In 2015 a total of 1,090 of the 29,015 children assessed by councils (3.76 per cent) were denied an education, health and care (EHC) plan after being deemed not to require one.
Latest Department for Education figures, published today, show that the number of refusals in 2017 was 3,043 out of 45,205 assessments (6.73 per cent of the total).
EHC plans were introduced in the Children and Families Act 2014 and billed as providing children with special needs and disabilities more joined-up support from education, health and social care services.
The rise in refusals coincides with councils working to transfer thousands of children already on statements of special educational need on to new EHC plans in recent years ahead of the April 2018 deadline.
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