The SEND landscape is evolving rapidly. Local authorities need to understand not only what is happening in their own area, but how trends compare with other places and what this could mean for future provision, demand and spending.
SEND Benchmarking Club
Mime’s SEND Benchmarking Club brings together national, regional and local analysis to make those comparisons easier. It combines our SEND forecasting work with detailed benchmarking data from local authorities, helping users explore patterns, test assumptions and identify areas that may warrant further investigation.
The tools below are designed to turn complex SEND data into clear, accessible insight. Together, they provide a view of how EHCP cohorts could change over time and how local authorities are planning to respond.
Explore national and regional EHCP forecasts
See how we’re forecasting the EHCP cohort to change across England
Our forecasting dashboard provides a consistent view of projected EHCP growth across England’s regions, helping users understand how future patterns may differ by geography, age and primary need.
Built using Mime’s EHCP Forecasting Model, the dashboard allows you to explore:
- Forecast changes in EHCP numbers across England and its regions
- Differences in growth between age groups and primary needs
- How individual regions compare with the national picture
The forecasts provide a common evidence base for understanding the scale and shape of future SEND demand. They can help local authorities place their own trends in context and support conversations about future provision, capacity and resources.
Benchmark your plans with other local authorities
Go beyond the national picture and explore how your plans compare with those of other areas
The benchmarking dashboard below is specific to your local authority and provides comparisons with other members of the SEND Benchmarking Club.
For SEND Benchmarking Club members, our local authority benchmarking tool brings together data from local authorities we’ve supported with the Local Area SEND Reform Plans to provide a more detailed picture of how areas expect their SEND systems to change.
The tool uses data supplied through the SEND reform process to compare areas across measures including:
- Expected EHCP cohort growth
- Planned changes in different types of provision
- Placement costs
- High Needs budget changes
This allows members to understand where their plans are similar to or different from those of other local authorities, identify patterns across the sector and explore areas where further discussion or investigation may be useful.
Interactive and colour-coded analysis is designed to make complex information easier to interpret, supporting senior leaders and commissioners to identify patterns, challenge assumptions and have informed conversations about where resources and investment may need to be focused.
Join the SEND Benchmarking Club
The SEND Benchmarking Club is free to join and designed to minimise demands on local authority teams. Members contribute their data to the shared evidence base and gain access to comparative benchmarking, webinars and opportunities to learn from other local authorities.
If your local authority would like to join the Club, or you would like to find out more, please contact Joe Miller, Associate Director at Mime leading our work on SEND reforms, at joe.miller@mime.org.uk.
