Good registered AP provides high-quality
education, but too many children’s experiences are
negative.
A lack of national standards around the commissioning and
oversight of APis
leading to inconsistent outcomes for children and young
people.
Local areas are unclear on roles and responsibilities,
leading to an inconsistent picture nationally.
The report finds that the lack of national standards and clarity
around who is responsible for AP commissioning and oversight are
leading to inconsistent outcomes for children and young people.
Read the ‘Alternative provision in
local areas in England: a thematic review’.
AP is commissioned by
schools or local authorities when pupils have been excluded or
cannot attend mainstream school, for example due to complex
medical, social or emotional needs. Currently, not all
AP needs to be
registered or inspected, meaning there is lack of oversight of
children and young people in unregistered AP.
While good registered AP plays an important role in
providing high quality support, care and education to vulnerable
children, the report finds that too many children and young
people’s experiences are negative, and the overall picture
is of a system in desperate need of reform. Many attending
APexperience a highly
disrupted education, with one parent describing the situation as
“soul destroying”. One child also spoke about feeling abandoned
by their home school.
The report highlights some examples of good practice, including
some local areas successfully supporting children and young
people in transitioning out of AP. However, decisions about
placing children and young people in AP are not always considered
thoroughly enough and the effectiveness of placements is not
properly monitored. These issues are compounded by a lack of
clear purpose for the use of AP and poor strategic planning.
Inspectors also found that agencies do not always collaborate,
and health partners often are not involved in decision making
about individual APplacements.
The report sets out a series of recommendations to improve the
commissioning and oversight of AP, which will help children and
young people both while they are attending AP and after they leave the
education system. These include:
- better guidance on the purposes of AP and potential indicators of
success
- clearer roles and responsibilities for different local area
partners, with more clarity on how health and social care
partners should be involved in strategic planning for
AP and the
commissioning and oversight of individual placements
- improved oversight of certain groups of children and young
people in AP,
including through the introduction of a proportionate
registration and inspection regime for all AP
- greater consistency and rigour in decision making around
individual APplacements and subsequent
monitoring and evaluation arrangements
Sir Martyn Oliver, His Majesty’s Chief Inspector, said:
Good alternative provision provides invaluable support for
children and helps them engage with their learning. However, we
are concerned that some children’s education and care falls below
the standard they deserve. We need more clarity about how
AP can be used
effectively so that children have consistently positive
experiences.
We also remain concerned about the widespread problems with
unregistered AP –
after 12 years of calling for the mandatory registration for all
AP, it is clear that
the need for reform is more urgent than ever.
I was pleased to see the Department for Education’s SEND and
APimprovement plan,
which offers an opportunity to give the AP system a clear purpose. I hope
this report and our recommendations can support partners across
health, education and social care in working together to deliver
improvements for children who rely on alternative provision.
Nigel Thompson, Deputy Director of Multiagency Operations at the
Care Quality Commission, said:
Inconsistency in approach to alternative provision, including the
involvement of health professionals, means that too often
children and young people do not get support that they deserve.
We have seen good care, delivered well – but improvements are
needed in both the commissioning and delivery of AP to ensure that the health, care
and education needs of children and young people are met.
Notes to editors
-
The report draws on visits conducted by Ofsted and the
CQC to 6 local
areas and over 700 survey responses from those within the
AP system,
including children and young people and their families.
-
Ofsted has previously highlighted longstanding issues within
the APsystem,
including the absence of a regulatory regime. Before the
introduction of Ofsted and the CQC’s new Area SEND
framework in January 2023, there was no coherent oversight of
AP arrangements at
local levels. To increase Ofsted’s scrutiny of the use of
AP, Ofsted is
piloting changes to how it evaluates schools’ use of
AP on inspection.
