“I would like to know how much a place costs per student per year for all independent special schools that the LEA uses with a price per student year attached to the name of the school for reference.
Total no of Independent schools – 92
Total Number of Independent Special School Places – 375
Total fund of independent placements – £16.681m
Average cost per student (residential and day) – £44,482
Devon County Council (DCC) is unable to provide details of placement costs at individual schools with a price per student under Sections 40(2) and 43(2) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000. Firstly, due to the low numbers at each school there is a chance that the individuals concerned could be identified from this information which would breach the 1st Principle of the Data Protection Act 1998 under Section 40(2) – ‘Personal Information’.
Secondly, the contractual agreement with the provider for each school is based on each individual child’s needs and we consider individual prices to be commercially sensitive under Section 43(2) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 – ‘Commercial Interests’. We believe that release of this information would be likely to prejudice the commercial interests of the providers concerned.
DCC has considered the public interest test and is confident that the public interest lies in favour of withholding this information at this time.
I would also like to know the total number of independent special school places the LEA funds and a breakdown of this total number into key stages.”
Total number of independent special school places funded by DCC = 375 places
Breakdown into key stages is provided below:-
KS1 – 32 places
KS2 – 42 places
KS3 – 71 places
KS4 – 87 places
KS5 – 88 places
19+ – 55 places
The data above is collated annually in September.