The picture in Devon

In Autumn 2020 there were approximately 106,000 children attending Devon schools.  A further 1,508 are known to be home educated (total 107,508 children)

Devon has more children supported at both SEN support level and with an Education Health and Care Plan (EHCP) than seen elsewhere in the country.

In October 2020 there were:

• 20,794 children and young people who had an identified special educational need in Devon
• 13,316 of which were supported at school level and
• 7,478 children and young people who had an Education Health and Care plan

The top three categories of need for this cohort of young people, making up two thirds of the cohort, are:

• Social, Emotional and Mental Health difficulties (SEMH)
• ASD: Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD)
• Speech, Language and Communication needs (SLCN)

The graph below shows the trend in the different categories of need since 2017

Funding

Funding to support children with Special Educational needs is allocated by the Government to the High Needs Block based on the number of children aged 2 to 18 and levels of Deprivation. It is not allocated on the number of children identified as having special educational needs.

In 2019/20 Devon’s allocation to the High Needs block, from the department for education was nearly £64 million.  In order to meet the needs of children Devon actually spent nearly £83 million. This meant the gap between the funding Devon receives from central government and what it spent was nearly £20 million. Based on current spend this gap will be even bigger in 20/21.

 Key stage 4 outcomes show that children with an Education Health and Care plan have continued to achieve above National in Exam.

There were no national tests for other year groups in 2020 and so the previous years information is shown below.