Please provide the following information:
1. Please could you supply the name, job title, email address and telephone number of the commissioner with responsibility for children and young people’s Special Educational Needs (SEN) school placements.
This information is available from the Strategic Leadership pages of our website.
All Council email addresses follow the format, name.surname@devon.gov.uk and our phone number is 01392 383000.
2. Please provide the total number of children and young people with a Statement of SEN or Education, Health and Care (EHC) Plan who are in placement at an Independent Special School, as at 31 March for the last three financial years, with a primary diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD):
i. Within the local authority boundary (in-area placements)
ii. Outside the local authority boundary (out-of-area placements)
Please provide data as at 31 March for the three years from 2023/24 to 2025/26.
3. Please provide the total number of children and young people with a Statement of SEN or Education, Health and Care (EHC) Plan who are in placement at an Independent Special School, as at 31 March for the last three financial years, with a primary diagnosis of Social, Emotional Mental Health needs (SEMH):
i. Within the local authority boundary (in-area placements)
ii. Outside the local authority boundary (out-of-area placements)
Please provide data as at 31 March for the three years from 2023/24 to 2025/26.
4. How many placements were newly initiated during each financial year (i.e., the EHC Plan named an independent special school for the first time in that year), for the last three financial years, with a primary diagnosis of:
i. Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)
ii. Social Emotional Mental Health (SEMH)
Please provide data for the three financial years from 2023/24 to 2025/26.
In response to questions 2, 3 and 4, Devon County Council does not hold this information as we do not collate the information relating to the 31st March for every child relating to their primary need and placement or specify in or out of area placements.
Data was collected for the year 2024/25 for the census date and is publicly available from this Department for Education (DfE) webpage.
5. What was the average (mean) weekly day placement fee paid for ASD placements in independent special schools in each of the financial years 2023/24, 2024/25, and 2025/26?
2023/24: £1,293.04
2024/25: £1,353.21
6. What was the average (mean) weekly day placement fee paid for SEMH placements in independent special schools in each of the financial years 2023/24, 2024/25, and 2025/26?
2023/24: £1,352.03
2024/25: £1,414.47
7. What was your authority’s total annual expenditure on independent special school placements for children in each of the financial years 2023/24, 2024/25, and 2025/26, with a primary diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)?
2023/24: £17,641,152
2024/25: £16,677,254
8. What is the weekly fee range (minimum and maximum) paid by your authority for independent special school placements for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in the financial year 2025/26 or the most recent financial year for which data is available? Please provide separately for:
i. Day placements
ii. Residential / weekly boarding placements (if applicable)
In response to i and ii, please refer to the table below:
| 2023/24 | 2024/25 | ||
| Max Weekly rate | Minimum Weekly rate | Max Weekly rate | Minimum Weekly rate |
| £5,436 | £276 | £5,546 | £276 |
9. Please provide the number of children and young people with a Statement of SEN or EHC Plan with a primary need of ASD, in a day placement at an Independent Special School, with fees per week, as at
i. Less than £1,000
ii. £1,000 to £1,499
iii. £1,500 to £1,999
iv. £2,000 to £2,499
v. £2,500 or more
Please state which timescale was used if data as at 31 March 2026 was not available.
Devon County Council does not hold this information. This is because the information is not yet available for March 2026.
10. Please provide the number of children in Alternative Provision
(AP) with a Statement of SEN or Education, Health and Care (EHC) Plan, across all primary needs, segmented by setting type, using the following categories in the following financial years: 2023/24, 2024/25, 2025/26
i. Local authority-operated provision (e.g. PRUs)
ii. Academy or free school AP (AP academies, AP free schools)
iii. Independent schools with an AP specialism
iv. Online learning provision and online learning providers
v. Unregistered providers
vi. Charities and voluntary sector providers
Devon County Council does not hold this information. By way of advice and assistance, breakdowns available can be found publicly ‘School characteristics’ from ‘Schools, pupils and their characteristics’, Permanent data table – Explore education statistics – GOV.UK
11. If available, please provide the total Alternative Provision (AP) spend for the most recent year (e.g. 2025/26), broken down by setting type for children with a Statement of SEN or Education, Health and Care (EHC) Plan:
i. Local authority-operated provision (e.g. PRUs)
ii. Academy or free school AP (AP academies, AP free schools)
iii. Independent schools with an AP specialism
iv. Online learning provision and online learning providers
v. Unregistered providers
vi. Charities and voluntary sector providers
Devon County Council does not hold this information by setting types. By way of advice and assistance, the total spend on AP provision for 2024/25 is £6,747,093 which can be found on the S251 Outturn return Benchmarking – Support for schools and settings. 2025/26 is yet to be published.