Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, I would like to request the following information from Devon County Council:
A. Adult Mental Health Residential Placements
1. The total number of adults with diagnosed mental health conditions currently placed by your council in residential or specialist care homes (both in and outside the local authority area).
At a snapshot date of 30th June 2025 there were 620 adults in residential or specialist care homes with a diagnosed mental health condition. This includes adults in either Long Term Care or Short Term Care.
2. The number of new adult mental health residential placements made in the last 12 months.
At a snapshot date of 30th June 2025 there were 210 adults who were new to residential or specialist care homes with a diagnosed mental health condition. This includes adults who entered either Long Term Care or Short Term Care since 1st July 2024.
3. Any reported capacity issues or unmet demand for adult mental health residential placements.
This is available online at: Market Position Statement
4. The number of residential care providers your council currently works with for adult mental health placements.
There are currently 174 Providers recorded against placements where the client is recorded as having Mental Health Support as their Primary Support Reason. However, this isn’t necessarily the total number of providers we work with for these types of placement. This is based on those placed in a residential setting with a Primary Support Reason of Mental Health Support on 20.07.2025.
5. Any available needs assessments, market position statements, or future demand forecasts for mental health residential care over the next 12-24 months.
This is available in our response to question 3 above.
B. Demand for SEND (Special Educational Needs and Disabilities) Placements
1. The number of children currently placed in special schools or units for moderate to severe learning disabilities (including autism, ADHD, etc.) by your council.
This is available online at: Education Statistics
2. The number of new SEND school placements made in the past 12 months.
We believe you are asking for all children with SEND therefore those with SEN support and EHCPs across all school placements. We do not collate information relating to all new placements for those with SEND as this would be a very large cohort (20k+) and therefore to ascertain the number where the placement is new would take more than 18 hours to produce. This information is therefore exempt from disclosure pursuant to section 12 of the Freedom of Information 2000.
By way of assistance, we can confirm that the Department of Education provide information on the number of pupils with Education Health and Care Plans (EHCPs) and SEN support within the school population and the numbers for each year online at Data Tables
This may provide you with the information you require
3. Any unmet demand or waiting list figures for SEND school placements or specialist learning units in your area.
We do not collate waiting lists for school placements or specialist learning units
4. Whether the council forecasts a rise in demand for SEND school places over the next 12-24 months.
Nationally over 1.7 million pupils in England have special educational needs (SEN). This is an increase of 93,700 (5.6%) pupils since 2024. This includes the number of pupils with an education, health and care (EHC) plan and the number of pupils with SEN support, both of which continue the trend of increases since 2016.
Nationally the number of new EHC plans issued in the calendar year has continued to increase. There were 97,700 new EHC plans issued during the 2024 calendar year, 15.8% higher than 2023. The number of new EHC plans has increased each year since their introduction in 2014.
Therefore Devon expects the trend to continue over the next 12-24 of an increase in children with identified SEND and suitable placements