1. Name of your Local Authority: Devon County Council
2. Chief Executive Officer Name:
3. Chief Executive Officer Email Address:
4. SEND email address:
5. Director of Children’s Services Name:
6. Director of Children’s Services Email:
In response to questions 2-6, please refer to the Strategic Leadership pages of our website.
Complaints Email Address: Information in response can be found via the webpage Feedback and Complaints
Children and Young People (CYP) within your Authority
7. How many children and young people (CYPs) (0-25) live within your Local Authority?
8. How many CYPs are of school age (0-18)?
9. Of those, how many are in privately funded independent schools?
In response to questions 7-9, Devon County Council believes this information is exempt from disclosure under Section 21 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (Information Reasonably Accessible by Other Means). The requested information is already publicly available on this Home – Office for National Statistics (ons.gov.uk) website.
10. How many CYPs have EHCPs (please separate your answer into key stages)
As at 14th March 2024:
Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) – 298
Key Stage (KS) 1 – 613
KS2 – 2036
KS3 – 2312
KS4 – 1508
KS5 – 1203
Above KS5 – 1024
11. How many CYPs are recorded as having SEND without an EHCP?
As at 14th March 2024 – 17,556 CYP are recorded as having SEN Support (therefore SEN without an EHCP).
12. How many CYPs are Looked After (both section 20 and 31)?
As at 14th March 2024, 553 CYP are currently recorded as CLA (Child Looked After).
13. How many LAC CYPs have EHCPs?
As at 14th March 2024, 196 CYP who are CLA have an current EHCP.
14. How many CYPs are attending a secure centre?
5
15. How many CYPs attending a secure centre have EHCPs?
2
16. How many CYPs attending a secure centre do not have EHCPs but are identified as having SEND?
1
EHCNAs
17. In 2023 How many applications for an EHCNAs did you receive from schools or other professional bodies?
In the calendar year (2023) 1,210 requests came from schools or settings.
18. In 2023 How many applications for an EHCNAs did you receive from parents or carers?
In the calendar year (2023) 877 requests came from parent or carers.
19. Of the 2023 applications, how many were responded to within the 6 week statutory deadline?
As at 14th March 2024, requests started in (2023) 1,834 were responded to within 6 weeks.
20. Of the 2023 applications – how many were issued a refusal to assess?
As at 14th March 2024, requests started in the calendar year (2023) 693 were issued a refusal to assess.
21. Of the 2023 applications that were a refusal to assess – how many were resolved by external mediation specifically?
22. Of the 2023 applications that were a ‘refusal to assess’ – how many went to appeal?
23. Of the 2023 applications that went to appeal – how many are still waiting for a tribunal hearing?
24. Of the 2023 applications that went to appeal – how many were resolved, by agreeing to undertake an EHCNA prior to the hearing?
In response to questions 21-24, Devon County Council believes compliance with this request would exceed the appropriate cost limit under Section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 which is £450 or 18 hours of officer time. We do not collate data relating to mediations and tribunals in a way that would enable us to provide answers to these questions. To retrieve the information from our records we would need to manually review our mediation and appeals records to locate and extract the relevant information and we estimate that this would take in excess of 18 hours of officer time.
Under the Freedom of Information Act, there is a duty to provide advice and assistance about how a request can be refined to fit within the appropriate limit. Unfortunately, due to the way the data is held, this is not possible for this request.