Special educational needs survey: guide to submitting data

The SEN2 survey is a statutory data collection that takes place every January. You must complete a statutory collection by law unless there’s a good reason not to.

The survey collects information on education, health and care (EHC) plans.

This survey should not be confused with the annual school census, which also collects data on the number of pupils with statements of special educational needs and EHC plans.

Important dates

The 2023 survey deadlines are:

• survey day: Thursday 19 January 2023
• deadline for submitting data: Thursday 16 March 2023

Submit your data

You’ll need to:

• register and log in with DfE Sign-in
• use COLLECT to submit your data

Please contact your school or local authority approver, if:

• you want to request a DfE Sign-in username or password so you can access COLLECT
• ‘special educational needs survey’ is not on the list of collections you can see in COLLECT

Get help using DfE Sign-in

If you do not know who your approver is, please use the DfE Sign-in request form.

If you’ve forgotten your password, use DfE Sign-in to reset it. You will need to click ‘Start now’ and then the ‘I’ve forgotten my password’ link.

We’ll only be able to change the status of your data submission to ‘authorised’ once you’ve cleared all errors in the data in COLLECT.

Survey documents

The following documents will help you complete the 2023 (person level) survey:

• Special educational needs person level survey 2023: guide
• Special educational needs person level survey: technical specification
• COLLECT guides

Queries about submitting data

Use the service request form if you have any questions about your data. We aim to answer your question within 5 working days.

Feedback

Use the feedback form if you have any comments about our data collection service, including COLLECT and the helpdesk service.