Change of https://www.gov.uk/guidance/special-educational-needs-survey

Change description : 2025-09-26 14:41:00: Added a link to the 2026 survey guide, in the ‘survey documents’ section. Added deadlines for the 2027 survey, in the ‘important dates’ section. [Guidance and regulation]

Showing diff : 2025-01-24 09:13:55.402946017 +00:00..2025-09-26 13:42:09.853224479 +00:00

Guidance

Special educational needs survey: guide to submitting data

How local authorities should report data for the annual special educational needs survey, commonly known as SEN2.

From:
Department for Education
Published
25 March 2014
Last updated
2426 JanuarySeptember 2025 — See all updates

Applies to England

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. This also collects data on the number of pupils with statements of special educational needs and EHC plans.

Important dates

The 20252026 survey deadlines are:

  • survey day: Thursday 1615 January 20252026
  • deadline for submitting data: FridayThursday 1412 March 20252026

The 20262027 survey deadlines are:

  • survey day: Thursday 1521 January 20262027
  • deadline for submitting data: Thursday 1211 March 20262027

Submit your data

You’ll need to:

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

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, 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 person level survey.

20252026 survey guides

2026 survey 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.

Updates to this page

Published 25 March 2014

Last updated 2426 JanuarySeptember 2025 + show href="#full-history">+ show all updates

    3. Added important dates, and links to the technical specification and COLLECT guides, for the 2026 survey.

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Contents

Update history

2025-09-26 14:41
Added a link to the 2026 survey guide, in the ‘survey documents’ section. Added deadlines for the 2027 survey, in the ‘important dates’ section.

2025-01-24 09:13
Added important dates, and links to the technical specification and COLLECT guides, for the 2026 survey.

2023-12-18 14:31
Added a link to the 2025 technical specification page.

2023-12-01 12:24
Updated ‘Special educational needs person level survey: guide’ for 2025 and added 2025 deadlines.

2023-07-28 08:46
Added the 2024 survey deadlines and a link to the guide for local authorities.

2022-08-26 17:02
Added link to ‘Special educational needs person level survey: technical specification’.

2022-08-22 11:17
Updated with reference to the 2023 survey.