Devon remains below the national averages on a range of health and social issues including suicide, rough sleeping and academic attainment of children on free school meals.

The county’s health and wellbeing board heard that suicide rates in Devon is 13 per 100,000 people, higher than the south west figure of 12 and England’s 10.3.

Meanwhile, one person in 100,000 slept rough last year.

The mortality rate from preventable causes is better than the national average, according to the latest data, at 121 per 100,000, compared to 154 for England.

Maria Moloney-Lucey, a public health specialist at Devon County Council, told the board: “Devon continued to remain significantly worse compared to England for many of these indicators, or at a similar level, with the exception of mortality from preventable causes.

“There is a social gradient and so there are different outcomes across Devon, which can be tied to higher or lower levels of deprivation.”

She said the county suicides had experienced a “slow but steady increase” since 2016.

On other matters, she said the academic performance of Key Stage 4 pupils – those aged 14 to 16 – were lower than 2020/21, but that there was “not enough data to draw a robust conclusion from this”.

She added that GCSE attainment for pupils on free school meals was above 2018 levels, but below England’s average.

Councillor Roger Croad (Conservative, Ivybridge) questioned whether the increased take-up of free school meals since the pandemic could mean that performance figures for this cohort could change.

“Attainment by those on free school meals has increased, but might we expect a decrease given that the take-up of free school meals was around 14,000 pupils pre-pandemic and is now 21,000,” he said.

Ms Moloney-Lucey said her team would look into this more and provide a report for the next meeting.

Steve Brown, director of Devon public health, raised the issue of drug-related deaths in the county, which he said had hit 20 in the first three months of the year compared to seven in the same period of 2023.

“We are working with the NHS, police, district councils and Exeter City Council on this and it is something the board should pay attention to,” he said.

“It is a topic that is not just important for Devon but nationally too.

“Due to the disruption of the supply chain for heroin, people are trying to find synthetic opiods and it is a really big issue.”