I am writing to request information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.
Pupil-facing educational technology expenditure by the local authority
Please confirm the total amount spent by the local authority in each of your last three complete financial years on:
1. Pupil-facing 1:1 devices and hardware supplied to schools, for example iPads, Chromebooks, laptops and other related hardware for use by pupils (‘hardware expenditure’);
Financial Year 2025/26: £112,170.20
Financial Year 2024/25: £17,950
Financial Year 2023/24: £37,180
2. Purchase costs, subscriptions or licences for digital learning applications or platforms for use by pupils (‘software expenditure’).
Devon County Council does not hold this information as the Council provides only the devices.
If you are unable to disaggregate hardware expenditure and/or software expenditure from the data that you hold, please provide such figures as you are able to provide for the nearest approximation to those categories and explain in your response to which categories of expenditure they relate.
Please also provide the equivalent expenditure figures for the following areas over the same three years:
i). Sports equipment for pupil use
ii). Musical instruments for pupil use
iii ) Books for pupil use
Devon County Council has no expenditure recorded for sports equipment.
Regarding musical instruments for pupil use, Devon Music Education Hub provides fully funded access to a wide variety of digital learning resources to support music education, as well as access to thousands of musical instruments and other music equipment each year. This however, is not funded by DCC, as the Music Hub exists as a net nil function, supported directly by Department for Education funding through Arts Council England. The Devon Music Education Hub also covers Plymouth and Torbay.
Regarding books for pupil use, the Devon School Library Service confirms that they have no pupil facing technology, digital licences or platforms used by pupils.
Devon School Library Service holds a stock of books which schools, through subscription, are able to access for the use of their students. New stock is regularly purchased in order to maintain an up-to-date library of books. The library has over 540,000 books on its library catalogue.
Please note that Devon School Library Service is fully traded non-profit service and receives no funding from DCC. All book purchases are funded via income from school subscriptions.