ent expectations that appropriate support for their child’s educational needs would only come with a statutory EHCP. The number of children and young people with EHCPs rose 140% between 2014–15 (when this included statements of educational needs and EHCPs that were replacing them) and 2023–24 (DfE, 2024d). RIIA benchmarking data show requests for SEND assessments since 2022 have fluctuated, with an overall upward trend (Figure 6). However, looking at the national trend can mask starker changes in individual local authorities. In one, requests for EHCP assessments went up by 40% year on year and, at the time of responding to the SP9 data collection, were three times higher than in 2021–22. Figure 6: Number of initial requests for a SEND assessment received in the period Source: RIIA quarterly dataset. Rate per 10,000 0–25 population. Analysis of EHCPs shows the increases in demand are predominantly in relation to children and young people diagnosed with autism, pupils with social, emotional and mental health needs and those with speech, language and communication needs. In combination, these represent 88% of the total increase in pupils with EHCPs between 2015–16 and 2023–24 (DfE, 2024a; ISOS, 2024; Roman-Urrestarazu et al., 2021). In relation to autistic children, the views expressed by DCSs were that, while the pandemic may have exacerbated needs, increased prevalence is a continuation of the exponential increase in diagnoses of autism over the last 25 years (Russell et al., 2022). In regard to the 17.40 14.45 18.33 21.36 20.30 16.27 20.11 22.85 0 5 10 15 20 25 2022–23 Q1 2022–23 Q2 2022–23 Q3 2022–23 Q4 2023–24 Q1 2023–24 Q2 2023–24 Q3 2023–24 Q4 29 speech, language and communication needs of 0–5-year-olds, there was a consensus that children’s developmental trajector