure 2: Bar chart showing SEN/ALN budgeted expenditure increasing over time. It is expected to increase by 12.8% between 2024-25 and 2025-26.
Source: Welsh Government revenue account and section 52 returns.
More data on the school budgets be found in the associated data tables (MS Excel) and on the StatsWales website (Education) and StatsWales website (Delegated school budgets).
Figure 3: Budgeted expenditure per pupil on SEN/ALN provision by local authority, 2025-26
Description of Figure 3: Bar chart showing that Merthyr Tydfil has the largest SEN/ALN expenditure per pupil whilst Rhondda Cynon Taf has the smallest. The £ per pupil figures have been calculated using the number of pupils in each school sector, as opposed to those pupils with a statement of SEN/ALN.
Source: Welsh Government revenue account and section 52 returns.
More data on the school budgets be found in the associated data tables (MS Excel) and on the StatsWales website (Education) and StatsWales website (Delegated school budgets).
Glossary
The term Special Educational Needs/Additional Learning Needs (SEN/ALN) refers to children who have learning difficulties or disabilities that make it harder for them to learn or access education than most children of the same age.
Data sources
The main sources of information on school budgets in Wales are the revenue account (RA) and the section 52 budget (S52B) returns. Wales collect 100% of returns from all twenty-two county councils.
The numbers of pupils used for the calculations are based on full-time equivalent pupil numbers in nursery, primary, secondary and special schools, as shown in S52 Part 1 returns, i.e. the pupil numbers on which Local Authorities (LAs) based their budgets.
Outturn data on school expenditure over time can be found at on the StatsWales (education) website.
Background
There are several issues that should be considered when using these data.
For SEN/ALN provision, it is particularly important to be aware that there is variation in the criteria local authorities use to identify pupils with SEN/ALN. There are also differences in how local authorities provide educational services to these pupils. Some services can be funded through delegated budgets within nursery, primary, middle and secondary schools, or through delegated budgets within special schools that are recognised by the LA as being reserved for children with SEN/ALN. Other services may be supported by funds retained centrally by the LAs.
Allocations to nursery, primary, middle and secondary schools of funds for SEN/ALN forms part of the formula for distributing funds to schools for each LA. These are however notional and it is for each school to determine how much of its delegated budget to spend on SEN/ALN. Therefore, the actual spend by nursery, primary, middle and secondary schools on SEN/ALN may vary from these notional allocations.
In presenting a ‘per pupil’ comparison, the number of pupils in all schools have been used as opposed to those pupils with a statement of SEN/ALN. This is due to the fact that much SEN/ALN provision relates to pupils without a statement, particularly provision in non-special schools. The use of all pupils gives a fairer comparison of the relative differences between LAs, fully reflecting the different approaches taken by them in providing SEN/ALN services. By using all pupils, however, the data would suggest a lower SEN/ALN expenditure level per pupil than is actually the case.
The ‘schools budget’, as set out in schedule 2 of the 2003 Regulations, covers expenditure directly aimed at supporting schools and comprises expenditure on services for which the LA retains funding centrally. These services include special educational needs (SEN/ALN), provision of replacement/support staff and expenditure to support grants. The school budgets shown in tables 1 and 2 cover only special educational needs (SEN/ALN).
Delegated expenditure derives from funding that is allocated directly to the schools by each local authority. Non-delegated expenditure derives from funding held centrally by the local authority and spent on behalf of the schools.
The ‘LEA budget’, as set out in schedule 1 of the 2003 Regulations, covers central LA functions involved in special educational needs, school improvement, access to education, youth service, adult and continuing education. The LEA budgets shown in tables 1 and 2 cover only special educational needs and exclude home to school transport costs.
Additional learning needs (ALN) and special educational needs (SEN)
The Additional Learning Needs Code for Wales 2021 (the ALN Code) and regulations came into force on 1 September 2021 to ensure children and young people aged 0 to 25 can access additional support to meet their needs that is properly planned for and protected, with learners at the heart of the process.
Statements and plans such as individual education plans (IEPs) and learning and skills plans (LSPs) are being replaced with a new plan called an individual development plan (IDP). The terms and data on ‘Pupils with statements’, ‘School Action Plus’, and ‘School Action’ will no longer be used or collected when transition and implementation of the ALN system is complete.
Children are moving from the special educational needs (SEN) system to the additional learning needs (ALN) system in groups over four years, to ensure enough time for nurseries, schools, pupil referral units and local authorities to discuss the support needed and to prepare plans.
During transition children and young people are reported in one of four categories while the two systems run in parallel.
Individual Development Plans
Individual Development Plans (IDPs) are statutory plans created under the Additional Learning Needs and Education Tribunal (Wales) Act 2018, for learners determined to have additional learning needs. A learner may have either a school maintained IDP or a local authority maintained IDP.
Pupils with statements
Pupils where the authority maintains a statement of special educational needs under Part iv of the Education Act 1996. A statement may previously have been issued by the local authority after assessment of a child’s needs.
School Action Plus
When the class or subject teacher and the Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator were previously provided with advice or support from outside specialists, so that alternative interventions additional or different to those provided for the pupil through 'School Action' could be put in place. The Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator usually took the lead although day-to-day provision was the responsibility of class or subject teacher.
School Action
When a class or subject teacher previously identified that a pupil had special educational needs they provided interventions that were additional to or different from those provided as part of the school’s usual curriculum.
Quality and methodology information
Official statistics status
All official statistics should show the standards of the Code of Practice for Statistics (UK Statistics Authority).
These are accredited official statistics. They were independently reviewed by the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR) in March 2019. They comply with the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics.
It is Welsh Government’s responsibility to maintain compliance with the standards expected of accreditation. If we become concerned about whether these statistics are still meeting the appropriate standards, we will discuss any concerns with OSR promptly. Accreditation can be cancelled or suspended at any point when the highest standards are not maintained, and reinstated when standards are restored.
Accredited official statistics are called National Statistics in the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007.
Statement of compliance with the Code of Practice for Statistics
Our statistical practice is regulated by the OSR. OSR sets the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics that all producers of official statistics should adhere to.
All of our statistics are produced and published in accordance with a number of statements and protocols to enhance trustworthiness, quality and value. These are set out in the Welsh Government’s Statement of Compliance.
These accredited official statistics (OSR) demonstrate the standards expected around trustworthiness, quality and public value in the following ways.
You are welcome to contact us directly with any comments about how we meet these standards. Alternatively, you can contact OSR by emailing regulation@statistics.gov.uk or via the OSR website.
Trustworthiness
The main sources of information on schools budgets are the revenue account (RA) and section 52 budget (S52B) return.
We collect 100% of returns from all twenty-two county councils. The collection is a 100% survey and as such no estimation of the figures is calculated, and hence there is no sampling error.
The data collection is carried out in March and April. The data is normally published in June, this allows time to collect, collate and validate the data.
In tables where figures have been rounded to the nearest final digit there may be an apparent discrepancy between the sum of the constituent items and the total as shown.
The statistics that are collected adhere to recognised professional standards. Specifically, the finance data is required under legislation and also must adhere to CIPFA accounting procedures. However, further guidelines are also available on the interpretation of these standards to ensure consistency.
Adhering to the professional code (CIPFA’s SeRCOP) has meant that changes over time have been minimal. Where there have been time series which are not comparable from the start of the time series to the end this will be shown clearly in the outputs. Where advance warning is known of future changes these will be pre-announced in accordance with Welsh Government arrangements.
The existence of a professional code and our adherence to it provides assurance that the data are consistent across domains, such as local authorities.
The Welsh local government finance statistics are published in an accessible, orderly, pre-announced manner on the Welsh Government website at 9:30am on the day of publication. All releases are available to download for free.
All outputs adhere to the Code of Practice by pre-announcing the data of publication through the upcoming calendar web pages.
Access to the data during processing is restricted to those involved in the production of the statistics, quality assurance and for operational purposes.
Pre-release recipient information can be found on the Welsh Government website.
Quality
The published figures are compiled by professional analysts using the latest available data and applying methods using their professional judgement and analytical skillset.
Statistics published by Welsh Government adhere to the Statistical Quality Management Strategy which supplements the Quality pillar of the Code of Practice for Statistics and the European Statistical System principles of quality for statistical outputs.
When data is received through the returns, validation checks are performed by Welsh Government statisticians and queries referred to local authorities where necessary. The statistical release is then drafted and quality assured by senior statisticians and published in line with the Code of Practice for Statistics (UK Statistics Authority).
The data collection contains multiple validation checks at source to ensure the best quality data is provided. This includes year-on-year tolerance checks and arithmetic consistency checks.
Once we receive the data, it goes through further validation and verification checks, for example:
- spend per head by local authority
- extra arithmetic consistency checks
- cross checks with other relevant data collections
- thorough tolerance checks
- outturn comparison with budgets
- cross checks with data from other government departments
- verification that data outside of tolerances are correct
More detailed guidance on the steps taken to ensure quality can be found in the Local government finance statistics: quality report.
Value
The statistics are important and have a number of uses, for example: advice to Ministers; local government finance revenue settlement calculations; unitary authority comparisons and benchmarking; expenditure in Wales compared to other countries; informing the debate in the Senedd and beyond; assisting in research in public expenditure issues; economic analysis.
More detailed data are also available at the same time on the StatsWales website (Education) and StatsWales website (Delegated school budgets) and this can be manipulated online or downloaded into spreadsheets.
Data on school budgets are also available for England (gov.uk) and Scotland (Scottish Government).
We aim to use Plain English in our outputs and all outputs adhere to the Welsh Government accessibility policy.
Well-being of Future Generations Act (WFG)
The Well-being of Future Generations Act 2015 is about improving the social, economic, environmental and cultural wellbeing of Wales. The Act puts in place seven wellbeing goals for Wales. These are for a more equal, prosperous, resilient, healthier and globally responsible Wales, with cohesive communities and a vibrant culture and thriving Welsh language. Under section (10)(1) of the Act, the Welsh Ministers must (a) publish indicators (“national indicators”) that must be applied for the purpose of measuring progress towards the achievement of the wellbeing goals, and (b) lay a copy of the national indicators before Senedd Cymru. Under section 10(8) of the Well-being of Future Generations Act, where the Welsh Ministers revise the national indicators, they must as soon as reasonably practicable (a) publish the indicators as revised and (b) lay a copy of them before the Senedd. These national indicators were laid before the Senedd in 2021. The indicators laid on 14 December 2021 replace the set laid on 16 March 2016.
Information on the indicators, along with narratives for each of the wellbeing goals and associated technical information is available in the Wellbeing of Wales report.
Further information on the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015.
The statistics included in this release could also provide supporting narrative to the national indicators and be used by public services boards in relation to their local wellbeing assessments and local wellbeing plans.
Further details
A full detailed breakdown over time of the data contained in this release is available on our StatsWales website (Education) and StatsWales website (Delegated school budgets).
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